The impact of sanctions on household welfare and employment in Iran

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani

Middle East Development Journal, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 189-221

Abstract: Wide-ranging US sanctions against Iran in the past decade were in large part imposed to harm the living standards of ordinary Iranians in the hope that their leaders would submit to US demands to limit their nuclear program. In this study, I use extensive survey data to assess the impact of sanctions on household consumption and employment. Unsurprisingly, reduction in Iran's export of oil, which dealt a large negative blow to the economy, reduce household expenditures across income strata, raising poverty rates despite government attempts to assist the poor. By contrast, employment did not suffer as devaluation and falling real wages helped local production to substitute for imports that had been previously paid for by oil income. Probit analysis of panel data shows that, all else equal, living in urban areas, in households with older and female heads, and lack of health insurance increase the chance of falling into poverty after the 2018 shock of the US maximum pressure campaign.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17938120.2023.2248697 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rmdjxx:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:189-221

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rmdj20

DOI: 10.1080/17938120.2023.2248697

Access Statistics for this article

Middle East Development Journal is currently edited by Raimundo Soto

More articles in Middle East Development Journal from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().