Journal of Quantitative Economics
Year:2015 | Volume:12 | Issue:1 (44)|Papers Count:7

Fractal analyzing of continuous processes have recently emerged in literatures in various domains. Existence of long memory in many processes including financial time series has been evidenced via different methodologies in many literatures in the past decade. This has inspired many recent literatures on quantifying the fractional Brownian motion (fBm) characteristics of financial time series. This paper questions the accuracy of commonly applied fractal analyzing methods on explaining persistent or antipersistent behavior of time series understudy. Rescaled range (R/S) and power spectrum techniques produce fractal dimensions for daily returns of twelve Malaysian stocks from the most well performed firms in Kuala Lumpur stock exchange. Zipf’s law generates linear and logarithmic power law distribution plots to evaluate the validity of estimated fractal dimensions on prescribing persistent and anti-persistent characteristics with less ambiguity. Findings of this study recommend a more thoughtful approach on classifying persistent and anti-persistent behaviors of financial time series by utilizing existing fractal analyzing methods.

One of the planners and policy-makers’ aims on the one hand is optimum allocation and distribution of credits and facilities among regions and on the other hand is to provide and compile a suitable model aiming at achieving economic and social equity as well as creating reasonable and real economic growth. Paying attention to the balanced regional development, decreasing regional and district duality and inequities, regional policy-making and planning for achieving objectives, which change according to structural characteristics, facilities and limitations of each region require studying and recognition of each region based on its position in the whole province. In this study, economic and social duality means differences among provinces of Iran that are determined with four indices of income per capita, export’s relation to production, unemployment rate and Gini coefficient. Fuzzy method for the year 2013 has been used owing to the existing complexities in the development indices. The results show that the provinces are socially and economically different and these differences will be intensified and greater costs and time would be needed for reducing them. Moreover, a comprehensive plan won’t work for these provinces with significantly different deviation coefficients and the decision-makers are advised to make a regional policy for each province.

Today, given the atmosphere of Iran & world's capital markets, analyzing behavioral factors that influence decisions of investors, is very important. This applied study is to evaluate the effect of behavioral factors (biorhythm mode, self-esteem, prestige & rational behavior) and so the kind of information (public & financial) and transparency of information on the investors' behavior, on a random sample of 292 shareholders & investors in Ahvaz stock exchange. Collecting data is through questionnaires and data analysis, with modeling structural equation using SPSS & SMART PLS software. The results show that the kind of information and behavioral factors influence the behavior of individuals who invest in the stock market significantly. But, significant relation between transparency of information and investor's behavior was not confirmed.

Shadegan Wetland is located in the southwest of Iran. It is one of the wetlands internationally recognized in the Ramsar Convention. Thanks to its variety of functionalities, this wetland has provided the local people with lots of job opportunities. As a result of being located on the oilfields, this wetland has nowadays been threatened by many projects which are being run in its vicinity, namely oil exploration projects and so forth which are running economic-environmental valuations. Lack of data about the economic value of the wetland has prevented such valuations. The objective of this study is to estimate the total economic value of Shadegan Wetland taking into account its use and non-use values. To achieve this goal, direct use value was first calculated using the market-based method. Subsequently, indirect use value, option value, and non-use value (existence value) were estimated using the method of choice experiment. Based on the results of this study, annual direct use, indirect use, option, and non-use values of this wetland were estimated to be $187104167494, $58568264206752217 and $387974436448, respectively. Also, based on the calculations performed, it was found that over 50,000 jobs have been created by Shadegan Wetland such that its total value accounts for 7.1 percent of Khuzestan province’s GDP. The time period of this study was the year 2014.

The present paper examines the mitigating effect of monetary and fiscal policies on the “Growth Laffer curve” (GLC) using a panel data of 38 high income countries over the period 2003-2012. Adopting generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators, the paper finds evidence substantiating the presence of an inverted-U GLC. Moreover, the evidence suggests that the GLC shifts downward by employing expansionary monetary and fiscal policies and that the tax rate turning point beyond which economic growth decline is higher in countries with higher level of debt-to-GDP ratio and money supply. These results are robust to addition of alternative controlled variables in the GLC specification. Our results strengthen the case for heterogeneous GLC across countries. As an implication, a government may enhance the efficiency within the “fiscal space” by either raising the productivity of public spending or cutting fiscal debt. Moreover, using money as a financing instrument should be carefully supervised due to its impact in generating large inflation rates and distorting capital accumulation and economic growth.

An economic system is comprised of different primary flows that can be captured in macroeconomic models with complex network relations. Theoretically and empirically in this system, weak substitution or complementarity of environmental materials, like energy and other production factors such as capital, is undeniable. This is an effective critique on neoclassical economics. In this paper, we view economy as a complex thermodynamic system in order to calculate entropy generation, specifically the trend of entropy production in Iran over time. Entropy can be measured as the amount of waste and pollution produced by a system based on Georgescu-Rogen’s view. Using a conceptual model, we show the basic flows in a macroeconomic network (government, households, firms and financial sector), by focusing on the amount of waste and other entropy generators and show how to calculate the overall entropy for an economic system. Furthermore, we demonstrate this approach using a mathematical model and literature from ecology and macroeconomics of Iran economy as a case study. Finally, by using statistical data from the World Bank, we show the three important indices of a system- growth, development and entropy values that increased in Iran during 1970-2014. As it is shown in results, the economic entropy of Iran is increasing.