Dr. Hassan Hakimian is a Professor of Economics, and Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Department (MESD). During 2010-2019, he was Director of the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) and Reader in the Economics Department at SOAS University of London. Prior to that, he was an Associate Dean at Cass (now Bayes) Business School, London, where he was responsible for Executive MBA Programs and set up pioneering programs in Shanghai and Dubai.  

His research focuses on MENA economies, specifically labor markets, economic sanctions, inclusive growth, and the economics of Arab uprisings. He is the author of "Labour Transfer and Economic Development” (1990), co-editor of “The State and Global Change” (2000 with Ziba Moshaver), “Trade Policy and Economic Integration in MENA” (2003 with Jeff Nugent), “Iran and the Global Economy: Petro Populism, Islam and Economic Sanctions” (2014 with Parvin Alizadeh) and “Environmental Challenges in the MENAS Region” (2019 with Hamid Pouran). His latest work is the edited volume “The Routledge Handbook on the Middle East Economy” (2021).

Dr. Hakimian is a Founding Member and a past President of the International Iranian Economic Association (IIEA), a Lifelong Research Fellow, and a former Chair of the Economic Research Forum (ERF) Advisory Committee in Cairo. He currently serves as a Board member of the ERF. He is the Founder and Series Editor for the “Routledge Political Economy of the Middle East and North Africa,” which he launched in 2003.

One of the programs he directed at SOAS at the Centre for International Education in Economics (CIEE) won the Queen’s Prize for Higher and Further Education in 1996.