Iran Sanctions Research Articles

Mobilized Resilience and Development under Sanctions in Iran

ABSTRACTHow do states maintain economic development in the face of sanctions? Recent studies have examined economic resilience as a property of a system preceding a shock, leaving unanswered questions about how sanctioned states discipline employers and limit predatory behaviour. Using the case of Iran, this article aims to fill this gap by presenting a model of mobilized resilience, describing how bottom‐up and top‐down mobilizations can create demand for institutional capacity. Integrating unique qualitative and quantitative material, the author argues that Iran's political elites responded to sanctions by launching top‐down campaigns that appealed to workers, promoted capital–labour unity, and demanded state commitment to development. These campaigns facilitated widespread labour protests that further empowered the state to block capital flight and steer firms onto more profitable, growth‐oriented routes. Labour ‘resistance’ thus unexpectedly helped to realize the Supreme Leader's calls for a ‘resistance economy’. These findings suggest that political support for worker mobilization in the context of sanctions can result in economic benefits, with significant consequences for our understanding of economic statecraft, development and labour movements.

Economic sanctions, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions in Iran: a system dynamics model

ABSTRACT Economic sanctions have the potential to affect environmental factors through various channels, including income reduction and constraints on accessing finance and environmentally friendly technologies. This study aims to simulate the energy and environmental consequences resulting from international sanctions in Iran. To achieve this, we develop a System Dynamics model integrating a spectrum of variables spanning economic, social, and environmental dimensions, for the period from 2008 to 2028. Our simulation outcomes indicate that by 2028, sanctions are anticipated to precipitate a notable upsurge in CO2 emissions, ranging from 12.5% to 30% compared to the baseline scenario. The magnitude of this escalation hinges on a variety of factors, including energy intensity and scenarios related to economic growth. According to our findings, prolonging international sanctions could be a major barrier to improving energy intensity and lowering CO2 emissions. Given the potential environmental consequences of sanctions, international communities, particularly sanctioning countries, should consider the environmental impacts of sanctions in their policy-making decisions in order to reduce emissions damage.

The experiences and perceptions of people with chronic and rare diseases during political-economic sanctions in Iran: a qualitative study

BackgroundEconomic sanctions aim to exert pressure on political and economic foundations. Hypothesizing that sanctions might affect various aspects of population health, this study, as a component of a broader investigation to ascertain the trend effects of sanctions on selected health outcomes in Iran, seeks to explore the experiences of Iranian citizens associated with the imposed sanctions.MethodsThis is a qualitative study. We conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with randomly selected patients diagnosed with at least one chronic and rare disease from diverse backgrounds across four provinces in Iran. We analyzed data using an inductive content analysis approach, facilitated by the MAXQDA10 software.ResultsWe identified three primary themes: direct effects, side effects, and coping strategies. The immediate effects were perceived to be manifested through the restriction of healthcare service availability and affordability for citizens. The side effects included the economic hardships experienced in individuals’ lives and the perceived devastation caused by these difficulties. Some coping mechanisms adopted by patients or their families/relatives included prioritizing comorbidities, prioritizing health needs within families with multiple ill members, and readjusting health/illness requirements in light of daily living needs.ConclusionIn addition to the inherent burden of their illness, patients faced substantial healthcare costs as a result of sanctions, restricted access to medications, and availability of low-quality medications. We advocate considering these challenges within the healthcare system resilience framework as a crucial first step for policymakers, aiming to determine actionable measures and mitigate the adverse effects of sanctions on citizens, particularly the most vulnerable groups.

Pollution and learning: Causal evidence from Obama’s Iran sanctions

We provide evidence of a substantial impact of pollution in the vicinity of a school on student learning using standardized test results from the universe of Tehran junior schools. The 2010 US sanctions prevented the sale of refined petroleum products to Iran. Causal identification exploits that the impact of sanctions on air quality in the vicinity of schools in the city varied according to the proximity of each school to roads. Relative academic performance dropped at more road-exposed (variously-measured) schools. Roads upwind appear to have four times the impact compared to those downwind, aligning with the prevailing wind direction which blows 80% of the time from the west, a finding that also provides compelling evidence against alternative interpretations.

