“Sir! I’d Rather Go to School, Sir!” Economic Development and Cultural Change, (2026), presented at the World Bank (link to the Video of the presentation); IZA Discussion Papers No. 10787.
Abstract: Conscription is a popular method of army recruitment in developing countries. This study examines the largely under-researched issues of military service by looking at an unintended consequence of a military service exemption law and answering a principal question: is there a fear of conscription among the youth? It uses a discontinuity in the military service law in an under-studied country, Iran, and offers causal evidence that disutility from conscription entices young men to go to college by 14 percentage points (24%) more. Several robustness checks are employed to ensure that nothing other than the exemption law drives the results. Since sole sons and their households go through ordeals to increase their chances of going to college, the disutility of the conscription is substantial (for example, an applicant spends about 1.5 times per capita GDP on average in one year to prepare for the national university entrance exam.) Potential policies to address this inefficiency in developing countries are discussed.
“Early-life exposure to Saharan dust storms and adolescence functional disability: Evidence from Cameroon”, with Seyed M. Karimi, Mohammad Mostafavi-Dehzooei, Ghadir Asadi, and Claire S. Jacobs, Science of The Total Environment, (2022) (Impact factor: 10.753)
“Saharan Sand and Dust Storms and Neonatal Mortality: Evidence from Burkina Faso,” with Seyed M. Karimi, Hamid Pouran, Maziar Moradi-Lakeh, and Hassan Hakimian, Science of The Total Environment, (2020). (Impact factor: 10.753)
“Estimating a Model of Settlement Bargaining in the World Trade Organization,” with Mostafa Beshkar, In Zissimos, Ben (Ed.), The WTO and Economic Development, (December 17, 2019), MIT Press, https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/wto-and-economic-development.
“Iran’s Multi-ethnic Mosaic: A 23-Year Perspective,” with Sanaz Fesharaki, Social Indicators Research (2019), 145(3): 831-859 (Impact factor: 2.935; ABDC A-ranked journal)
“Income Mobility and the Arab Spring: The Case of Egypt and Jordan,” Applied Economics Letters (2017), 24(15): 1070-1074. (Impact factor: 1.157; ABDC B-ranked journal)
“Oil and Entrepreneurship,” Energy Policy (2016), Vol. 94: 10-15. (Impact factor: 7.576; ABDC A-ranked journal)
“Calculating the Income Counterfactuals for Oil Producing Countries of the MENA Region,” Resources Policy (2015), 44: 47-56. (Impact factor: 8.222; ABDC B-ranked journal)
“Mobility and Poverty Dynamics in Iran: Evidence from the 1992-1995 Panel Survey,” with Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance (2013), Vol. 53 No. 3. (Impact factor: 4.324; ABDC B-ranked journal)
“Private Sector Industrialization in China: Evidence from Wenzhou,” with John Strauss, Edward Y. Qian, Minggao Shen, Dong Liu, Qi Sun, and Qianfan Ying, in Community, Market and State in Development, editors Keijiro Otsuka and Kaliappa Kalirajan, Palgrave-MacMillan Publishing, (December 2010).
“Who Pays? Out-of-Pocket Health Spending and Equity Implications in the Middle East and North Africa”, with Heba Elgazzar, Firas Raad, Chokri Arfa, Awad Mataria, Nisreen Salti, Jad Chaaban, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, and Sanaz Fesharaki, November 2010. Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) discussion paper; World Bank, Washington, DC. License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
