Illusion therapy: How to impose an economic shock without social pain

Tohid Atashbar

Journal of Policy Modeling, 2012, vol. 34, issue 1, 99-111

Abstract: This study attempts to demonstrate how a government launched an economic structural reform plan that previous governments, fearing a serious social backlash, had been unable to implement over the course of 30 years. The findings show that the Iranian government used “illusion therapy”, a package of econo-psychological techniques, to implement IMF-backed “shock” economic reforms to long-standing energy and food subsidies, without facing the expected social reaction.

Keywords: Illusion therapy; Shock therapy; Iran economy; Structural reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D49 E61 E65 H12 H29 P41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jpolmo:v:34:y:2012:i:1:p:99-111

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2011.09.005

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