IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v32y2020i7p1148-1170.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Industrializing an Oil‐Based Economy: Evidence from Iran's Auto Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Masoud Movahed

Abstract

Two theoretical paradigms namely, the ‘resource curse’ and ‘developmental state’ would predict that industrial development in countries with abundance of capital‐intensive natural resources and in states with patrimonial tendencies is doomed to failure. Iran's success in developing a dynamic auto industry, which in 2011 became the world's 12th largest automobile manufacturer with 1.6 million vehicles produced per year seems to contradict these perspectives. How was this technical capacity created in an oil‐based economy—which provides little incentive for industrialization—and, in a country that has been under the United States and international sanctions since 1979 Revolution? In this paper, I will expand on the implications of these theoretical traditions to identify the structural factors that enabled the Iranian state to develop a large automobile sector and relatively diversify the economy. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Masoud Movahed, 2020. "Industrializing an Oil‐Based Economy: Evidence from Iran's Auto Industry," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(7), pages 1148-1170, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:32:y:2020:i:7:p:1148-1170
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.3499
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3499
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.3499?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew M. Warner, 1995. "Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth," NBER Working Papers 5398, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Peter Evans, 1998. "Transferable lessons? Re-examining the institutional prerequisites of East Asian economic policies," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 66-86.
    3. van Wijnbergen, Sweder J G, 1984. "The 'Dutch Disease': A Disease after All?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(373), pages 41-55, March.
    4. Corden, W M, 1984. "Booming Sector and Dutch Disease Economics: Survey and Consolidation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(3), pages 359-380, November.
    5. Palma, J.G., 2010. "Why has productivity growth stagnated in most Latin-American countries since the neo-liberal reforms? (Revised 26-07-2011)," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1030, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Krugman, Paul, 1987. "The narrow moving band, the Dutch disease, and the competitive consequences of Mrs. Thatcher : Notes on trade in the presence of dynamic scale economies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1-2), pages 41-55, October.
    7. Reda Cherif & Fuad Hasanov, 2019. "The Return of the Policy That Shall Not Be Named: Principles of Industrial Policy," IMF Working Papers 2019/074, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Wade, Robert Hunter, 2003. "What strategies are viable for developing countries today? The World Trade Organization and the shrinking of ‘development space’," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28239, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Javad Abedini & Nicolas Péridy, 2009. "The Emergence of Iran in the World Car Industry: An Estimation of its Export Potential," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 790-818, May.
    10. Hossein Askari, 2006. "Middle East Oil Exporters," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4232.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kamran Rabiei & Arman Mortazavi, 2024. "State Capacity and Industrial Development: A Comparative Study of Iran and Egypt (1990–2010)," Contemporary Review of the Middle East, , vol. 11(2), pages 207-230, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julia Skretting, 2022. "Oil Windfalls and Regional Economic Performance in Russia," Working Papers No 02/2022, Centre for Applied Macro- and Petroleum economics (CAMP), BI Norwegian Business School.
    2. Rabah Arezki & Frederick van der Ploeg, 2011. "Do Natural Resources Depress Income Per Capita?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 504-521, August.
    3. Bjørnland, Hilde C. & Thorsrud, Leif Anders & Torvik, Ragnar, 2019. "Dutch disease dynamics reconsidered," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 411-433.
    4. Bergholt, Drago & Røisland, Øistein & Sveen, Tommy & Torvik, Ragnar, 2023. "Monetary policy when export revenues drop," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Torvik, Ragnar, 2001. "Learning by doing and the Dutch disease," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 285-306, February.
    6. Dissou, Yazid, 2010. "Oil price shocks: Sectoral and dynamic adjustments in a small-open developed and oil-exporting economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 562-572, January.
    7. Kedrosky, Davis & Palma, Nuno, 2021. "The Cross of Gold: Brazilian Treasure and the Decline of Portugal," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 574, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. Tiba, Sofien & Frikha, Mohamed, 2019. "The controversy of the resource curse and the environment in the SDGs background: The African context," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 437-452.
    9. Clements, Kenneth & Lan, Yihui & Roberts, John, 2008. "Exchange-rate economics for the resources sector," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 102-117, June.
    10. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2011. "Natural Resources: Curse or Blessing?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 366-420, June.
    11. Barbier,Edward B., 2007. "Natural Resources and Economic Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521706513.
    12. Mignamissi, Dieudonné & Malah Kuete, Yselle Flora, 2021. "Resource rents and happiness on a global perspective: The resource curse revisited," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    13. Matsen, Egil & Torvik, Ragnar, 2005. "Optimal Dutch disease," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(2), pages 494-515, December.
    14. International Monetary Fund, 2005. "Norway: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2005/197, International Monetary Fund.
    15. Kaznacheev, Peter, 2013. "Resource Rents and Economic Growth: Economic and institutional development in countries with a high share of income from the sale of natural resources. Analysis and recommendations based on internatio," EconStor Research Reports 121950, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    16. Moradbeigi, Maryam & Law, Siong Hook, 2016. "Growth volatility and resource curse: Does financial development dampen the oil shocks?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 97-103.
    17. Branstetter, Lee G. & Laverde-Cubillos, N. Ricardo, 2024. "The dark side of the boom: Dutch disease, competition with China, and technological upgrading in Colombian manufacturing," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    18. Kojo, Naoko C., 2014. "Demystifying Dutch disease," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6981, The World Bank.
    19. Grant Mark Nülle & Graham A. Davis, 2018. "Neither Dutch nor disease?—natural resource booms in theory and empirics," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 31(1), pages 35-59, May.
    20. Bernardina Algieri, 2011. "The Dutch Disease: evidences from Russia," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 243-277, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:32:y:2020:i:7:p:1148-1170. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.