Prospects for Iraq's economy are bleak: unemployment remains high and the post-war rebuilding effort has slowed to a trickle, weighed down by chronic instability. Rising oil prices increased GDP in 2004 and 2005. But an oil-induced rise in GDP will not necessarily bring about a general rise in...

This essay offers a limited study of income sustainability for one oil-exporting country: Iraq. The nature of the study motivates a discussion of some theoretical issues concerning levels of non-renewable resource depletion and re-investment as well as related questions about the...

1. Human development theory and Iraq's developmental story -- 2. Social, political, and economic evolution of Iraq, 1920-1990 -- 3. Economic growth, consumption, income distribution, and capital formation -- 4. Education -- 5. Housing, basic services, nutrition and health -- 6. The position of...