NAMEH-YE-MOFID
Year:2003 | Volume:9 | Issue:1 (35 ECONOMICS)|Papers Count:8

The application of mathematics in economics is much more obvious than any other fields of social science. Though the mathematical instrument can be of a great help in understanding economics in a much easier way, being indifferent towards the position of this instrument in economics and going to extremes may reduce it's reliability. The paper tries to examine these considerations. First, it outlines the case in brief. The second part deals with the evolution of the subject and the third part deals with the problems and the complexities in this area. The final part focuses on some important conclusions.  

The paper reviews the concept of hoarding from economists and Islamic exegetists and thinkers' point of view. Examining the verses and traditions on the subject the author argues that what has been prohibited in Islam as hoarding does not apply to the accumulation of wealth surplus to requirements and the weath without any involvement in a prohibited circulation. He concludes that holding money for an speculative incentive (suppose that speculation is permitted according to shariah laws) is not unlawful. He points out that despite the prohibition of interest in Islamic economics one can conceive a condition under which the speculative demand is realized.

In a condition where two parties establish an economic relation, information always plays an important role. Any subtle behaviour may cause either party to react in away that is not in the interest of the other. In sach a case moral hazard occurs which leads to market failure. Insurance companies that can't observe the supervisory behaviour of the insured people face such a problem, Thus there is a need for designing contracts which involve the insureds and motivate them to increase their supervision. Franchise contracts are considered to be the optimal ones. The market failure can be prevented or the cast can be reduced by franchinsing and the deductible coverage or by government's stimulative intervention through tax and subsidies. Investigations indicate that some tariffs levied by the "Insurance High Council" and also the contract documents lack the due efficiency. It's necessary to reform the contracts and the tariffs using the results drawn from this and other researches.  

The importance of state tax in financing government expenses and the role of it's financial policy instrument in modern economics and the inadequacy of khoms and Zakat due to exclusion of some items of zakat and the expansion of government functions has led Islamic economics to face the question of legitimacy of state tax. Investigating the functions of government in early ages of Islam and comparing it with the functions of modern governments shows a major growth in the functions of contemporary governments based on the notion of welfare state. Calculating Islamic state's financial resources suggests a big deficit in resources or the problems resulting from this deficit. The paper examines and proves the likely ten different jurisprudentially legitimate solutions for levying state tax.

The existence of abnormal phenomena such as unemployment, Unstable prices, currency depreciation etc are considered to be the symbols of economic injustice in the economic relations, Therefore, economic justice has always been and continues to remain as a deep concern for economists. The paper attempts to assess the nature of economic justice from Von Hayek's, Viewpoint, a contemporary economist, and from an Islamic Perspective.

The monetary overshooting of exchange rate is an abnormal behavior of exchange rate .This phenomenon occurs when the exchange rate overshoots to a level higher than its long run level, due to an unexpected monetary expansion and the slowness of adjustment of goods market compared to the asset market. In view of the importance and multiplicity of implementation of monetary policies in any country and Iran in particular, this phenomenon may be of a crucial significance. The results drawn from this research suggests that the overshooting happens only in the short run (i.e. monthly) models. No more this will happen if we apply the seasonal data in the model. This shows that price adjustment is too fast which leads to adjustment of goods market immediately after the adjustment of asset market, in the wake of a monetary expansion. This may result from factors such as .high inflationary expectations of economic factors, the uncertainty prevailing on the exchange rate market, government intervention, and etc.

The Main theme of this paper is to review the different principles of neoclassical economics and discuss an alternative methodology for Islamic economics. On the one hand this paper assesses some criticism raised by Islamic economists about the prevailing methodology of conventional (Western) economics, on the other hand it tries to answer the questions raised by critics of Islamic economics, The conclusim drawn from the paper suggests that the proponents of Islamic political economy face a difficult task to reorganize the accepted economic system in their own countries. A major task for researchers of Islamic Political Economy is to design a mechanism for production of goods, a mechanism that not only solves the unemployment and inflation problems but also deals with the distribution of income endogenously.