JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (THE ECONOMIC RESEARCH)
Year:2007 | Volume:6 | Issue:4|Papers Count:8

Today, along with globalization, we observe economic convergence in different parts of the world. In fact, closeness of culture, race, language, religion and etc. in countries of one region, along with shorter distances and less transportation costs, have led to greater will for more cooperation among these countries. In this paper, using a gravity model, the trend of bilateral trade between Iran and ECO countries is examined, and present convergence between Iran and these countries, both on the aggregate level and on the segregated sectors of different goods, is evaluated. Then, this convergence is compared with that of Iran and EURO countries. Empirical evidence shows that the bilateral trade pattern between Iran and its trade partners in ECO is a traditional one (traditional model) with an inter-industry trade structure. In addition, comparing the results of the convergence level between ECO and EURO countries shows that the rate between Iran and ECO countries is greater than that of Iran and EURO countries. The reasons can be attributed to the similar economic, social and religious structures of these countries. In addition, the results obtained from ten separated sectors show that Iran, due to superior quality of its goods, has a vertical intra- industrial trade with ECO countries in the 3 rd ,4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th groups of goods.

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the long run relationship between budget deficit and macroeconomic performance of Iranian economy during 1979-2004. To do so, due to non-stationary properties of time series macroeconomic data and the deficiencies caused by traditional methods we have used a cointegration method of Johansen-Juselius to derive the long run cointegration vectors in order to deal the relationship between budget deficit and the macroeconomic variables The results show a negative long run equilibrium relation between budget deficit and economic growth but a positive one between public investment and economic growth. We have also found a negative relation between budget deficit and inflation. The control of budget deficit and reforms of public sector, along with promotion of private sector and less dependency on central bank is suggested in order to alleviate the detrimental impacts of the budget deficit.

Using the Markov-Switching method with quarterly 1388-2004 data, an Early Warning System for Iran is estimated. Doing so, the speculative pressure index (SPI), i.e. the weighted average of market real exchange rate changes and foreign reserves changes, is used as dependent variable, on the other hand, the deviations of real exchange rate from equilibrium trend, growth rate of M2 over foreign assets, growth rate of real output, ratio of foreign assets to total assets, growth rate of bank deposits, growth rate of bank deposits over M2, and the claims of the Central Bank on the government over total claims of the Central Bank are considered as the explanatory variables. According to the estimated model the average of SPI has been about 0.8 percent during tranquil period (null state) and about 11 percent during crisis period (1 state). Volatility of SPI in tranquil period and crisis period has been 2 and 14 percent respectively. This shows that both the average and volatility of SPI are appropriate variables to distinguish between tranquil and crisis periods in Iran. Our estimates show that if the Iranian economy is in tranquil state at time t, it will be in tranquil state at time t+1 with a probability of 0.73. And if it is in crisis at time t, it will return to tranquil state at time t+ 1 with a probability of 0.87.

Supplementary health insurance, a newly-founded field in insurance industry in Iran can not cover the expensive treatment costs of patients. Panel Data technique and random effects model have been used in this research to analyze the effective factors on supplementary health insurance demand via a case study of Iran Insurance Corporation in selected 24 provinces. Based on the received results of Hausman test and Lagrange multiplier test, respectively the estimation consistence on random effects model and existence of random effects was confirmed. According to the result of demand function estimation on this model between1996 - 2003, per capita income, expected care expenditure, and expected inflation rate are the most crucial in demand of such insurance policies. Income elasticity and expected health expenditure elasticity of demand function have been estimated, 0.08 %0 and 2 %, respectively, confirming the low elasticity of supplementary health insurance demand due to these variables. Demand elasticity of such insurance policies has been calculated 1.8 % to the expected inflation rate and therefore, implies the demand elasticity due to the above-mentioned variable.

Urbanization is expanding rapidly as countries develop. In this situation, technological improvement leads to transfer of labor force from agriculture and labor-intensive activities to production of urban goods and services. Furthermore, population moves from rural areas to cities. This process results in expansion of existing cities and/or emerging new ones. There are cities with different sizes in each economy and they have relations with each other. In Urban Economic literature, there are different models for examining city size distribution. In this paper, we use Zipf’s law (Rank-Size rule), Gibrat's law and spatial Gini coefficient. Thus, city size distribution of Iran urban system is examined in this study through mentioned models in 1956-2001. The results show increased inequality in Iran's city size distribution over time.

This paper is an applied research which studies and measures the potential comparative advantages of 13 important companies of textile industry with 23 different products in Ilam province between 2001 and 2002 in tune with the government strategies to increase non-oil exports. The current analysis is done with a DRC approach based on cost accounting method, in order to identify the differences of companies and their products in a separate way. The findings show that a majority of studied products had a high comparative advantage so that in 2001 and 2002 the numbers of high-comparative advantage products were 15 and 17 ones among 23 items respectively. The reasons for such high comparative advantage of the companies in above were the low production cost and private ownership of these companies. The reduction and/or cost production control, mass production and growth of local and international market can improve the role of the above-mentioned companies in increasing non-oil exports of Ilam.

In this article, by introducing different forms of property rights in economic systems and examining the viewpoints on exploitation of natural resources, we try to explain the implications of such views on management of the natural resources. Nearly all economic schools of thought agree (and experience confirms it) that the absence of property rights and lack of control on environment resources can pave the way for depletion of these resources. Historical research on various forms of ownership shows that private or governmental exploitation of the resources have been to some extent successful, but it seems that leaving non-strategic resources to private sector along with an effective monitoring by civil institutions can result in more efficiency. In economic system of Islam, the kind of ownership of natural resources and variety of methods of exploitation leads to a more flexible management of natural resources.