JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (THE ECONOMIC RESEARCH)
Year:2010 | Volume:10 | Issue:1|Papers Count:9

In recent years, the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis has become a major subject among issues dealing with environmental economics. This curve tries to show an inverse U-shaped relation between economic development indicators and pollution. In this study, the curve has regionally been considered in the city of Tehran with respect to its municipal solid wastes. The results confirm that over the period 1996 to 2006 there has been no sign of the EKC in Tehran. However, the source separation of dry wastes policy was effective in decreasing the slope of the so called EKC as it is expected.

This study aims to develop a native scale of competitiveness in Iran's commercial banks. Based on the review of theoretical and empirical literatures, a comprehensive competitiveness scale is developed to show the various dimensions of international performance of commercial banks.The validity of the scale is confirmed by 50 experts. The information of the scale is collected using a sample of 300 questionnaires distributed among officers of commercial banks working at international departments of Iran's commercial banks.The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows. 1. The main determinants of native scale for measuring the performance of international departments of commercial banks are financial and non-financial performance, respectively. 2. the Non-financial performance is confirmed in the international departments of all commercial banks. Moreover, the financial performance of international departments in the Melli, Saderat, Mellat and Sepah Banks is approved while the financial performance is not confirmed in the Tejarat Bank.

This paper addresses two questions. Does inflation in Iran stem from fiscal policy? Does inflationary impact depend upon the sources of budget deficit financing? Although the above questions have already been studied, there is no consensus on the findings, since the results are sensitive to the methodologies and the time period covered by the data.This paper employs vector autoregressions, impulse response functions, variance decomposition and cointegration techniques to estimate the short and long term relationship between inflation and a number of fiscal indicators in Iran. The annual data are used over the period 1973 to 2006. Particular emphasis is placed on the government budget deficit predominantly financed by government borrowing. The results indicate that inflation is mostly induced by import prices, oil revenue and government budget deficit.

According to the neoclassical approach, input prices as a measure of resources scarcity induce firms to cost-minimizing and efficient allocation of recourses. But when the prices are distorted, the effective competitive inputs are used inefficiently and have resulted in under- or over-utilization of production factors relative to their endowments or allocative inefficiency.In this paper, the shadow cost approach and system of equations are used to estimate allocative inefficiency using the Iran's manufacturing data over the period 1976-2006. The results show that there is strong allocative inefficiency and increasing cost of production of firms in Iran's Manufacturing Sector.

One of the major macroeconomic objectives of the governments is to control the inflation rate. High inflation and its associate destructive impacts on public welfare are concerned by social and economic policymakers. Consequently, they aim to control the inflation rate. Inflation within health sector is attributed to various factors including aging population, insurance problems such as imperfect coverage and maladministration, lower productivity of production factors mainly medical staff and equipments, technological variation in delivering medical services, population growth and the lack of symmetric information among the suppliers and the demanders of health services.The findings of this study show that the resulting inflation rate for health sector is relatively higher than the overall CPI inflation in Iran. To achieve a better understanding of inflation process in the Iranian health sector, in addition to the above factors, other issues should be considered. They include the effects of technological development, the existence of a verity of formal and informal fees in private sector, the role of non governmental Organizations (NGO) in setting medical and paramedical fees.

Few studies have recently supported the preposition that housing price changes in one location can be affected not only by its history but also by housing price changes in other locations (Ripple effect). There are many reasons why housing price changes in some areas may lead housing price movements in the other areas. The possible causes include structural differences and economic interdependence between areas, migration as well as informational factors.This paper examines spatial effects of house price dynamics within Tehran. The first hypothese is that house prices have started rising first in the north and then spread out over the rest of the city. The second hypothesis is that there is a strong price relationship between contiguous districts. Spatial autoregressive (SAR) and vector error-correction (VEC) models are emplyed to estimate the empirical models using quarterly panel data of Tehran housing markets over the period 1991 to 2006.The results confirms that there is a positive spatial interrelationship among districts. Moreover, the findings indicate the evidence of leading role of the district 1 in the northern half of the city while district 2 seems to have a more prominent effect on the center and the west. Furtheremore, the price interdependence of contiguous districts in the north is seen to be more significant and stronger than the south.

The lack of statistics has hampered attempts to estimate fixed capital for the agricultural sub-sectors of Iran. Giving a non anonymous agreement on the depreciation rate of capital in machineries and constructions, an indirect method of estimation is employed using capital consumption statistics in different sub-sectors of input-output tables. In this study, capital stock is estimated in agricultural sub-sectors of Iran using the perpetual inventory method.According to the results of this paper, the capital stock in 2006 is estimated to be 53374.9 billion rials in cropping and horticulture, 24334.6 billion rials in animal husbandry, 4982 billion rials in forestry and rangelands and 16374.2 billion rials in fishery sub-sectors at constant 1997 prices, respectively.The findings based on the five year development plans of the country revealed that over the third development plan, the total agricultural capital stock, both in machinery and equipment and constructions, experienced the highest growth while during the second development plan, the machinery and equipment capital stock experienced the lowest growth. Moreover, during the first development plan and over the eight year war, the construction capital stock experienced the lowest growth.