Measuring and analyzing the relationship between the economic misery index and some macroeconomic variables in selected economies, with reference to Iraq

A thesis submitted to the Council of the College of Administration and Economics – University of Karbala, which is part of the requirements for obtaining a master’s degree in economic sciences

Provided the student

Duha Ahmed Hashem Bahr Al-Ulum

Supervised by

Dr  Khudair Abbas Hussein  Al-Waeli

Abstract

The research problem lies in how macroeconomic variables affect the economic misery index in selected countries, namely India, Egypt and Iraq, as its effect increases in Iraq due to the economic conditions that Iraq has been exposed to. The research is based on the hypothesis that there is an effect of macroeconomic variables (GDP, local investment, local savings) on the economic misery index.

The countries of the world, including Iraq, are trying hard to address the problem of economic misery, which is an indicator used to determine the quality or poor performance of the macroeconomic economy and measure the economic well-being of the country’s citizens. Iraq suffers from major economic problems, including the weakness of the contribution of the main sectors, the most important of which are the agricultural and industrial sectors, to the gross domestic product and reliance on a single source of income, which is oil. This is due to a set of economic, political and security conditions that Iraq has gone through, which have led to high rates of poverty and unemployment, in addition to declining investment rates and weak local savings, in addition to high rates of inflation, which has led to a decrease in the purchasing power of the Iraqi individual.

Some countries have succeeded in reducing the economic misery index by following some policies that are capable of addressing the problem, so the research will review the experiences of some countries (India, Egypt) in the field of the economic misery index and try to extract lessons from these experiences and apply them and benefit from them in the case of the Iraqi economy. The researcher reached a set of conclusions, the most important of which is that there is an inverse relationship between the economic misery index and (gross domestic product growth, local investment, savings). The study recommends developing economic strategies by working to increase investments and savings and addressing the problem of unfair income distribution. By creating a clear economic vision and addressing the imbalances that caused the high levels of the economic misery index.