Journal of Iran's Economic Essays; an Islamic approach
Year:2012 | Volume:9 | Issue:17|Papers Count:7

Monetary policy is one of the most important instruments for controlling the demand side of economy and so it is necessary to investigate the impacts of it on the key economic variables. There is an agreement between economists about monetary policy real effects in the short run, but they believe that it is neutral in the long run. According to the monetary transmission channels and the differences between economic sectors, it is expected that economic sectors show unequal responses to a monetary policy shock.In the most of theoretical and empirical researches, impacts of monetary policy on macro variables such as GDP and CPI are discussed and other aspects of this policy are ignored. Since usury is forbidden and the law of non-usury banking operation is exercised in Islamic Republic of Iran, we use monetary base as a monetary policy variable instead of interest rate which is used in the studies on this field. In this research, the sectoral impacts of an expansionary monetary policy shock are studied by the use of SVAR model and according to the quarterly data in period 1990-2008. Conclusions of this research show that responses of economic sectors to a monetary policy shock are different and industry sector has the largest and fast response. The share of monetary policy shock in variation of industry sector’s value added is more than the share of this shock in variation of two other sectors’ value added, too. So the sensitivity of industry sector with respect to the monetary policy is more than the agriculture sector and service sector in Iran economy.

Economists have proposed numerous methods and criteria to quantify poverty and inequality, but none of them can be described as consistent with the Islamic notion of justice. Based on an acceptable standards and criteria for evaluating the economic justice, we will be able to attain a more realistic picture of where we stand in relation to the just situation. This would help us to have a correct judgment about the effect of the policies on the social justice.There are two prerequisites to attain such a reasonable criterion; first would be a theoretical foundation which provides us with a clear and thorough definition on the concept of economic justice, the second would be a direct and simple methodology to quantify the concept.The current paper strived to build a theoretical foundation for the quantification of justice. Having in mind various definitions proposed by researchers about justice, the most comprehensive definition consistent with the Islamic teachings was selected for the paper. The innovative approach used by the author was to analyze the concept under four subdivisions to attain a thorough picture of the Islamic methodology in quantification of justice. These include transaction laws, redistribution laws, production laws and laws on consumption. Ample evidences from the Holy Quran are further provided in the paper in order to verify the adequacy of the proposed divisions to meet the objectives of the study.

Although it has passed about three decades from the theoretical and executive scheme of interest-free banking in Iran, but still has not been seen any desire from banking system to implement real Musharakah contract. Studies have shown that one of the main reasons of this attitude is moral hazard. On the other hand, the financial institutions, which perform Musharakah contract, have some problems in appropriate implementation of this contract because of high supervision cost and the fact that they do not believe in the positive influence of supervision on declining banks debts in this kind of financing in one hand and they can not achieve their expected returns in the other hand. In the first section of this paper we attempted to elaborate literature of moral hazard which is related to principle-agent literature in agency theory. Then we have explored the situations which the moral hazard problem occurs in Musharakah contract between bank and firm via the presentation of a practical model. Finally, some strategies like using a supervision committee, continuous inspection, etc. are suggested for a bank to decrease probability of moral hazard. The goal of this paper was to smooth situations for using more and more Musharakah contracts in money and financial markets by creating new approach to Musharakah-based contracts in monetary and financial researches.

The revolution in knowledge and the key role of knowledge in production has significantly changed the present economy so that production amount is no longer an appropriate index to estimate the economic potential of a country. Therefore, the new index of national economy in the post-industrial era has been the rate of knowledge and knowledge-based production as well as high-tech exports. A basic requirement to convert into a knowledge-based economy is the establishments of efficient intellectual property rights that can help produce new knowledge through motivating inventors and increase foreign investment. Such institution can increase efficiency in economic sectors and reduce transaction costs. Despite the necessity for an efficient intellectual property rights, the establishment of this institution has faced challenges in Iran due to the ambiguity of the scope of intellectual property rights and optimal support needed to provide for these rights. The present study investigated Iran’s potential to become the first economy in southwest Asia consistent with Iran’s 20-Year Outlook Document. This was studied with regard to knowledge-based economy and intellectual property rights. A comparison between Iran and other competing regional countries showed that Turkey has a better status in terms of most of the indices which, based on knowledge-based economy, poses a serious challenge to fulfill the 20-Year Outlook goals in Iran.

Studying the political economy of regional budgeting, the paper tried to examine the impact of economic and political variables on the consumption, investment, and total provincial budgets in Iran, quantitatively. Therefore, two sets of programmatic and tactical variables were investigated in three panel data models over the period of 2000-2007. The results showed that the provincial budgeting is efficiency-oriented and not equity-oriented in Iran. In addition, initial capital endowment and population density associated negatively with the per capita budgets. Regarding the tactical variables, the results evidenced that provincial budgets increased in the years presidential elections were held. Moreover, the budgets were streamed more to the provinces with less participation rates in the presidential elections and with more swing voters.

Participation securities have been issued by the state to provide and finance the national infra-structure projects from international markets in foreign currency and a given period. Due to the prohibition of usury (Riba) and the necessity for using financial instruments in accordance with Islamic principles, these securities has attempted to develop international financial markets and capital absorption.Due to international policies and the reluctance of foreign investors to have direct investment in the Iranian markets, identifying various aspects of the securities not only can absorb foreign exchange resources and preventing fluctuations in exchange markets but also can meet with foreign investors demand and interest for direct investment in Iran markets.With a descriptive method, this paper analyzed the risks of participation securities. Then using AHP method, we ranked the security risks with probability and effectiveness measures and then present solutions to decrease these risks. The results showed that systematic risks have owned the priority that requires special attention to economic structure.

The main purpose of this paper is to evaluate the modeling of the influential factors affecting the deviation and vulnerability of the implementation of general policies mentioned in Article 44 of the Constitution. For this purpose, analytic hierarchy process method was used. Evaluation period was from the notification of law until May 1389. Research data’s were gathered from related experts via questionnaire.Four criteria (indicators) were described along with the following eight sub-criteria in the field of deviation from and vulnerability of Article 44. Modeling results showed that the weakness of law enforcement (30.5), weakness of law (26.5), weakness of private sector (23.2) and the empowerment of quasi-governmental sector (19.7) were the most important factors affecting the deviation and vulnerability of law enforcement.