Economic Welfare and Inequality in Iran

Economic Welfare and Inequality in Iran

Author: Mohammad Reza Farzanegan

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-12-19

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1349950254

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This book examines economic inequality and social disparity in Iran, together with their drivers, over the past four decades. During this period, income distribution and economic welfare were affected by the 1979 Revolution, the eight-year war with Iraq, post-war privatization and economic liberalization initiatives carried out under the Rafsanjani and Khatami administrations, the ascendance of a populist economic platform under the Ahmadinejad administration, and the lifting of energy and financial sanctions under the Rouhani administration. Featuring a mix of scholars, including Iranian academics who experienced these changes and are publishing in English for the first time, this collection offers quantitative and descriptive studies of the country's post-revolutionary economic development and disparities. In most chapters, a hypothesis is developed from existing theories or observations, which is then tested using available data. This unique combination of new voices, academic as well as personal experiences, and scientific methods will be a valuable addition to the library of the scholars of modern Iran’s economy and society.


A Social Revolution

A Social Revolution

Author: Kevan Harris

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2017-08-08

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0520280814

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For decades, political observers and pundits have characterized the Islamic Republic of Iran as an ideologically rigid state on the verge of collapse, exclusively connected to a narrow social base. In A Social Revolution, Kevan Harris convincingly demonstrates how they are wrong. Previous studies ignore the forceful consequences of three decades of social change following the 1979 revolution. Today, more people in the country are connected to welfare and social policy institutions than to any other form of state organization. In fact, much of Iran’s current political turbulence is the result of the success of these social welfare programs, which have created newly educated and mobilized social classes advocating for change. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted in Iran between 2006 and 2011, Harris shows how the revolutionary regime endured though the expansion of health, education, and aid programs that have both embedded the state in everyday life and empowered its challengers. This first serious book on the social policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran opens a new line of inquiry into the study of welfare states in countries where they are often overlooked or ignored.


Social Policy in Iran

Social Policy in Iran

Author: Pooya Alaedini

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2021-11-29

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 1000485447

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This book provides in-depth analyses of the main social policy components and institutions in Iran. Its focus is on the period since 1979, although many of the developments are inevitably traced back to their pre-revolutionary origins. The first part of the book investigates socioeconomic trends and institutional developments—including the significant role played by post-revolutionary para-governmental organizations in the delivery of social programs. The remaining chapters analyze the achievements and challenges of health, education, social insurance, housing, and employment policies as well as the macroeconomics of poverty.


Inside Inequality in the Arab Republic of Egypt

Inside Inequality in the Arab Republic of Egypt

Author: Paolo Verme

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2014-04-08

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 1464801983

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Inside Inequality in the Arab Republic of Egypt: Facts and Perceptions Across People, Time, and Space comprises four papers prepared in the framework of the Egypt inequality study financed by the World Bank. The first paper, by Sherine Al-Shawarby, reviews the studies on inequality in Egypt since the 1950s with the double objective of illustrating the importance attributed to inequality through time and of presenting and compare the main published statistics on inequality. The second paper, by Branko Milanovic, turns to the global and spatial dimensions of inequality. The Egyptian society remains deeply divided across space and in terms of welfare, and this study unveils some of the hidden features of this inequality. The third paper, by Paolo Verme, studies facts and perceptions of inequality during the 2000-2009 period, which preceded the Egyptian revolution. The fourth paper, by Sahar El Tawila, May Gadallah, and Enas Ali A.El-Majeed, assesses the state of poverty and inequality among the poorest villages of Egypt. The paper attempts to explain the level of inequality in an effort to disentangle those factors that derive from household abilities from those factors that derive from local opportunities. Inside Inequality in the Arab Republic of Egypt provides some initial elements that could explain the apparent mismatch between inequality measured with household surveys and inequality aversion measured by values surveys. This is a particularly important and timely topic to address in light of the unfolding developments in the Arab region. The book should be of interest to any observer of the political and economic evolution of the Arab region in the past few years and to poverty and inequality specialists interested in a deeper understanding of the distribution of incomes in Egypt and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. World Bank Studies are available individually or on standing order. The World Bank Studies series is also available online through the Open Knowledge Repository (https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/) and the World Bank e-Library (www.worldbank.org/elibrary). Book jacket.


Radical Inequalities

Radical Inequalities

Author: Nara Dillon

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-05-11

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1684175585

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"The Chinese Communist welfare state was established with the goal of eradicating income inequality. But paradoxically, it actually widened the income gap, undermining one of the most important objectives of Mao Zedong’s revolution. Nara Dillon traces the origins of the Chinese welfare state from the 1940s through the 1960s, when such inequalities emerged and were institutionalized, to uncover the reasons why the state failed to achieve this goal. Using newly available archival sources, Dillon focuses on the contradictory role played by labor in the development of the Chinese welfare state. At first, the mobilization of labor helped found a welfare state, but soon labor’s privileges turned into obstacles to the expansion of welfare to cover more of the poor. Under the tight economic constraints of the time, small, temporary differences evolved into large, entrenched inequalities. Placing these developments in the context of the globalization of the welfare state, Dillon focuses on the mismatch between welfare policies originally designed for European economies and the very different conditions found in revolutionary China. Because most developing countries faced similar constraints, the Chinese case provides insight into the development of narrow, unequal welfare states across much of the developing world in the postwar period."


