Iranian Journal of Trade Studies
Year:2008 | Volume:12 | Issue:47|Papers Count:16

This article points to the identification, an important stage in subsidy targeting. Identification of vulnerable groups or households is important from efficiency aspects of governmental provisions and transfer payments. We define targeting and clarify various procedures of targeting systems with emphasis on identification position in them. Then main methods of individual identification especially "means test" and "proxy means test" reviewed and we will declare some imperfections of these two methods. To get rid of the weaknesses, we will introduce Two-Stage Identification (TSI) Test with Endogenous Household Clustering (EHC) method and will try an experiment with Iranian raw household data in urban areas. The results of using TSI method show five different household groups with derivation of varied characteristics of household such as Head (Gender, Marriage, Employment), Members (Age Composition, Number of Employee, Size, Education), Home (Occupation, Number of Room, Width, Framework) and Expenditures (Total, Food and Durables). Also with this verification, policy makers acquire a rich database for employing one or various targeting systems.

In most trade agreements, member countries have to introduce some goods as sensitive goods which are not under general rule of agreement such as decrease or elimination of tariff and no tariff barriers. This paper introduces a proposed approach to determine sensitive goods of Iran in regional trade agreement according to Harmonized System (HS).

This study, conducted to analyze inflation in Iran's economy during 1950-2005, applies P-star model in its general form, considering both domestic and foreign price gaps in one model. For foreign price gap- calculated directly on the basis of "PPP theory" and the "real exchange rate equation"- all Iran's main trade partners - Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Japan, Turkey and France - are included in the sample. Finally the model was set up regarding the effect of exchange rate unification policy, conducted in 2002.The results showed that neither the "domestic price gap" nor the "foreign price gap" justifies inflation dynamics (deviation from its equilibrium level) in both the structural P-star model (model with dummy variable for exchange rate unification in 2002) and the base P-star model. So the model was set-up in GARCH (I, I) form and in this case, inflation dynamics could be justified up to 74 percent, meaning that inflation volatility is better justified by its previous trend.

Many economists believe that the main channel that inflation makes its harmful impacts on economy is the inflation uncertainty. This paper investigates the determinants of agricultural product prices emphasizing on the detection of possible impacts caused by inflation uncertainty with using time series data over 1972-2005 period. The empirical methodology employs the GARCH technique to model the uncertainty variable, as well as econometrics methods to investigate possible causal effects and relations among the involved variables.Results indicated that there have been long-run relationship and co-integration between involved variables and agricultural product prices. Furthermore, accompanied by other variables, the effects of inflation uncertainty as a new variable was significant.

This paper examines the relationship between current account and fiscal deficits, namely twin deficits hypothesis, in oil-exporting countries, applying a dynamic panel framework for the period 1975-2004. The twin deficit theory postulates that sustained fiscal deficits will result in current account deficits. The effects of real exchange rate, terms of trade, GDP and population growth rate in the relationship between the two deficits were considered. The results and stylized facts support the twin deficits hypothesis, implying that the oil exporting countries budget deficit have important effects on current account deficit. From the policy perspective, the statistical analysis suggests that managing budget deficit offers scope for improvement in the current account deficit. However, this finding does not support the policy of manipulating the intermediate variables such as real exchange rate to reduce the twin deficits to a sustainable level, unless these policies are accompanied with tight fiscal and monetary policies leading to less fiscal deficits.

Cost or profit based optimization with capacity restrictions is the most widely used method for supply network design. However, in supply chain strategic management, a more holistic approach is required in order to consider factors such as flexibility, reliability, and transportation time. The aim of this research is to present a flexible method for designing a supply chain network based on different related criterion and factors. Thus, a Two objective Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model is developed for designing a supply chain network and choosing a consolidation center. The first objective of the model is to maximize the network utility–obtained from utilization of the AHP - and its second objective is to minimize facilities location and product flows costs. In comparison with traditional approaches that only consider profit and cost factors, with applying the AHP, the analyzer can consider quantitative and qualitative criterion in the planning procedure with regards to his/her wishes and mentality. On the other hand, the utilization of the two-objective programming can ease the evaluation of the AHP-based priorities besides the traditional cost objective function. The linear two-objective programming model is used to design and evaluate the logistics network of an automotive company. Among various solution methods, the global criteria method has been chosen. Converting the linear two-objective programming model into a nonlinear single objective programming one,. this method makes it possible to determine non-dominated solutions. Finally, the results of the model are presented.

This paper concentrates on analyzing seasonal variations of potato and onion prices using harmonic analysis method. Data consists of monthly price on central wholesale market in Tehran. The main findings revealed the 5, 9 and 15 monthly cycles for potato and 2,3, 12, 18monthly cycles for onion, also both series reach the maximum value at the beginning of cycle (month of Farvardin), Whereas the minimum one will be on Shahrivar.

A major challenge for our country is developing the export; therefore investigating the factors that affect the export development is a necessity. One of the factors that affect export development is banking services. This article investigates the role of the electronic banking in the export facilitation. The findings of this research suggest that electronic banking provide trade facilitation via electronic fund transfer and providing more convenience for exporters.