Journal of Economic Research
Year:2001 | Volume:- | Issue:57|Papers Count:8

A housing supply function for private sector has been estimated for the period of 1985-1999. The model was ,specified, using Lucas supply theory and by including internal adjustment costs in producer"s decision for production or investment. The distinctive feature of this model is the utilization of investment role in housing sector similar to other factors in production function. The results indicate that the supply of that period was more subject to two main factors,i.e. housing prices and opportunity costs. The price elasticity of housing supply and the elasticity of housing supply with respect to opportunity cost have been calculated as 3.96 and - 3.5 respectively. The low sensitivity of supply with respect to other factors such as wages, may be explained as due to relatively low growth of wages compared to the growth of general price level and housing prices and high supply of unskilled workers. The low elasticity of housing supply with respect to financial credit is due to insufficient ceiling of financial credit compared to the cost of purchasing and production of housing.

Using the Optimum control procedure, the present paper is concerned with the effects of trade liberalization on both government and private expenditures in Iran. An appropriate analytical consisting of ten equations is specified through which significant estimation results are obtained, using econometric method over the 1959-86 period. The model is utilized to explore how any change in control variables such as the overage rate of tariffs,government revenues and money supply can affect the optimally controled path of state variables like private expenditures, government budget, and GDP. The results obtained, on the one hand, reveal the fact that the policy of trade liberalization (such as a reduction in tariffs) reduces government spendings (or reduces government budget deficit), but it is not likely to lead to a possible budget balance. This is because liberalization generally lowers government revenues as well. On the other hand, although a reduction in tariffs may result in a gap between real and expected valuse of private expenditures in the short-run, this gap is likely to disappear in the long-run

Proposing a model to explain the concurrent decision making process in the labor and commodities markets in Iranian urban households is the main objective of the present paper. The paper starts with introduction of the concepts of modern theories of family economics, with the view of expanding the scope of economics well into the households and it comes to conclusion with specification and fitting of behavioral models simultaneously estimated for labor supply and commodities demand in Iranian urban communities. Iran Statistical Centre data for socio - economic characteristics of the urban households for 1992-95 period is used to compose and analyse the panel data for the proposed econometric modelling. Findings of the paper are significant in specification and selection of a model with stochastic effect of the second type, where the sample estimation results can he generalized to represent the behavior of the society at large, and are capable of indicating longer term coverage in time for findings of a partial study.

The paper intends to briefly present a perspective of the significance and substance of the economic justice. It then reviews the teachings of Islamic sharia, and various opinious presented on the subject, and concludes four specific rules and criterias for determination and" assessment of the existence of justice in economics, as follows: 1 - Product sharing on the basis of participation in production. 2- Right of Equal entitlement. 3- Relative proportionality in wealth and income. 4- Allocation of public resources and assets in an appropriate manner leading to a sustainable Economy. The paper then presents a comparative study in suhjective rules of distribution under Islamic Economic System, and indicates the compatibility of Islamic rules with those of general economic justice, and comes to conclusion with the hypothesis of consistancy for Islamic System in every criterion.

The issue of this paper is the relationships between inflation rete, unemployment rate and production, one of the main discussions in macroeconomic models. This paper is an effort to determine the relationship between the above- mentioned phenomenon in the short and in the long run as well as to calculate the natural rate of unemployment in Iran. For this purpose, the theoretical models were tested using the time series analysis as well as other econometric methods. The series were tested as to their stationary and nonstationary nature. The results are as follows: The existence of a significant relationship between inflation rate and unemployment rate in Iran was verified. We realized that there is a negative relationship between the rate of inflation and that of unemployment in Iran. As for the rational expectation theory, a non-rational expectation model explained the expected inflation better than weighted or adaptive expectations models. The hypothesis of the natural rate of unemployment was tested using co - integration methods and it was also verified. Given long run growth of productivity (1.7 percent), the natural rate of unemployment in Iran would be 7.6 percent

This paper investigates the socio-economic conditions of urban households in Mazandaran. It studies the major socio - economic variables, like population, income levels and distribution patterns, composition of consumption basket, household access to welfare amenities, etc., and gives analytical explanation on the nature of changes in these major variables. The article then produces an estimation of the subjective powerty line from a behavioral point of view. The linear expenditure system based on Stone - Grey utility function is employed, and using household budjet data for 1990-1996 period in urban regions of Mazandaran, as well as the data for nation"s average household expenditure. An estimation is calculated using stone iterative method. Estimated figures indicate the.minimum subsistance monthly income at about (Rials 526000.) for urban households of Mazandaran, as compared to monthly in-come of (Rials 857200.) for national average household. The household size in Mazandaran is reported at 4.8, as compared to 4.9 for the national average. Within the consumer"s basket of goods and services, food items with 37. percent of total expenditure constitutes the highest share for Mazandaran, where as in the national figures the housing expenditure has the highest share with 38. percent of total household expenditure.

The Role of taxes in reduction of economic inequalities, has been a controversial subject in recent decades. Destructive effects of progressive taxes on efficiency and problems of tax compliance, have been considered in tax reform programs worldwide. Introduction of an Islamic income tax system, with all its progressive features, and its popularity seems to be effective in correcting the distributive outcomes of existing income tax system, We have compared the distributive effects of two systems, in this article, and appraised the Khoms, as a major income tax in Isalm, to replace the corresponding income taxes, Distributive effects of two systems, were estimated by current tax incidence approach under four tax shifting assumptions, Suits index of progressivity, indicates that the proposed replacement in general, improves income distribution. Our estimations indicate that tax burden of Khoms is lower than that of similar taxes. In sum, the Khoms system, improves the index of vertical equity, leading to a lesser degree of distortion in economic efficiency.