World Inequality Report 2022

World Inequality Report 2022

Author: Lucas Chancel

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2022-11

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 0674273567

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World Inequality Report 2022 is the most authoritative and comprehensive account of global trends in inequality, providing cutting-edge information about income and wealth inequality and also pioneering data about the history of inequality, gender inequality, environmental inequalities, and trends in international tax reform and redistribution.


Industrial, Trade, and Employment Policies in Iran

Industrial, Trade, and Employment Policies in Iran

Author: Pooya Alaedini

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-08-07

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 3319940120

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This volume explores Iran’s industrial and trade policy options for achieving sustainable, export-oriented, and pro-employment growth. The first part of the book discusses Iran’s economic and industrial development performance, as well as strategies for enhancing capabilities, fostering productive transformation, and developing employment that can result in faster and more inclusive economic growth. It also presents a case study on a leading manufacturing subsector—the automotive industry. The book then offers a set of analyses concerning the country’s trade sector, including exchange rate policies, ways to connect to global markets, and accession to the World Trade Organization. In turn, the closing chapters investigate various aspects of Iran’s labor market and offer policy recommendations on the creation of productive jobs. Readers will learn about effective industrial, trade, and employment policies that can complement macroeconomic measures adopted by the government. As such, the book will appeal not only to scholars and policy-makers, but also to international investors seeking to understand various core aspects of Iran’s industrial and employment structures and trade regime.


Triumph and Despair

Triumph and Despair

Author: Mehran Kamrava

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022-11-01

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 0197695663

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Triumph and Despair tells the dramatic story of post-revolutionary Iran's first four decades, from its establishment in 1979 until today. The revolutionary coalition that overthrew the monarchy was at once democratic, populist and Islamic. The Islamists, and the Khomeinists in particular, were able to capitalize effectively on prevailing conditions on the ground; to frame the new republic's constitution, capture nascent institutions, and consolidate their power by eliminating opponents through a reign of terror. Once the war with Iraq was over and after the death of the new order's charismatic founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic was consolidated: first by tweaking its institutional arrangements, and then by fostering economic development and post-war reconstruction. A reformist interlude then followed, reversed unceremoniously by a return of populism and a broader authoritarian retrenchment. Today Iran remains at odds with itself, its economy too deeply political to yield meaningful developmental results, its foreign relations too conflicted to allow it a productive place in the community of nations. As Iran's nationalities and its women and youth carve out spaces for themselves in the broader narrative, competing identities-religious, national and otherwise-abound. After forty years, the Islamic Republic remains a country in search of itself.


Democracy in Iran

Democracy in Iran

Author: Misagh Parsa

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2016-11-07

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0674974298

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The Green Movement protests that erupted in Iran in 2009 amid allegations of election fraud shook the Islamic Republic to its core. For the first time in decades, the adoption of serious liberal reforms seemed possible. But the opportunity proved short-lived, leaving Iranian activists and intellectuals to debate whether any path to democracy remained open. Offering a new framework for understanding democratization in developing countries governed by authoritarian regimes, Democracy in Iran is a penetrating, historically informed analysis of Iran’s current and future prospects for reform. Beginning with the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Misagh Parsa traces the evolution of Iran’s theocratic regime, examining the challenges the Islamic Republic has overcome as well as those that remain: inequalities in wealth and income, corruption and cronyism, and a “brain drain” of highly educated professionals eager to escape Iran’s repressive confines. The political fortunes of Iranian reformers seeking to address these problems have been uneven over a period that has seen hopes raised during a reformist administration, setbacks under Ahmadinejad, and the birth of the Green Movement. Although pro-democracy activists have made progress by fits and starts, they have few tangible reforms to show for their efforts. In Parsa’s view, the outlook for Iranian democracy is stark. Gradual institutional reforms will not be sufficient for real change, nor can the government be reformed without fundamentally rethinking its commitment to the role of religion in politics and civic life. For Iran to democratize, the options are narrowing to a single path: another revolution.


Tourism in Iran

Tourism in Iran

Author: Siamak Seyfi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-11

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 1351379771

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Iran has long been regarded as an international pariah state in some parts of the international community. However, its negative image in many countries disguises its history of tourism and rich cultural and natural heritage. Following the July 2015 nuclear deal and the reduction in sanctions, Iran is focusing on international tourism as a means to generate economic growth in addition to its substantial domestic tourism market. Given the significance of tourism in the Middle East and in international politics, as well as restrictions on international mobility, this volume brings together the first contemporary collection of research on tourism in Iran. Written by experts based both within and outside of Iran, the chapters engage with a number of crucial issues including the importance of religion, the role of women in society, sustaining Iran’s cultural heritage, Iran’s image and the resistive economy to provide a benchmark assessment of tourism and its potential future in a troubled political environment. The book will undoubtedly be of interest not only to those readers who focus specifically on Iran but also those who seek a wider understanding of Iran’s role in the region and how tourism is utilised as part of national and regional economic development policies.