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Exporting agricultural products is considered as one of the strategies for developing non-oil exports and achieving sustainable economic growth in developing countries. Saffron, as an export commodity, holds particular significance in Iran's non-oil exports. Given Iran's position among the top four saffron-exporting countries globally, this study aims to prioritize Iran's saffron target markets based on market competition indices and calculate its relative advantage and export stability index in the world market and Iran's export target countries. Comparison of the global market structure of the product during 2003 to 2022 revealed that despite the significant shares of Iran, Spain, England, and Nigeria in most years, the market structure has been characterized by a multi-sided monopoly, open and closed, and in some years dominated by oligopoly, indicating an increase in the number of competitors and the competitiveness of the export market for this product. Iran, with an average share of 13.6% in the saffron export market and producing over 80% of saffron, does not have a direct share in global exports, and most of Iran's saffron is exported to countries such as the UAE, Spain, China, and Oman, and then re-exported to other countries, for which strategies such as market expansion and branding need to be prioritized. The results showed that in 2022, four countries, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Iran, and Spain, accounted for 93% of the total world exports, and Iran ranked second in terms of export volume in the saffron export market during the study period. Also, Iran had an export stability index of less than one (0.96) but the trend of this index indicates a decrease in Iran's stability. The results showed that the majority of Iran's saffron exports are concentrated in only four countries, with the composition of these countries varying over time. To enhance market stability and growth, it is crucial to expand the target export markets. Prioritization should be given to China, UAE, Spain, India, USA, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, and Kuwait, with average priority ranks of 4.15, 6.85, 7.7, 7.95, 8.9, 12.3, 14.35, 15.25, 15.5, and 16.45 respectively. Furthermore, the results indicated that the export market for saffron is oligopolistic. Therefore, it is essential for all exporting countries to collaborate in determining the price and market share for each country. This collaborative approach can help in stabilizing the market, ensuring fair pricing, and promoting sustainable growth in the saffron industry.

This study examines the political and economic factors influencing the decision of investors in the stock exchange. For this purpose, first, by using the Meta Synthesis method, the factors affecting investment decisions were extracted from previous researches and then, using Delphi technique, the identified features were evaluated and approved by experts. Then, using DEMATEL method, the relationships between the factors were analyzed, and finally, the sequence and rank of each factor were determined based on the Interpretive Structural Modeling method. Based on the results obtained from the DEMATEL method, "Foreign political news and revolutionaries" and "International economic revolutionaries" are the most influential factor on other factors and "Predicting the country's economic situation in the future" is the most influential factor among other factors. Also, the results of the Interpretive Structural model approach show that Political factors such as the "Comments of political officials", "Iran's political relations with other countries" and "Internal Security and Stability" have the greatest impact on investment decisions.

One of the most important factors that investors pay attention to in stock markets is stock price fluctuations, which is the basis for evaluating the performance of company managers. The performance of the company's stock includes the yield from the resources under the company's control and is considered a suitable criterion for reaching the set goals. In the meantime, one of the things that influenced widely on the world financial markets is the outbreak of the 2019 Covid-19 epidemic. The Covid-19 pandemic is known as a black swan event since it was a rare, unexpected, unknown phenomenon with a high and universal impact. Therefore, the current research purpose is to investigate the fluctuations in the stock prices of petrochemical industry companies affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. For this purpose, 19 petrochemical companies of Tehran stock exchange were studied between 2017 to 2022. The data gathered daily and included 19 petrochemical companies in 220 working days for 5 years. The results showed that the shock caused by the growth of the corona virus initially caused a decrease in price volatility in petrochemical companies, but after two periods, the reaction of price volatility to the shock was positive. Finally, the shock effect disappeared after seven cycles.

EXTENDED ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION The number of revealed corruption-related crimes is one of the major challenges of Iran which has been significantly increased in recent years. According to official reports, although only two cases of embezzlement were reported in 1990s and 2000s with a total value up to $ 800 million, administrative corruption has significantly increased in 2010s with 13 large corruption cases and a total value up to $ 14 billion and a growth of over 1500% compared to 1990s and 2000s (The Iranian Students News Agency[1] (ISNA), 2017). The spread of such amount of corruption in administrative and bureaucratic system of the country can have irreparable economic and social consequences. The statistic investigations have shown that macroeconomic indicators including economic growth, employment, unemployment, poverty, inflation and income distribution have become less favorable in 2010 compared to previous decades (Statistical Center of Iran, Iran Statistical Yearbook, 2017). In this regard, the following questions can be raised: is there a relationship between corruption and the indicators of income distribution and poverty in the country? Since the volume of international and unilateral sanctions on Iran has increased in the 2010s, does such a widespread growth in the volume and value of corruption cases in Iran have a relationship with sanctions?   METHODOLOGY Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of sanctions on causal relationship between corruption, income inequality and poverty in Iran during 1984 to 2020. For this purpose, the indices of per capita income, poverty line, administrative corruption and control of corruption, Atkinson and Gini have been utilized to investigate their interactions through Toda-Yamamoto Causality Test.   FINDINGS Findings of research show that:   sanctions have affected the causality of per capita income on administrative corruption. sanctions have affected the causality of corruption control on per capita income. sanctions have affected the causality of income distribution on per capita income. sanctions had no effect on causality of per capita income, on Atkinson Index and vice versa. sanctions had no effect on causality of per between poverty line, on administrative corruption and vice versa. sanctions had an effect on causality of per between poverty line, on corruption control and vice versa. sanctions had a significant positive effect on poverty line, but had no significant effect on GINI index. In other words, sanctions have affected the causality of income distribution on poverty line. sanctions had no effect on causality of poverty line, on Atkinson Index and vice versa. sanctions had no effect on causality of GINI index, on administrative corruption and vice versa. sanctions had no effect on causality of GINI index, on corruption control and vice versa. sanctions had a significant positive effect on administrative corruption, but had no significant effect on Atkinson index. In other words, sanctions have affected the causality of income distribution on administrative corruption. sanctions had a significant positive effect on Atkinson index, but had no significant effect on corruption control. In other words, sanctions have affected the causality of corruption control on income distribution.     CONCLUSION The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of sanctions on causal relationship between corruption, income inequality and poverty in Iran during1984 to 2020. For this purpose, the indices of per capita income p, poverty line, Atkinson, GINI, administrative corruption and corruption control were investigated. In general, the following results were obtained from the present study:   Income distribution is not an effective variable for poverty in Iran. Corruption is an effective variable for causality of poverty in Iran and its significance level is higher under sanctions condition. Corruption and poverty cannot properly explain the income distribution in Iran. However, the corruption control can be the cause of income distribution and poverty line is a proper representative for the cause of income distribution under sanctions conditions. Income distribution is a strong variable for causality of corruption in Iran. Poverty can properly explain the causality of corruption in Iran under sanctions condition, but is not the cause of corruption under normal condition.   According to the obtained results, it seems that sanctions condition is an effective variable for the relationship between variables of income distribution, corruption and poverty. However, the effective factors of income distribution need further investigations in future.