The Effect of Economic Openness on Improving the Life of the Poor in Iran

Poverty reduction is one of the main goals of policies pursued by governments. The concept of pro poor growth focuses on the interaction between three elements: growth, poverty and inequality. On the other hand, pro poor growth is affected by several factors, including macroeconomic policies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of Openness on pro poor growth during the period of 1982-2015. For this purpose, we estimate this relation by using ARDL method with time series data. The result shows that the openness of the economy has led to the improvement of the situation of the poor, due to the introduction of technology, increased productivity, more efficient resource allocation and promotion of innovation. So it is suggested that, the government pursue the removal of barriers of free trade and membership of the WTO. Although the success in this field is to create appropriate infrastructures and institutions.