Journal of Iran's Economic Essays; an Islamic approach
Year:2011 | Volume:8 | Issue:15|Papers Count:8

Debt markets, as an important part of the financial system, play an effective role in providing funds. Islamic law (Shari' ah) prohibits the charging and payment of fixed interest. Therefore, in Islamic law system, traditional debt markets can not be used. We need some appropriate alternative tools for traditional debt securities that are compatible to the Islamic law.This article offers a conceptual model - based on marketing and technical approaches - that discusses the implementation and religious aspects of Ijara Sukuk. The authors of the present paper finally conclude that Sukuk securities are suitable and useful alternative for conventional bonds and participation bonds. Therefore, it is necessary for the government to define and support this new financial tools and also develop a secondary market in Iranian economy which individual investors need.

Bank's resources are allocated according to different Islamic agreements in free of interest banking system. Estimating of the efficiency of this Islamic agreements in free of interest banking system can be used in policy making for banking sector. Therefore study of different Islamic agreements efficiency in free of interest banking system through modern scientific approaches is of outmost importance. Then in the pesent study the efficiency of transactional agreements and cooperative agreements are compared utilizing the DEA approach. In this direction, by using DEAP 2 software and processed data related to five variables as input and three variables as output, the level of efficiency in transactional agreements and cooperative agreements has been estimated. The data related to 52 branches of Mellat bank in Kermanshah province as case study were used for estimation. The finding of this research states that in the case of estimating of transactional facilities efficiency, 40 percent of branches stay on the efficiency border and in the case of estimation of cooperative facilities efficiency, 35 percent of branches stay on the efficiency border so they are efficient. Moreover, estimated model shows that under the condition of variable return to scale, the average technical efficiency for transactional facilities in branches is equal to 0.85, and for cooperative facilities in branches is equal to 0.74. So, the efficiency of transactional facilities is more than the efficiency of cooperative facilities. Also the results indicate economies of scale because most of the branches own increasing return to scale for both transactional facilities and cooperative facilities.

Welfare and happiness has been looked upon for ages as the major desires of human beings and societies in such a way that positions, policies, and economic institutions are evaluated in the light of their effects on individuals' welfare. However, there has been much disputation about its quiddity and its essence. From the western perspective, welfare basically addresses, the material part of human life and sees all the values in enjoyments and luxurious life. Following this perspective, mainstream economists, in order to escape the philosophical discussions and probably providing objective criteria, have consigned it to the individuals' preferences. From the Islamic perspective, on the other hand, it has been seen as happiness. In this article, firstly the current theories of welfare and happiness in western point of view are described and evaluated, and, finally, the Islamic perspective is presented. What the present article mainly focuses on, following a philosophical approach along with analytic descriptive method, is the meaning and essence of welfare, and little attention, if at all any, has been given to the policies of welfare. Regarding to the innate difference between human and human values in western and Islamic standpoint, the article claims that Islamic view of welfare is perfectionist one and welfare and happiness of human being is pledged in perfection of both the physical and spiritual aspects of them. The author of the present paper argues that in western views recognition of mankind's good firstly was setup to instincts while reason played an instrumental role and due to failures of these views in some recent theories reason has been given the basic role that is the recognition of human's good and bad.

Health is being addressed as a right in the constitution of Iran. Moreover it is a tool, in the form of investment, to preserve the ability and efficiency of labor. It causes an increase in the health stock of the society directly and increases the motivation among the youth to continue their education and gain more skills indirectly. These direct and indirect effects will result in higher economic growth and efficiency. Therefore it is supposed that growth in the health sector of our country increases the economic growth. This study has tested the impact of health sector on economic growth using a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), based on time series information between 1358 till 1385. Our findings through regressions show that the development of hygienic services indexing by Hospital beds per capita and per capita physician had positive effect on life expectancy. Estimating the model by life expectancy variable, elasticity of domestic production, excluding oil revenue, was 0.09 and by the under-5 mortality rate variable it was -0.13. These two indexes which show the development in health sector had positive effect on economic growth which proves the hypothesis.

One of the major concerns experienced by almost every country in the world is the rising trend of hidden and informal economic activities. Following the formation of modern economies, the presence of these informal activities has become a main feature of labor markets. A lack of available employment in the formal sector, plus the restrictions and complicated regulations which exist in this area, has forced individuals to enter the informal labor market instead. Considering the significance and the role that the labor market plays in providing economic equilibrium, understanding this market and its natures and structures is becoming more and more essential. By using Multiple Indicators, Multiple Causes (MIMIC) Model and applying the Partial Least Squares approach, this study tries to estimate the share informal workers have in Iran's labor market. Results indicate that during the 35-year period under consideration (1972-2006) this share has witnessed a number of ups and downs, but the overall trend seems to be in the increasing mode. The biggest share is that of the (1990-2006) period, averaging around 21 percent. Total estimated results indicate that, tax burden, inflation, and minimum wages are the most important determinants of the aforementioned trend, with income distribution and energy consumption being highly affected by this variable.

In this research, it was aimed to investigate and analyze the effect of replacement of value added tax (VAT) with income tax as to product companies in Golestan province.To do so, the data of the absolute income tax of some 67 companies were gathered from their tax records. Then the value added tax of each company was estimated, applying the additive method and using the rates of four scenarios; 1.5, 3, 7 and 10 percents.The analysis of the data indicates that the research data wasn't normal, therefore Wilcoxon's nonparametric tests and Friedman's tests were used to examine the research assumptions.The research results show that the replacement of value added tax at lower rates of 1.5 and 3 percents with income tax as to the product companies will cause a reduction in tax revenues of the province.While the replacement of the value added tax at rates of 7 and 10 percents for the income tax in the companies will lead to an increase in tax revenues of the province.

The authors of the present paper try to study the affecting roots and factors on inflation, using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model, Granger-Wald Causality Tests, Impulse Response Function (IRF), and Variance Decomposition. The affecting variables dealt with in this paper are as follows: liquidity growth rate, imported inflation, labor productivity, wage rate, exchange rate in informal market in comparison with formal market, the production gap, budget deficit, bottlenecks in agriculture sector during 1959-2007. The results of this study show that the above-mentioned variables have a significant effect on inflation while the expected inflation rate and structural limitations are regarded as the paramount factor. The authors finally conclude that the current theories have support from some part of the findings, but none by itself can explain the inflation in Iran's economy.