The Political Economy of the Gulf Summary Report details research conducted at the CIRS "Political Economy of the Gulf" working group meetings held in Doha over the course of two years. The project was launched in 2009. As with other CIRS research initiatives, after a thorough review of existing...

Young people in the Middle East (15-29 years old) constitute about one-third of the region's population, and growth rates for this age group are the second highest after sub-Saharan Africa. Today, the entire Middle East region is experiencing a demographic boom along with an oil boom. The...

The Islamic Revolution of 1979, the eight-year war with Iraq (1980-88), and the collapse of oil prices in 1986 dealt huge blows to Iran's economy. In this paper we use a pseudo panel constructed from annual multiple surveys during 1984-2004 to analyze changes in cohort earnings and consumption...

We study the impact of a nation-wide unconditional cash transfer program on labor supply in Iran. In 2011 the government started monthly deposits of cash into individual family accounts amounting to 29% of the median household income. We use panel data and fixed effects to study the causal...

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran is often associated with setbacks in women’s empowerment because of increased restrictions on women’s participation in the social and economic life of the country. Yet, in two important respects, rising female education and fertility decline, women’s...

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran is often associated with setbacks in women’s empowerment because of increased restrictions on women’s participation in the social and economic life of the country. Yet, in two important respects, rising female education and fertility decline, women’s...

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...

After a decade of pronatal policies, in 1989 the Iranian government reversed itself and launched an ambitious program to control population growth. In the subsequent 15 years the average number of births per rural woman dropped from more than seven to the replacement level. We evaluate the...