KNOWLEDGE AND DEVELOPMENT
Year:2005 | Volume:- | Issue:17|Papers Count:9

The association between trade liberalization and economic growth has been central in recent economic research, especially for developing countries. Recent developments in the trade policy literature focus on the potential dynamic effects of trade liberalization in reducing rent seeking behavior and in accelerating the flow of technical knowledge from the world market. The benefits are derived from the greater access to new capital and intermediate goods, and also due to greater knowledge leading to faster imitation of advanced techniques. The purpose of this paper is to examine this issue in a systematic way taking selected developing countries (including IRAN)in the period 1971- 2002. The results show that trade liberalization leads to a faster growth of imports than exports, so the balance of trade and the balance of payments has been worsened.      

The necessity and importance of having regional views and analysis in planning and development studies arises, on the one hand, from the need for regional equilibrium in developmental planning and the role they play in the identification of inequalities; and on the other hand, the presentation of mechanisms for reaching equilibrium and decentralization in decision makings. A considerable part of the success of such investigations relate to the methods, employed. Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) and some other statistical multivariate techniques are appreciate traditional approaches; however, the inflexibility of quantitative methods and usually uncontrollable prerequisites of statistical techniques have made the search for more and new compatible useful approaches an undeniable necessity for the researchers and investigations in this area. Fuzzy logic or approximate reasoning works well in planning & development studies due to its ability for mathematical interpretation of imprecise and ill-defined concepts and vagueness of cognitive processes of human reasoning and decision making. In this study, the developmental situations of the towns of Bushehr province have been assessed by using Fuzzy logic inference system; based on more than 150 different variables about social, cultural, economic, and physical dimensions and components of development. Data were collected from several sources and were analyzed by the Fuzzy logic toolbox of the MATLAB software. Finally the results were explained and additional and complementary stages and studies were suggested for further investigation.      

The objective of this paper is to explain the achievements of the technical and vocational institutes regarding human capital formation and training, and encouraging entrepreneurship capability. In order to do this, field study was carried out using a questionnaire and interview. The statistical population from which the sample was drawn was 13458 trainees of the thirteen Khorasan's institutes during the period of 1378-80. Using stratified random sampling, 1432 trainees were selected. The content validity of the questionnaire was logically confirmed, and for estimating the reliability, Cronbach's coefficient was employed. The obtained results indicate that these institutes have gained remarkable achievements on the grounds of training skilled labour force and entrepreneurs. They were capable to act as a short cut in the development of human capital in the country. However; more achievements require paying serious attention from stimulating, logistical, educational, and structural point of view.      

Since Iran has a high share of agricultural products in non-oil export, and a small share of international trade, and depends much on oil-incomes; in case our country faces unexpected and transient instability, this leads to a decline in its competitive power in export. On this basis, in this article, the impact of instability in export earnings on the industry and mining sector is analyzed during the period of 1971-2003 using Feder model (1982). This study is different from others for three reasons. First, in most studies this relationship is dealt with on aggregate model, so the correct relations are not identified. Second, almost in all previous studies, cross-sectional data are analyzed. Third, to avoid spurious regression, time-series econometrics approach, Johansen co-integration system (1988), is used. Results show that instability in export earnings has not affected the value added of the industry and mining sector since, in the long run, the production growth is related to factors such as population and technological improvement which are assumed to be exogenous. Only, in the short run it has affected the value added of industry and mining sector, but its effect is negative.      

The two main reasoning methods i.e. inductive and deductive and their rational and empirical basis are the infrastructures for the human knowledge and research methodology. Unsuitable use of these methods has greatly damaged the human life in the past. This damage will continue in the future under the same conditions. Many experts believe that extravagant use of rational methods caused decadence of science and man's material life at times in the past. On the other side, incorrect utilization of empirical methods has caused moral decadence in the few last centuries. It is very difficult to select a suitable methodology in humanities due to human's variable behavior and generalizibility of results. Therefore, a wrong method selection will lead to erroneous results. Besides, economics is different from other fields of humanities with respect to the nature and variety of subjects and its complex characteristics. It deals on the one hand with issues like production, cost and money circulation which are physical matters without any relation with human mentality; and on the other hand with matters like supply and demand which have a strong relation with mentalities, each having its own particular methodological characteristics. According to a classification, we can classify economic matters into two main groups i.e. normative and positive matters. The appropriate methodology for these two groups is discussed in this article.      

Using Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach, money demand modal in Iran is estimated both by annual (1338-1381) and quarterly (1367.1-1381.4) data. The results indicate a positive income elasticity of Money demand. In Addition, inverse and meaningful relationship between money demand and exchange rate approves the substitution effect. Likewise negative impact of inflation and its substitutes such as, price index of housing on money demand shows that inflation rate can be considered as a right variable for the cost of capital gain in Iran. Long-run elasticities are higher than short-run ones, which can be due to the existence of more time for adjustment in the long-run.      

Steel industry is on of the most important industrial sectors not only in Iran but also in many other countries. This research analyzes the degree of Protection for products of one of our country's major steel companies namely, Khuzestan Steel Company prior to Iran's joining WTO. The model used is The Tolal Net Nominal Rate of Protection (NNRPT) which is suggested for countries having multiple foreign exchange rate system. The findings show that direct protection rate for the products of this company has always been positive. On the other hand, the indirect rate of protection before turning to single foreign exchange rate policy has always been negative turning the positive effects of direct protection to negative tolal protection rate for the products of this company. The results also indicate that since Iran followed single foreign exchange rate system, indirect protection rate was reduced to zero causing total protection rate to be a positive and large figure.