Mohammad Reza Farzanegan is Professor of Economics of the Middle East at Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, where he also serves as Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS) and coordinates the MSc program Economics of the Middle East (EMEA). His research examines political economy, conflict, and sanctions with particular focus on Iran. He is a Research Fellow at the Economic Research Forum (Cairo) and CESifo (Munich). Farzanegan earned his PhD in Economics from TU Dresden in 2009.