Iran Without a Horizon: Why Restoring Long-Term Planning Is a National Imperative
In an economy confronted daily by uncertainty, policy reversals, and external shocks, the horizon for decision-making inevitably shrinks. Businesses plan only a few months ahead. Households focus on meeting immediate expenses. Policymakers, instead of pursuing long-term development, spend most of their energy containing the crisis of the day. The result is an economy that continues […]
The Economy Without a Future: When Decision Horizons Collapse
Over the past year, I have had countless conversations with executives from private companies, family businesses, technology firms, and even public institutions in Iran. Despite operating in different industries, many of them shared the same concern: their definition of the future is shrinking. A decade ago, strategic discussions often revolved around five-year plans, market positioning, […]
Wages, Dollars, and the Fate of Iran’s Workforce: What 20 Years of Minimum Wage Data Reveal
For most countries, minimum wage statistics are labor-market indicators. In Iran, they are something much bigger: a mirror reflecting the country’s economic policies, diplomatic relations, currency stability, and social outlook. A simple table comparing Iran’s minimum wage in local currency and its equivalent in U.S. dollars over the past two decades tells a powerful story. […]
Digital Apartheid: When Internet Access Stops Being a Public Right
There was a time when the phrase “Digital Apartheid” sounded exaggerated — a dramatic metaphor used by activists and academics to describe technological inequality between nations or social classes. But in today’s Iran, the term is slowly transforming from metaphor into reality. What is emerging is no longer merely censorship or internet filtering. It is […]
Iran’s Role in Global Policy Research: Lessons from the OECD Study on Women Entrepreneurs
When the OECD and the Global Women’s Entrepreneurship Policy Network (GWEP) launched their global study Bridging the Finance Gap for Women Entrepreneurs in 2025, the goal was not only to understand the financial challenges women face but also to highlight how different national contexts shape access to opportunity. As one of the contributing researchers to […]
Tokenization and the Future of Iran’s Digital Economy
(From my op-ed in Donya-e-Eqtesad) By Reza Ghiabi Staying ahead in today’s rapidly shifting markets requires more than following trends — it requires understanding the underlying transformations that are reshaping how value, trust, and transactions flow in the global economy. One of these transformations is asset tokenization, a concept that, despite the buzz around it, […]
Whenever a Country Raises Mobile Data Prices, What Is Really Going On?
(Adapted frommy recent Persian-language column in Donya-e-Eqtesad, a leading Iranian business daily, published on 2 December 2025.) When a government allows mobile data prices to increase, it is almost never “just” about prices. It is a stress test of the entire digital infrastructure: who pays, who invests, who decides, and who benefits. In Iran, a […]
Plans for 2026?
As the year comes to an end, everyone asks about plans. But maybe the real question isn’t what we want to build — it’s how we want to live. These are my answers to one simple question. Each one a fragment of a life in progress. Plans for 2026? Do crazy things. Many crazy things. […]
When Currency Volatility Hits the Street: Why Economic Protests Are Rarely About Just Economics
In many emerging economies, sudden waves of protests are often explained in simple terms: inflation, currency depreciation, or declining purchasing power. But reality is usually more layered. Currency shocks rarely remain confined to balance sheets or trading screens; they move quickly into everyday life, reshaping incentives, behaviors, and even moral boundaries in the marketplace. What […]
Iran’s Stock Market Between Global and Local Forces
In recent weeks, financial markets have been shaped more than ever by the simultaneous pressure of global and domestic variables—a condition that makes decision-making harder for investors, yet far more meaningful. While major global stock markets are going through price corrections, tighter monetary conditions in parts of the world, and a rise in institutional risk […]
