Evaluation of 160 countries
Economic sanctions hit the poor hardest
05/23/2023, 11:15 am
Economic sanctions are intended, among other things, to punish states that violate international law. An IFO evaluation now shows that these primarily harm the poorer population in the target countries. In certain cases life expectancy is even decreasing.
According to a study, economic sanctions cause high damage in the target countries, especially for the poorer population. Sanctions by the United Nations (UN) lead to a decline in growth in the affected countries by two percentage points per year, as the Munich IFO Institute reported on its study. Extrapolated over ten years, this equates to a 25 percent slump in per capita economic output.
Unilateral sanctions by the USA lead to an annual decline in growth of almost one percentage point. In the long term, this corresponds to a 13 percent slump in per capita economic output. “Economic sanctions regularly hit the part of the population in the sanctioned countries hardest who lives in or near poverty,” said Florian Neumeier, head of the IFO research group Tax and Fiscal Policy. In the past, this was particularly the case with US sanctions.
No information about Russia yet
Studies have shown, for example, that the sanctions imposed on Iran in 2012 primarily affected the young, uneducated population in rural areas. The study is based on evaluations from 160 countries. Of these, 67 were affected by economic sanctions between 1976 and 2012. “In the past, sanctions were mostly imposed on smaller economies,” said Neumeier. “We cannot therefore deduce from the analyzes how the current sanctions are affecting a large economy like Russia.”
In poorer countries, sanctions also lead to a lower life expectancy among the population. Such measures by the UN reduce the life expectancy of the population by an average of 1.2 to 1.4 years. In the event of sanctions by the USA, life expectancy will drop by almost half a year. “The difference between the life expectancy of men and women also shows that women are more affected by the imposition of sanctions,” said Neumeier.