Iran and the Global Economy

2011 Joint Area Centers Symposium
Session 2: Iran in Global Perspectives

"Iran and the Global Economy"
Hadi Salehi Esfahani (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Bin Lin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Chair: Colin Flint (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

This paper examines the trends in Iran’s economic relations with the rest of the world over the past decades. It highlights the shifts in Iran’s pattern of trade across countries and across products, as Iran as tried to redirect its trade from developed to developing countries and import and export new products. It connects these shifts to domestic and international developments. In particular, it examines the role of changes in Iran’s political alliances and the economic sanctions that it faces on Iran’s economic foreign trade and investment pattern.