10 Items

iranians shopping in bazaar

AP

Analysis & Opinions

Economic challenges loom in Rohani’s second term

| May 28, 2017

Despite its flaws, the May 19 presidential election offered Iranian voters a real choice between the moderate incumbent President Hassan Rohani and a hard-line rival, Ayatollah Ebrahim Raeisi. Djavad Salehi-Isfahani writes to The Arab Weekly that Rohani’s decisive win with 57% of the vote, combined with a sweep by reformist candidates in the city council elections in Tehran and several other major cities, gives him a strong mandate to move for­ward with his program of eco­nomic reform.

President Rouhani addresses the 68th UN General Assembly in New York, before holding a private dinner at the UN Hotel (2013).

Reuters

Analysis & Opinions - Project Syndicate

Could the Iranian Economy Sink Rouhani?

| May 15, 2017

For a “managed democracy,” Iran holds remarkably unpredictable presidential elections. And the upcoming election on May 19 is no exception, given that the incumbent, Hassan Rouhani, is facing a tough conservative challenger, Ebrahim Raesi. In this column to Project Syndicate, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, visiting scholar at the Belfer Center's Iran Project, writes about Rouhani's economic weaknesses and the challenges he faces for reelection. 

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Analysis & Opinions

Poverty and Income Inequality in the Islamic Republic of Iran

| Winter 2017

This paper appears in the Winter 2017 issue of Revue Internationale des Études du Développement and examines the record of the Islamic Republic of Iran in reducing poverty and income inequality, important populist promises of the 1979 Revolution. Using data from 32 years of income and expenditure surveys, I describe the trends in poverty and income inequality during the past three decades, and offer explanations of their major changes. These trends reveal two important facts about the post-Revolution record in improving poverty and income inequality. While there has been significant progress in reducing poverty, little progress is observed in improving income inequality. Poverty reduction has followed a substantial redirection of public investment toward poorer areas and cash assistance. The two periods of improvement in income inequality correspond to a decline in oil revenues and a loss of income at the top (the 1980s), and to a large cash assistance program starting in 2011.