The Effect of Global Changes in the US Dollar Value and Oil Prices on Trade Balance and Economic Growth of the Iranian Economy: A study within a Structural Macro-econometric Model Framework

In this paper, a relatively small scale Structural Macro-econometric Model is constructed to study the effect of changes in the US dollar value and the price of oil on trade balance and economic growth of Iran. The model contains 24 long run and short run behavioral equations, 11 connecting equations and 27 definitional equations and identities. Within The methodology of co-integration, all the parameters of the equations in the model are estimated using ARDL technique and time series data for the period 1936 to 2012. The appropriateness of the constructed model is assessed by the related statistical tests and dynamic simulations. The simulation results indicate that when the oil price increase in the world market is due to a US dollar depreciation against other currencies, on one hand, Iran’s dollar revenue increases but on the other hand, imports also increases. Fallowing a jump in the world’s oil prices, yet the general domestic price level tends to increase due to the imported inflation. In all, simulation results show that the increase in dollar revenue due to the depreciation of dollar and hence the increase in oil prices, do not reduce the growth rate of the Iranian economy. Thus, even if it is perceived that an increase in income of the oil exporting countries due to an increase in oil prices will reduce their economic growth rate, the results of this study show that when this income increase is achieved through the depreciation of dollar, the economic growth of the Iranian economy will not decrease.