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Asphyxiation by Sanctions: Harm, Fear and Smog

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  • Urjit Patel

    (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy)

Abstract

The current century has witnessed a deluge of economic sanctions, with the attendant entropy. Formal empirical findings of researchers suggest that sanctions have been, for the most part, inefficacious in realising the diplomatic objectives of sanctioners. The lens through which the broader subject is analysed can, perhaps, benefit by: (i) explicitly recognising and incorporating externalities; (ii) an acknowledgement that degrading a target economy is a time-consuming process rather than an event and (intermediate) outcomes should be appropriately granularised (active sanctioners may already be doing this); and (iii) lifting the smog by distinctly estimating the incidence on diverse stakeholders of the welfare cost of sanctions, countersanctions, and secondary sanctions (including linked threats); these pose a global risk as sources of systemic economic-financial policy uncertainty. The extant gaps in the work of multilateral financial institutions belie their role as unbiased arbiters of assessing policies of their members. Length: 36

Suggested Citation

  • Urjit Patel, 2025. "Asphyxiation by Sanctions: Harm, Fear and Smog," Working Papers 202506, Center for Global Policy Analysis, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University.
    • Handle: RePEc:drx:wpaper:202506
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    File URL: https://www.lebow.drexel.edu/sites/default/files/2025-04/202506-cgpa-asphyxiation-by-sanctions.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dursun Peksen, 2019. "When Do Imposed Economic Sanctions Work? A Critical Review of the Sanctions Effectiveness Literature," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 635-647, September.
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Secondary Sanctions; Externalities; Dissonance; Continuation Value; Multilateral Institutions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D62 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Externalities
    • F51 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Conflicts; Negotiations; Sanctions
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements

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