Invitation to INT PhD seminar - Hadis Khonsary-Atighi & Mathew Abraham

By Hadis Khonsary- Atighi, Abstract:

Investment under Uncertainty and Resource-driven Economic Nationalism:

A Study of the Transition Economy of Iran 

In Iran, like in many oil-exporting countries, oil revenues (representing about 90% of total export earnings and on average 60% of government revenues) are the main funding sources for government spending. The country owns around 11% of the global proven oil reserves, 15.3% of the world’s natural gas reserve, and unknown to many it is OPEC’s second largest oil exporter. Yet, the availability of oil revenues as the main source of financing Iran’s economic development plans is influenced by oil price volatility, hence oil shocks can decide on the investment patterns of the country, particularly in non-oil and private sectors, and its economic policy-making in general. My PhD thesis is an institutional political economy study of Iran’s state-led investment patterns in the oil, non-oil, public and private sectors with two main areas of emphasis. First, I develop an analytical and theoretical framework to shed light on the interconnectedness between investment patterns, oil price volatility, natural resource curse thesis, and resource-driven economic nationalism. Then, using this interconnectedness as a point of departure for further analysis, I attempt to extend the theory of investment by incorporating oil price volatility as one of the major determinants of uncertainty for investment. To test this, I employ unit root and cointegration tests as well as the panel vector error correction model (VECM) and investigate both the long-run relationship between the sector level data of the resource-driven nationalist economy of Iran, and the short-run dynamics of such a relationship, spanning from 1973-2008. 

By Mathew Abraham, Abstract:

Globalization, Structural Challenges and Collective Action: A Study of Producer Organisational Formats and Agribusiness in India

In India, like in most developing countries, agriculture is the single largest economic sector, providing employment to more than 60% of the entire country’s workforce. Yet agriculture contributes to only 14.6% of GDP, 10% to total exports and only 0.2% to GDP growth at factor cost during 2009-10. As 70% of farms in India are marginal in size with areas below 1 hectare, the inability to cope with structural challenges and changing market conditions has made small producer sustainability difficult. In the wake of these challenges the agribusiness sector has not been able to effectively make use of the rising opportunities of expanding markets and increased consumer power and this has also led to supply side constraints that have been one of the major reasons for spiralling food prices. Collective action in the form of producer organisational formats have been cited to have potential  to address structural challenges by absorbing risk, linking producers to the market and bringing about better access to resources for production and sales, helping small producers attain sustainability.  However, systematic studies to determine the benefits of new collective actions by studying its organizational stability, economic sustainability and scope for social empowerment are absent.  This study aims to assess the relevance and sustainability of emerging collective action in the light of the political economy of structural challenges and emerging agribusiness opportunities brought about through globalization. 

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