Hassan Hakimian is Director of the London Middle East Institute and a reader in the Economics Department at SOAS University of London, and his research focuses on MENA economies. He is a founding member and currently the president of the International Iranian Economic Association (IEA) and a Research Fellow and member of the Advisory Committee of the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in Cairo. He is the founder and series editor for the Routledge Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa, which he launched in 2003.