An analysis of Economic Impacts of Border Markets on Development of Border Areas Case Study: Sheikh Saleh Border Market, Salas Babajai Township, Kermanshah Province

Border trade is one of the main indicators of establishment of relations between neighboring countries and business of the border dwellers. Through these markets the border dwellers of neighboring countries can jointly use the common opportunities and resources. This very issue can lead to continuation of friendship and mutual understanding, security, economic growth and development, creation of job opportunities and formulation of a kind of relative advantage in the border areas. Despite ample capacities in the border areas, one of the main features of these regions is distance from the center. This geographical feature that mainly stems from the nature of these areas along with the centripetal policies have left their undesirable impacts on the border areas. One of the consequences of these features is depravation and marginalization of these areas. The existing bottlenecks have pushed the neighboring countries to establish border markets to achieve economic and social justice and also to boost bilateral cooperation. The present paper is an attempt to study the impacts of the border markets on the development of border areas, with special reference to Sheikh Saleh Border Market. The garnered data was processed with the help of SPSS and GIS software and the processed data was analyzed through descriptive-analytical methods. The findings indicate that the economic condition of the region has undergone considerable changes after the establishment of the market.