Designing the export pattern of Iran based on two criteria of virtual water exports and employment potential of economic sectors, using the input-output (I-O) approach

Today, the crisis of water scarcity and unemployment are two major problems facing the Iranian economy. Therefore, this research aims to identify the optimal export pattern based on these two problems. The method of achieving this is through the I-O approach. To do this, first we aggregated I-O table of the year1390 in 18 main sectors. Then using the RAS method, we updated this table for the year1394. After calculating the Leontief inverse matrix, the increase in employment per unit of change in final demand as well as the amount of virtual water exports was extracted. By mixing these two indicators the combined index of export was obtained. The results of the research show that, in order to create employment and reduce virtual water exports as much as possible, the export pattern of the Iran (Islamic republic of) should move towards the service sector