Poverty and Financial Development in the Iranian Economy (1973-2007)

This study examines the relationship between financial sector development and poverty reduction in the Iranian economy during 1973-2007. To explore a long-term relationship between variables، Bounds Testing Approach of Pesaran and others (2001) was used and to investigate the interface and causality between financial sector development and poverty reduction Dolado and Lutkepohl’s approach and causalty test (1996) was applied. In this paper for showing financial development، three alternative indicators and for representing poverty the cost of private consumption per capita are used. Results from this study indicate a long-term relationship between variables in the model. Dolado and Lutkepohl causality test results also show that financial development is not effective in poverty reduction.