Economic misery and its implications for achieving the first goal of the 2030 Agenda: International experiences with reference to Iraq

Abstract

The misery index is considered important because it determines the general policy of any economy, which reveals two problems that no country is free from, which raises concern among many economists because it measures the quality or poor performance of the economy and the well-being of its citizens. During the seventies, unemployment and inflation rates rose, which led to the phenomenon of stagflation at that time. This has contributed to increasing interest in economic misery indicators and searching for the reasons for the high rates of unemployment and inflation and working to address them to reduce rates of misery. Therefore, the Okun Index has undergone many modifications. The first modification was made in 1999 by the economist at Harvard University (Robert Barro) by adding more aspects of economic performance. The reasons for selecting the sample countries are due to the relationship between economic misery indicators and economic, social and political factors, and their direct impact on the well-being of individuals in all societies and the deepening and spread of the phenomenon of poverty. In the Iranian economy, the Iranian economy faces major economic challenges as a result of international sanctions, despite its possession of primary resources, such as inflation and the collapse of the value of the local currency. As for the Nigerian economy, Nigeria is one of the largest countries in Africa in terms of GDP, ranking third. However, at the same time, it suffers from high inflation rates as a result of the government increasing spending on security to confront cross-border armed groups. In addition to the increase in population in Nigeria and the lack of economic diversity, unemployment rates have increased, with more than 40% of the population living below the poverty line. Iraq was chosen because it suffers from many problems, especially after the fall of the regime and the issuance of poverty reduction strategies in light of the sustainable development agenda 2030