Sanctioning the Iranian Regime, perhaps not?

Iran has been targeted by EU and US sanctions for many years now. In this thesis, the effectiveness of these sanctions is assessed. Is it a full package for the government, or can a part of these sanctions be transferred to the working class people? Sanctions have been imposed on Iran over the years for behaving in a way that is not considered acceptable. The US allows practically no trade with Iran, only in very limited amounts and on an individual basis. I analyze the effect on the people of Iran through inflation and unemployment. This relation is better known as the Phillips curve. I estimate that there is a significant effect of the sanctions on the two aforementioned variables. The sanctions explain some of the highs and lows in the Iranian inflation. Without taking the sanctions into account, the results are a lot less influential. I find that the R-squared in the end-model has improved from 0.144 to 0.444. Even though there are possible ways in Iran to evade the sanctions or at least partially, it still is hard to cope with them. Underground banking has always been a popular way of transferring money in the Middle-East and beyond. Now is the time that it can prove itself as an alternative method for individuals and even companies. Even though there are many sanctions in place, there are people who consider it to be a process they have to go through. They believe that they will eventually come out of it stronger. As sanctions have not produced the desired effect yet, they wonder why this should start now.