The effects of oil and non-oil exports on economic growth: a case study of the Iranian economy

摘要

This study attempts to re-investigate the role of oil and non-oil exports in economic growth in Iran using the multivariate cointegration and Granger causality methods. This study covers the annual data from 1970 to 2008. Throughout this study, our empirical results indicate that the variables are cointegrated and the Granger causality test reveals evidence of uni-directional causality from oil and non-oil exports to economic growth. Therefore, we confirm that the export-led growth hypothesis is valid in Iran. However, results show that oil export has an inverse effect on economic growth, thus we suggest encouraging non-oil export activities in order to stimulate long-term economic growth in Iran.