Thicker Than Sanctions: The Persistence and the Development of Iran’s “Looking East” Approach

“Looking East” has recently become a rather trendy topic among Iranians from all walks of life at a critical time: when Iran has deeply engaged its major partners in the East while getting involved in a rather lengthy negotiations with the “5+1” party concerning the fate of the nuclear deal, which the Trump administration quit in May 2018. Although from the beginning Iran’s “Looking East” orientation was by and large about going around the US-led international sanctions and punitive measures levied against the Islamic Republic, the approach has survived to now become Tehran’s preferred policy toward the outside world. Not only is the “Looking East” policy pursued by Tehran in itself in itself an understudied topic of considerable significance, Iran sanctions are yet to be fully investigated by interested scholars despite their tremendous ramifications on almost every aspect of Iranian internal and external affairs, including the Islamic Republic’s “Looking East” proclivities, over the past several decades. Indeed, after playing a truly instrumental role in shaping the contours of Iran’s increasingly growing multifaceted relationship with its Eastern friends and partners, the US-spearheaded sanctions have turned “Looking East” into the main doctrine behind the dynamics of Iran-East interactions for the foreseeable future.

The Whole-of-Government, Whole-of-Society Approach in Tackling COVID-19 Pandemic in Iran: Evidence for Policymakers

: Some countries have adopted the whole-of-government (WoG), whole-of-society (WoS) approach to face the recent global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. By applying the WoG approach, sectors beyond health have to work across boundaries to achieve an integrated government response to particular issues, such as global health emergencies. Furthermore, the WoS approach puts communities at the center of response, which is vital for effectively dealing with crises. The COVID-19 pandemic coincided with the toughest unilateral political and economic sanctions in Iran. Implementing preventive and restrictive strategies could be elusive without a tailored WoG-WoS approach. The National COVID-19 Committee (NCC) was established to foster necessary multi-sectoral collaboration to deal with the pandemic in Iran. Nonetheless, Iran faced seven waves of the COVID-19 pandemic so far, each one more devastating than the previous wave. As the NCC did not meaningfully engage with the representatives of civil society, it can be claimed that social participation in health promotion was sufficient in Iran. Applying WoG-WoS approaches could have facilitated better performance in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis; countries with better records in dealing with the recent pandemic have benefited from social mobilization and meaningful engagement with all sectors, including both state and non-state actors. We advocate the adoption of tailored initiatives to nurture such an approach in dealing with potential future crises in Iran and abroad.

Modeling the exploitation of common oil and gas resources under different conditions of resource distribution and extraction power: A game theory approach

Oil and gas are the driving forces behind many economic and productive activities, so they hold a crucial place in economic growth and development. The South Pars/North Dome field, the world's largest gas field, needs to be adequately developed and utilized. Iran and Qatar jointly own this field, and they have the responsibility of developing appropriate strategies for oil and gas exploitation. This study analyzes four static game models of the Nash equilibrium and optimal strategies between the two countries to exploit their shared resource. It assumes that a country's extraction power relies on international sanctions, which leads to unequal extraction power. The various conditions of the model include “equal resource distribution and equal extraction power”, “unequal distribution with equal extraction power”, “equal distribution with unequal extraction power”, and “unequal distribution with unequal extraction power”. The study's findings indicate that in the first two scenarios in which no country faces sanctions, both countries should adopt a non-commitment to cooperation. However, in the latter two scenarios in which one country is under sanctions and has weaker extraction power, the sanctioned country should commit to a cooperative policy, while the other country should adopt a non-cooperative approach. Therefore, the decision of a country to participate in the exploitation of common resources depends on its extraction power rather than resource distribution. Consequently, it can be argued that Iran and Qatar's common gas field, which is unequally divided, is significantly affected by sanctions. Due to Iran's sanctions, its extraction power has decreased, and it has adopted a cooperative strategy with Qatar. Meanwhile, Qatar's dominant strategy is non-cooperation. As a result, Iran suffers from the exploitation of shared resources under sanctions.

