Research Article
Industrializing an Oil-Based Economy: Evidence from Iran's Auto Industry
Masoud Movahed,
Corresponding Author
Masoud Movahed
Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Correspondence to: Masoud Movahed, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Dr, Madison, WI 53706.
E-mail: movahed@wisc.edu
Search for more papers by this authorMasoud Movahed,
Corresponding Author
Masoud Movahed
Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Correspondence to: Masoud Movahed, Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1180 Observatory Dr, Madison, WI 53706.
E-mail: movahed@wisc.edu
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
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.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are publicly available at International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (OICA) production statistics (http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2011-statistics/), Iran Statistical Center (https://www.amar.org.ir) as well as Iran Data Portal housed at Syracuse University (http://irandataportal.syr.edu/labor-force).
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