Journal of Economic Research
Year:2017 | Volume:52 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:13

Rent-seeking is an effort that is formed between a company and its employees to obtain more profit under their tendency to rent-seeking. In this paper, the interaction between a company and its employees is studied by an unlimited multi stage repeated games. According to the strategies of the company and its employees (payment and punishment types for rent-seeker employee) subgame perfect equilibrium (SPE) and their payoffs are obtained based on the history of game. Finally it will be shown that under what condition (the punishment and payment types), the employees do not choose the rent-seeking strategies and behave honestly.

Despite of lower costs of internal financing, the agency cost theory advises debt financing. The theory is premised on the idea that the interestsof the firm’s managers and its shareholders are not perfectly aligned. So, debt financing reduces misallocation of resources in nonprofitable investments and disciplines managerial behavior. So, this paper under the theory investigates impacts of debt financing on manufacturing firm's performance, using a panel of 141 Iranian manufacturing firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange in 20 industries, over the period 1379-1392. Our measures of firm performance are ROA, ROS and TFP (estimated with the Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) method).We examine the effect of debt financing on firm performance using Multi-Level (Mixed) Effects Model and considers industry-level effects and oil depended industries effects. We found that debt financing has positive and significant effect and internal financing has negative and significant effect on firms’ performance. This results prove our hypothesis. Our Findings also confirm that the effects of cutting subsidies and exchange rate fluctuation on firm’s productivity are negative and significant.

Given the importance of electrical energy as one of the main factors behind economic growth and development, numerous studies in different countries have been devoted to estimate and forecast electricity demand. In this paper, ARDL technique is used to estimate and forecast electricity demand in the industrial sector. The results indicate that the value added of the industrial sector has a significant positive impact on the demand for electricity in this sector. The income elasticity in industrial sector is found to be less than unity, which shows electricity to be a necessary commodity.The results indicate the existence of a long-term relationship between the variables in this industry. In this article, based on amendments to the law on subsidies, forecast of electricity demand was carried out until the end of the Fifth Development Plan; and the results point to an increase in power consumption in the industry. At the end, fundamental changes in the structure of industry to improve technology and equipment in various industries have been proposed. In this regard, government should develop standards for equipment efficiency and monitor its implementation carefully.

In this paper, we study the effects of demographic transition on government expenditure and Income distribution for Iran’s economy during 1969-2011 using threshold cointegration technique. The results, shows that the year 1986 is the break date of demographic transition. Therefore the whole period is divided into two regimes, 1969-1986 and 1987-2011. The main results of this paper is that, there is a threshold cointegration between demographic transition, government expenditure and income distribution. So, there is long-term equilibrium relationship between them. But, there isn’t any short-term relationship between them. Also, the results of the estimation of error correction model show that adjustment of short-term equilibrium to long-term equilibrium is faster in the second regime rather than the first one.

Over the recent past years the supply of educated labor has increased in the Iranian labor market. This change has led to over-education. The concepts of over-education refers to the individual possesses a level of education that is above the required level of education to perform a certain job. This study has dealt with the incidence of Over-education and its wage consequences in the labor market of Iran. The years of education needed for each job has been determined using two criteria, i.e., realized match and job analysis. Based on these two criteria, individuals have been classified in three groups including adequately educated, over-educated and under-educated. More years of schooling, less job experience, being male and employment in private sector lead to higher probability of being overeducated. The wage effect of the relationship between education and the individual’s job is studied using Duncan & Hoffman model. The findings of this model based on realized match criterion show that there is a direct and significant relationship between the years of education which is adequate for each job and monthly salary of the individuals. However, the return of years of over-education and under-education is insignificant.

One of the most important issues in financial economics is attention to risk and its relation to returns. One way to examine the relationship between risk and return is using the capital asset pricing model. In this regard this article examines this issue and with the adjustments in consumption-based Asset pricing models (CCAPM), has examined the relationship between return and risk in the Tehran Stock Exchange. These adjustments include changes in the classic utility function. By introducing new variables to utility function and following process optimization for consumer behavior and derivation the corresponding Euler equation, these models have been estimated using Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). In this regard, four models were evaluated and compared. The four models include basic CCAPM model, SCAPM, HCCAPM and pricing based on habit formation. The taste for saving parameter in the model SCCAPM means that it can be concluded preferences for savings is significant. The results indicate that consumer spending and its components have been successful in explaining stock returns in the period1367 to 1391. After estimation of the model parameters, the performance of the models have been compared using standard Hansen – Jonathan measure. The comparison of models suggests that the most efficient model is SCCAPM model in explaining stock returns.

Iran is a semi-industrialized developing country that has made increasing investment in ICT for the past decade. However, the country is lagging behind in many indices for the digital economy and the impacts of ICT investment are not clear. In this paper, we analyze the effect of ICT investment on production in Iran using a panel data of the 4-digit manufacturing industries for the period 2003-2013. In the estimation model, the effects of complementary factors such as education and skill level, as well as the absorption capacity are controlled for. In addition to the direct effect of ICT, we have also estimated the spillover effects within and between industries. The results indicate that ICT investment has contributed to the production growth and the effect has been increasing through time. Furthermore, increases in the labour skills, education levels, and R&D capital have increased the positive impact of ICT on production. The ICT investment in one industry has also had a spillover effect on within and between industries.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting on exchange market pressure in Iran's economy. For this purpose, we used Markov switching model with time varying transition probability. At first we estimated behavior of exchange rate using single variable markov swiching model with fixed transmission probability during the period of time 1984-2014 and then analyzed affecting factors on exchange market pressure within framework of possibility of changing transfers during time.Results shows that behavior of exchange rate within framework of two regimes of appreciation and depreciation of currency with high and low volatility can be assessed, and foreign exchange reserves of Central Bank, inflation rate and oil revenues are effective variables on exchange market pressure in Iran's economy. In this sense, changes of exchange reserves reduce the probability of staying in depreciation regime of national currency value and increase probability of transition from appreciation regime to depreciation regime. Increase in inflation increases the probability of staying in depreciation regime and transition from appreciation regime to depreciation regime. i.e with increasing of inflation, value of national currency is reduced and pressure added on exchange market. Also results shows that increasing of oil exports lead to increase Central Bank intervention in exchange market and and increase transition probability of appreciation regime and reduce the burden of exchange rate.

For investors and policymakers, it is essential to understand the dependencies between the stock market and the foreign exchange market. In this study Copula approach is applied to estimate correlation between the exchange rate, price jump, and the Tehran stock exchange price index (TEPIX) from 2006 to 2015. Moreover, nonparametric approach is used to calculate the mean, diffusion, and price jump of the TEPIX. The empirical results show that the mean of annual return, diffusion, and price jump of the TEPIX are 19 percent, 0.012, and 26, respectively. In addition, the results of Granger causality test show a unidirectional relationship between the exchange rate and TEPIX, running from the exchange rate to the TEPIX. According to Copula approach, the Correlation coefficient between the TEPIX and the exchange rate is equal to 0.85.

In this article, to determine the optimal size of the Isfahan city, we used model of Camagni, Capello and Caragliu that it is based on urban costs and benefits. In this model, population is the key factor that causes more benefits and costs and optimum population occurs where the marginal benefits and marginal costs meet each other. Among all urban costs, the urban household expenditures, air pollution, the waiting time in traffic, local taxes and housing rent are considered. Also among all urban benefits has drawn attention the productivity and production of city. The total cost function and benefit function were estimated in period 1361-1391 and finally by equalizing marginal cost and benefit, optimized city size of Isfahan was estimated to 537017 people. The present population of Isfahan is so far from the optimum size.