Understanding Economic Sanctions on Iran: A Survey

Abstract This paper surveys the literature on the economic effects of sanctions on Iran, with a principal focus on those imposed after 2006. We discuss the challenges of isolating the impacts of sanctions and evaluate recent methodological approaches used to measure causal effects. Specifically, we focus on the application of the synthetic control method to disaggregate the exogenous and endogenous factors responsible for economic underperformance in Iran. We review studies on the macroeconomic impacts of Iran sanctions and examine those that focus on the sectoral effects of sanctions. Our survey reveals a large and growing body of literature that remains incomplete. There are significant gaps in the existing research on the impact of sanctions. Iran will likely remain the most important case study as researchers seek to fill those gaps.

Introduction: Studying the Impacts of Economic Sanctions in Iran: Everyday Life, Power, and Foreign Policy

Abstract: Based on fieldwork over ten years in Iran and Cuba, this article follows the myriad political, economic, and cultural, relationships developed between Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba since 2008, as a direct challenge to U.S. sanctions on all three countries. What can we learn about U.S. sanctions when we look at the lived experiences of those both coping with and defying U.S. sanctions in three of the main targeted societies? What do these alliances of sanctions busting show us about the limits of U.S. sanctions, and about the further entrenchment of power by those at the forefront of political and military power in each of their respective states? This article explores the micro-social relations of those who have solidified this alliance, and explores what "sanctions busting" and building "resistance economies" mean for humanitarian and development issues.

Technological development by sub-sanction pressure: the case of Iran

The subject of the study is the experience of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) in overcoming sanctions. The purpose of the article is to identify specific mechanisms that contribute to technological development in the conditions of sanctions restrictions. The paper examines the most successful projects of Iran in high-tech industries, and also examines the prerequisites for their development. The author analyzed the economic model of Iran and its features. The main mechanisms for circumventing restrictions that minimize the effectiveness of sanctions and their impact on the economy of Iran have been identified. Various ways of interaction with economic partners and ways of building long-term relations with allies are considered. The methodological basis of the research is: comparative analysis, empirical and systematic approaches. Special attention was paid to the study of literature that explores the issues of interest to us. As a result, the main decisions of the Iranian government were highlighted, which allowed this state not only to achieve relative economic stability, but also to create technologies that were in demand in many foreign markets. The novelty of the article lies in a detailed analysis of the existing methods of circumvention of sanctions in Iran, including those that have not yet been studied in the scientific literature. The results of the study can be used by the governments of other states subject to sanctions pressure in order to overcome restrictions and minimize the consequences of their introduction. A special contribution of the author to the study of the topic is to identify ways to circumvent restrictions, as well as the formation of infrastructure for the creation of production on the own territory of the sub-sanctioned state.

The power of coalitions: lobbying success in US sanctions policy toward Iran from 2007 to 2016

This paper focuses on the role of interest groups in US sanctions policy toward Iran from 2007 to 2016. The aim of this work is to explain what changed in regard to the role of interest groups in the most significant shift in US-Iranian relations under President Barack Obama before and after the vote on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which was intended to halt Iran’s non-peaceful nuclear program in return for an easing of sanctions by the US Congress. This study contributes to our knowledge about how structural variables, issue salience, and actor strategies work together to produce outcomes. In addition, it provides a better understanding of interest group influence by identifying conditions under which interest groups can be successful in changing the policy status quo. This research proposes that the once firm stands of the Democrat legislators on supporting Iran sanctions changed due to support of President Obama’s strategy of engagement by Pro-Diplomacy groups and the international community, which he used as legislative subsidy. In addition, favorable policy windows opened up opportunities that pushed for diplomacy instead of confrontation.

