Journal of Economic Studies and Policies
Year:2012 | Volume:8 (18) | Issue:1 (90)|Papers Count:8

In this paper we have used Sen Welfare function along with Generalized Sen Welfare Function for evaluating the welfare change in Iran. We have also used the substitution rate between efficiency and inequality, marginal substitution rate between social welfare and income, and elasticity of welfare with respect to inequality for the evaluation. Results of the finding show that social welfare has increased in 2002-2007, 1997-2001, and 1992-1996 periods compared to 1971-1976 period by the rates of 4.9, 3.1, and 2.7 percent respectively. This shows that the public policy decisions taken by the government during the 1997-2007 periods had an effective role in increasing the per capita income and also in reducing the income inequality. Results of the study also showed that the welfare change due to per capita income is greater than welfare change due to income inequality reduction in the period 1971-2007 (except for 1977-1986). The important finding of this study was that increase in per capita income did not result in increase in income inequality. Therefore it seems that there was not a tradeoff between equity and efficiency in that period in Iranian economy. So, pursuing the policies for increasing the efficiency in economy is a proper policy for increasing the social welfare in Iran.

Economics, like other human sciences, involves with uncertainty in the estimates. It might be due to the unconsidered variables. Meanwhile, a revisionary survey with regards to the specificity of charity for other aspects of human economic behavior may increase the precision of such science. In addition, previous studies have shown, altruistic behavior improves productivity, employment, education, environment, and so forth. This study is an attempt to verify the altruistic behavior. Thus, with the separation of selfish behavior, altruistic behavior within the household, and the altruistic behavior outside the household the present study would introduce quantitative indicators with the aim of calculating the effect of different variables on the index. Data from the household budget has been prepared from 2004 to 2008. The panel data was applied and the results confirmed the hypotheses.

This paper examines the asymmetric effect of inflation on the economic growth in Iran during the period 1990:2–2008:2. To that end, we use a smooth transition regression model which allows having a regime change in the relationship between the variables.We found evidence of threshold behavior in the relationship between the inflation rate and the economic growth in Iran; such that, there is a threshold level of inflation which beyond that the relationship between these variables changes. This estimated threshold for the quarterly inflation rate is 4.56. The results also show that there is a positive contemporaneous relationship between the inflation rate and the economic growth in the first regime, where the inflation rate is below 4.56; however, for the periods with an inflation rate higher than 4.56 there is not any significant relationship between the inflation rate and the economic growth. In addition, the effects of the government expenditures and investment are regime-dependent and change over the time.

Growth and development of industries have a dominant and significant share in achieving continuous, stable and rapid economic growth and economic development. In view of types of industrial production and their export, and regarding the level of technology, industries can be divided into four categories: resource base tech, low tech, medium tech and high tech. So, recognition of resources’ growth of different groups of industries might have a considerable role in gaining growth of that group. This research, using panel data methodology and by combining Iranian industries data of four-digit ISIC codes covering the period of 2000-2007 and by employing GLS method, studies the sources of growth of these groups of industries. Results indicate that demands for factors of production of the four surveyed groups are different. So, production growth of each group requires different policies. Total factor productivity of Iran’s industries growth is more effective than other variables. Export has a positive impact on different groups, but import has a negative impact on resource base and medium tech industries and has a positive impact on high and low tech industries.

Efficiency measurement is one of the most important methods for evaluation of organization performance. Data envelopment analysis (DEA), as a nonparametric method, that measures the relative efficiency of decision making units (DMUs) with multiple performance factors which are grouped into outputs and inputs, is one of the important methods that are highly used in this field. However, both desirable (good) and undesirable (bad) factors may be present and we must consider both of them. For example, if inefficiency exists in production processes where final products are manufactured with a production of wastes and pollutants, the outputs of wastes and pollutants are undesirable and should be reduced to improve the performance.This paper uses industry-level dataset of IRAN manufacturing industries during the period 2000-2006 to measure the efficiency of industrial sectors. The inputs are labor force, energy and raw material, and value added is desirable output (good) and pollutant emission for three atmospheric pollutants (CO2, SO2 and SPM) are undesirable output (bad) .The results show that during this period only industry with code of 32 (Radio and Television) were efficient and also during this period from 21 industries more than 17 of them were inefficient. In fact, during this period, only 20% of manufacturing industries were efficient.

In Iran’s economy, a high volume of energy subsidies along with the other price distortions has caused inefficiencies in the resource allocation, through distortions in the relative prices of inputs and commodities. This study aims at the examination and estimation of cost burdens incurred which stems from the allocative inefficiency of price distortion in energy carriers pricing in Iran’s industry sector. We estimated allocative inefficiency using a shadow cost function model based on a system of nonlinear equations which includes a price distortion equation. The cost model is estimated by the econometric method of Iterated Seemingly Unrelated Regression Equations (ISURE) and ‍Cross Section data-set of Iran’s industries. Our results show that, at the whole industry level, the costs of allocative inefficiency caused by all inputs’ price distortions are amounted to 45% of production costs of the firms in the industry sector. The extents of allocative inefficiency which are caused solely by distortions in the energy prices are equal to 34% of the production costs. Nonetheless, energy share of production costs increases to 10% from 5.7% actual level considering substitutionary and complementary relations among inputs after removal of the whole price distortion of energy input.

The aim of this paper is to study the role of the factors affecting on youth labor supply during the period of 1961-2006 in Iran. The main question is to identify that whether the variables such as wages, income per capita, education, being married or single have different effects on various age groups of men and women or not? The findings show that the per capita GDP is the most important factor affecting to all age groups of youth labor supply. In the age group of 15-19, the wage has the least effect while it is relatively observed that men are more sensitive to wage changes than women, the effect of income per capita for women of this group is negative. This implies that increase in income per capita by improving in household income level causing the women to decrease their work participation rate. Also, the findings indicate that the coefficient of education among the women is greater than men and thus women are more interested in education. In the age group 20-24, the coefficient of the “Ratio of University Graduates” for both women and men are positive and the coefficient on income per capita, for women is lower than men. With increasing the age group (moving from 20-24 to 25-29) the effect of income per capita for women is rising. In the age group of 25-29, the coefficient of the “Ratio of University Graduates” for men is greater than women and the coefficient of marriage for women is negative. This indicates that women in this age group prefer the leisure to work and after getting married, and lower their participation rate in labor force.

In recent years, and especially in the 1990s, a phenomenon broadly referred to as corruption has attracted a great deal of attention Corruption can be defined as misusing public office for private gain. It is a multi-dimensional phenomenon caused by economic as well as cultural, political and legal factors. The purpose of the present paper is to determine the impact of corruption on government tax revenues in developing countries. To do so, the paper concentrated on a sample of 27 developing countries for which the necessary data were available during 2002-2006. We have employed a composite index of corruption called Corruption Perception Index (CPI). CPI varies from zero (highest level) and 10 (lowest level). Our findings based on panel data regression models support a positive and significant relationship between CPI and tax revenues. In other words, the higher is the corruption the lower will be the tax ratios. Therefore, developing countries should use policies to alleviate corruption in order to raise more government tax revenue.