Investigating the Relationship Between Informal Economy and Competitiveness in Iran’s Metropolises

Abstract

This article aims to analyze informal economy and competitiveness after the 1979 Revolution in Iran with an emphasis on its eight metropolitan cities. The research method is descriptive-analytical, and data is collected from official resources and statistics. The analysis for data related to economic competitiveness was carried out using technique for order of reference by similarity to ideal solution, entropy, and numerical taxonomy. The results of this study suggest that state modernism has been effective in the growth of urbanization and the decline of urbanization, which has changed Iranians’ life patterns from rural to urban in the wake of the 1979 Revolution. There is also a direct relationship between rural–urban migration and informal economic growth in the process of urbanization and urbanization in Iran. The informal economy sector, which accounts for 31% of Iran’s economy, ranks 30th in the world. The survey of informal economy in Iranian metropolises shows that 35% of its metropolises’ GDP comes from the informal economy. The results illustrate the imbalanced employment situation in these metropolises. The highest rate of female and male employees was recorded in Mashhad (81.16 and 90.55) and the lowest in Ahvaz (64.38 and 77.00), respectively. The majority of industrial workers lived in Qom (35.61), and the lowest number of industrial workers was in Mashhad (14.09). Also, the highest number of service workers was in Shiraz (78.40) and the lowest in Qom (54.34). Most of the agricultural labor force lived in Ahwaz (2.74) with Tehran hosting the lowest number of agricultural workers (0.98).