Subjective well-being in the relationship between workaholism and workplace incivility: the moderating role of gender

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to investigate the mediating role of subjective well-being (SWB) in the relationship workaholism and workplace incivility with an emphasis on the moderating role of gender.Design/methodology/approachUsing an online survey, the required data were collected from 401 employees in 41 public organizations in Iran.FindingsBy structural equation modeling, the results showed workaholism has a negative direct association with workplace incivility. Additionally, SWB mediates the relationships between workaholism and workplace incivility. Moreover, workaholic men and women are more likely to experience higher workplace incivility and lower SWB, respectively.Practical implicationsManagers should focus on reducing workaholism and developing SWB to decrease uncivil behaviors. Researchers need to assess the different instigators of incivility, considering the mediating or moderating role of other variables in private organizations.Social implicationsThe stress of workaholism, coupled with the harsh conditions of economic sanctions in Iran, has exacerbated the occurrence of incivility behavior. This study helps to reduce and control such behaviors by examining the role of SWB and gender.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the research on incivility behavior by advancing the understanding of organizational and personal factors (workaholism and SWB) that can influence workplace incivility among employees. It also addresses the usefulness of examining SWB disposition in understanding the relationship between workaholism and workplace incivility.

Iran’s Multilateral Diplomacy on The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Related to The Development of Nuclear Energy 2009-2015

Since the Islamic revolution of Iran in 1979, the United States and its allies don’t like Iran's nuclear program and aim to manufacture nuclear weapons and assumed that Iran’s nuclear has violated the NPT treaty. Over time Iran sanctions in the form of a resolution by the UN Security Council due to the allegations provided by the United States and its allies. To maintain and acquire nuclear development rights, the Iranian government conducts diplomacy with the IAEA as an international atomic agency. This research explains influential factors in multilateral diplomacy success by Iran on IAEA related to nuclear energy development during 2009-2015 using the concept of multilateral diplomacy by Ronald A. Walker. The method used is qualitative method with descriptive analysis and data collection techniques are the study of literature. Iran is considered successful multilateral diplomacy through the formation of a collective agreement in the form of a comprehensive Joint Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015 in Vienna. The Iranian government has been actively disseminating information related to nuclear development, as well as adhering to the multilateral treaty that has been ratified as the NPT safeguards agreement and additional protocol. the Iranian government actively negotiated since 2009 to send a delegation to the various meetings

Employment effects of economic sanctions in Iran

This paper investigates the effect of economic sanctions on employment. We exploit the imposition of a series of unexpected and unprecedented international economic sanctions on Iran in 2012 and estimate the short-run effects of the change in import exposure on manufacturing employment at the industry level. Our estimates indicate that the sanctions led to an overall decline in the manufacturing employment growth rate by 16.4 percentage points. However, we uncover significant asymmetric effects across industries with different ex-ante import shares. Interestingly, the effects are mostly driven by labor-intensive industries and industries that heavily depend on imported inputs. This suggests that the overall negative impact of the sanctions on employment might be largely due to the decline in productivity experienced by industries with a high propensity to import inputs from abroad.

China-Iran Relations Through the Prism of Sanctions

The article aims to understand how China has dealt with the puzzle of Iran's sanctions. Beijing's approach and reaction to the question of sanctioning Tehran and abiding by the sanctions imposed by the United States and the UNSC are a response to a complex matrix formed by three distinct but co-existing dimensions: the bilateral relationship with Iran, that with Washington, and its own positioning within the international community. Each dimension is associated with the performance of a specific international role. What emerges from the analysis of three case studies – the introduction of the 1996 Iran and Libya Sanction Act, the UNSC resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran (2006-10), and the response to Washington's Maximum Pressure campaign – is that, for China, Iran's sanctions are an inherent source of conflicts between its roles. Ultimately, Beijing's responses to the emerging conflicts between its roles have been cautious and aimed at tempering their possible escalations, even though the case studies show that a quite visible hierarchy of roles exists. China's role vis-à-vis Iran occupies a lower position than those performed vis-à-vis the United States and the international community.

