Re: Iran’s Economic Change (was Russia’s economy)
On May 11, 2007, at 7:50 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
There are many books and articles by Iran Studies scholars that are worth reading. See, for instance, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani (a professor of economics at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University), “Revolution and Redistribution in Iran: Poverty and Inequality 25 Years Later,” August 2006, http://www.filebox.vt.edu/users/salehi/Iran_poverty_trend.pdf. See, especially, “Table 7: Per Capita Income and Expenditures Per Day in 2004 Rials, 1974-2004″ on p. 49, “Table 8: Poverty Lines, Consumer Price Index, and PPP Exchange Rates” on p. 50, and “Table 9: Poverty Rates” on p. 51. It is clear from Salehi-Isfahani’s work as well as other studies* of social and economic change in Iran over the last three decades that the government of Iran, through its fiscal policy and public investment, has diminished poverty and raised the standard of living for working people.
I’m confused. In your early cheerleading for Ahmadinejad, you said
his election and his subsequent rhetoric were a response to popular
discontent over poverty and inequality - a not uncommon analysis. Now
you’re telling us things aren’t so bad after all. Salehi-Isfahani
resolves this apparent contradiction in his abstract this way: “I
suggest that in the context of a distributive economy such as Iran’s,
in which wealth accumulation is seen to depend more on political
access than individual productivity, more subjective feelings of envy
and fairness may matter more than ob jective indicators of poverty
and inequality.” That sounds like a fairly orthodox economist
talking. You agree?
Doug