Many classifications of Arab countries are based on arbitrary criteria and on a
subjective delimitation of groups that rely on commonly used stereotypes. These
classifications have also neglected several important socio-economic characteristics of
the Arab countries.
The paper attempts to adopt an overall as well as sector-specific classifications
of Arab countries based on a wide range of socio-economic variables, over three time
periods, using different multivariate statistical methods for classification. The results
show that ?oil-versus-non-oil? represents the most meaningful criterion to adopt
overall as well as sector-specific classifications of the Arab countries. Income level
and the degree of diversification of the economies are found to be of some relevance
in certain sector-specific classifications. The results also reveal some important
taxonomies of Arab economies. The most obvious is that the six countries of the Gulf
Cooperation Council (GCC) represent the most homogeneous group of Arab countries
with respect to the main socio-economic variables used in the paper.