Employment Effects of Economic Sanctions in Iran

Employment Effects of Economic Sanctions in Iran

Economy Policy of Iran Against Financial Sanctions

Sanctions are one of the foreign policy instrument of states taking its roots from the depth of the history. This instrument restricts activities utilized by one or more international actors, upon any other international actor -like certain institutions, individuals or private companies of a certain country- in order to achieve foreign policy goals or for making that actor change its behaviour. These restrictive activites may be in the form of political, economic, financial restrictions or some of them together.
 Financial sanctions are relatively younger tools than the other kinds and they are used as suplementary to economic sanctions to increase their forcefulness. But, as well as conventional methods to evade financial sanctions, there is also a transformation process about the existing global financial mechanism. In this article, effeciency of the financial sanctions will be analysed by the Iran sanctions case during the 2010’s, taking into consideration newly developed evasion methods and the changing global financial environment.

The effect of expert recommendations on intergovernmental decision-making: North Korea, Iran, and non-proliferation sanctions in the Security Council

The article explores whether and to what extent expert recommendations affect decision-making within the Security Council and its North Korea and Iran sanctions regimes. The article first develops a rationalist theoretical argument to show why making many second-stage decisions, such as determining lists of items under export restrictions, subjects Security Council members to repeating coordination situations. Expert recommendations may provide focal point solutions to coordination problems, even when interests diverge and preferences remain stable. Empirically, the article first explores whether expert recommendations affected decision-making on commodity sanctions imposed on North Korea. Council members heavily relied on recommended export trigger lists as focal points, solving a divisive conflict among great powers. Second, the article explores whether expert recommendations affected the designation of sanctions violators in the Iran sanctions regime. Council members designated individuals and entities following expert recommendations as focal points, despite conflicting interests among great powers. The article concludes that expert recommendations are an additional means of influence in Security Council decision-making and seem relevant for second-stage decision-making among great powers in other international organisations.

US Withdrawal from JCPOA and the Turmoil in Iran’s Economy

Many individuals and companies make their economic decisions based on political developments. This article examines an important political event,namely the withdrawal of the United States from JCPOA and its impact on the Iranian capital market. With the withdrawal of the United States fromthe JCPOA and the United States’ threats to resume sanctions, Iran’s economy had experienced turmoil and drastic changes, which clearly saw in thedays before and after the resumption of sanctions in Iran’s financial markets. In this study, we intend to examine the changes resulted from the USwithdrawal from JCPOA, its impact on Iran’s oil-dependent economy, financial markets, analyze the spread, and severity of turbulence in the Iranianeconomy, especially the Iranian financial markets using multivariate GARCH methods. In this regard, the multivariate GARCH model (DCC) andanalysis of variance are used to investigate these events’ effect on the Tehran Stock Exchange index.
 Keywords: ARCH, Economic Dependence, Economic Sanctions, Intensity of Turbulence in Iran’s Economy, Linear combinations of univariateGARCH models, Multivariate generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity, Nonlinear combinations of univariate GARCH models, USWithdrawal from JCPOA, Multivariate GARCH

The relationship between narcissism, managerial overconfidence and comparability of financial statements of listed companies

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of managerial narcissism and overconfidence on financial statements’ comparability. In other words, this paper seeks to answer the question of whether the personality characteristics of managers may affect the level of financial statements’ quality of commercial entities or not.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypotheses are tested using a sample of 896 observations taken from the Tehran Stock Exchange and 245 observations from the Iraqi Stock Exchange during 2012 and 2018 using the multiple regression model based on the combined data technique.FindingsThe findings show that managerial narcissism is positively and significantly associated with Iran’s financial statement comparability. In contrast, Iraqi data articulate a negative association between these two variables. This paper finds that Chief Executive Officer overconfidence and financial statements’ comparability are negatively related in both countries. Following the market variation, the different findings suggest that institutional settings such as the general managerial style, adopting international accounting standards (now IFRS) leading to the extent of auditing market globally in Iraq and suffering from international sanctions in Iran, the governing business environment may play an allocative role in preparing financial statements.Originality/valueThe present research is the first research conducted in two emerging markets (Iran and Iraq) examining the relationship between managers’ narcissism and overconfidence and financial statements’ comparability. Therefore, the present research in this area can significantly contribute to the development of science and knowledge.