JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT (THE ECONOMIC RESEARCH)
Year:2013 | Volume:13 | Issue:3|Papers Count:11

Choice experiment as a subset of choice modeling approach is the newest method for calculating the value of non-market goods and estimating individuals' preferences in dealing with environmental goods. This study evaluates the individual preferences for different characteristics of the historical - recreational Ganjnameh site of Hamadan based on Lancastrian value theory and stochastic utility function. It uses the choice experiment, the conditional Logit model with Weibull (Gumbel) distribution of disturbance terms and Housman- Mac Fadden method for testing Heteroskedasticity and equality of cross elasticities among options of a choice set. The welfare effects of proposed policies can be computed using estimated willingness-to-pay for different levels of characteristics of an environmental good. Sampling was performed randomly among native and non-native tourists in summer 2011. About 216 out of 300 questionnaires were correctly completed that led to the 1296 observations in 3888 data lines. Results indicate that people have relatively high willingness-to-pay for policies adopted to preserve and improve the quality of various characteristics of ecosystem goods. People have the highest willingness-to- pay for preserving the ancient monuments, environmental health, cleanness of river water and maintaining forest diversity and natural landscape, respectively. The socio-economic variables such as age, being married, parenting, education levels, monthly household expenditure and locality result in increasing WTP.

Due to the rapid modernization process, we can see the inefficiency and obsolescence of urban textures in Isfahan alike the most Iran's cities. Hence, renovation development of old textures should be one of the main goals in modernization of Isfahan. Analyzing the widespread dimensions of housing and identifying the ranking ways of different attributes of residential units by consumers is the most important step for being successful in housing projects. Since housing attributes are the non-marketed goods, we need to use non-market evaluation method to evaluate them. In this paper Choice Experiment Method (CEM) has been used to evaluate and determine the consumer willingness to pay for various housing attributes. For this purpose, one of the old textures of Isfahan was selected and a sample of households living in that area was randomly drawn with 120 observations. Data was collected using choice experiment questionnaires and analyzed using STATA and EXCEL softwares. The results show that choice of residential unit is a function of 7 attributes including land area, quality and type of materials used in residential units, neighborhood security, access to major city centers, exemption from charge payments for construction, the amount of loan paid for construction and price of residential unit. Based on the results, the most effective variable is the land area; and residents have a high willingness to pay for this attribute rather than the other attributes.

According to trade theories, economic integration results in increasing trade and income among trade partners. This paper tries to test the major factors affecting the exports of agricultural products in ECO members using spatial econometric approach. For this purpose, the exports statistics of ECO members has been used in the form of panel data during 1992-2008. Agricultural exports function has been estimated using the Static (fixed and random effects) and Dynamic (generalized method of moments (GMM)) methods in panel data with classic and spatial econometric approaches. The estimated results indicate the existence of spatial dependence among the countries, so the using this estimation procedure is justified. GDP, Exchange rate and spatial variables (such as proximity) have positive effects and Population has negative effect on agricultural exports. Finally, it is suggested that the estimation equations should consider the proximity between the countries and with the increase in the exchange rate and GDP, increase exports in order to provide the necessary basis. Population control policies may also apply.

On one hand, the skill-based technologies increase productivity and output, reduce inflation and raise income. On the other hand, human skills are essential for implementing, adopting, utilizing physically and practically of modem and imported technologies and serve a complementary role in this respect. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the relationship between the domestic research and development capital stock and technology imports with skilled and unskilled workers in Iran from 1971 to 2006.To do this, a translog cost function was estimated with seemingly unrelated regression method. The results indicate that the technology and its spillover are complementary to the skilled labor and substitute for the unskilled worker. In addition, the results illustrate the existence of a complementary relationship between capital and skilled labor and a substitution one with capital and unskilled worker.

In the holy sharia of Islam, there are rules and regulations for all kinds of transactions. Some of transactions are forbidden. The rule of denial of Gharar is one of these forbidden transactions. According to this rule, all transactions, which face with risk resulting from ambiguity in the deal, ambiguity in ability to give or receive goods or ambiguity in the essential characteristics of the deal, in such a way these terminate to loss are forbidden.In this paper, the rule of denial of Gharar as one of main economic rules of Islam is examined using game theory technique. The main purpose of this paper is to show the futility reasons of Gharar deals in Islam. In this regard, a hypothetical Gharar transaction is modeled in the framework of game with asymmetric information, and its consequences for the society are investigated. The results show that disregarding this valuable Islamic rule imposes extra costs on society and decreases the social utility. It is demonstrated that if the problem of asymmetric information is resolved, the possibility of Gharar transactions will be reduced and the welfare of the society will be enhanced.

In oil-abundant countries, oil revenues, due to various reasons such as mismanagement, can influence the economic and social conditions and hinder development.This paper examines the relationship between oil revenues and social capital in Iran during 1976-2007. To do this, the Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) approach and bound testing approach for co-integration are used to analyze data and estimate the model. The results indicate that oil revenues as an indicator for abundance of the natural resources have significant and negative influence on social capital. In addition, GDP per capita has positive impact on social capital in Iran.

Tax evasion linked to imports is a cause for forming informal economy. Tax evasion decreases government revenue and makes restrictions in implementing economic policies. This paper investigates relationship between the tariff rate and tax evasion at the six- digit HS level on trade data of Iran and its twelve major trading partners during 2003 to 2008. According to Bhagwati method, Tax evasion is defined as the discrepancy between the value of imports, reported by Iran, and the value of exports to Iran, reported by its trading partners. The results from estimated tax evasion models show that there is positive and significant relationship between the trading discrepancies or tax evasion and tariff rates among 27917 products. The elasticity of tax evasion with respect to tariff rates is 0.67, i.e. each one- percentage-point increase in the tariff rates raises tax evasion by 0.67 percent in case of total products. Additionally, the elasticity of tax evasion with respect to tariff rates is 0.8 for goods having tariff rates above average. In this case, tax evasion is more likely. The positive impact of tariff rate on tax evasion is not verified for goods having tariff rates lower than average.

The impact of social security expenditure on the labor market (wages and employment) has been regarded in economic researches. This paper evaluates the short-run and long-run effects of social security expenditure on wage and employment using Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) approach during 1979-2007. Our findings indicate that the insurance contribution deductions from the employees have negative impact on the real wage in both short-run and long-run and decrease their purchasing power. Moreover, employer's social security expenditure has a negative but insignificant effect on employment. In addition, labor productivity and economic growth are the main factors affecting the labor market.

In spite of a lot of studies in field of housing, housing supply has been less addressed. One of main reasons is complexity of housing supply field. In this study we use Capozza and Helsley urban growth model which assume housing supply as a function of variations in both housing price and construction expenses. The model is estimated with General Method of Moments (GMM) using seasonal data of Iran for 1996:2-2008: I. Results show that effect of housing price variations on housing supply is positive, however the effect of building material expenses and construction opportunity cost (stock exchange index) are both negative on it, but coefficient of stock exchange index is statistically insignificant. In addition, housing price variations and building material expenses with two period lags are effective on housing supply which indicate role of expectations. Also results show that variations in the other markets such as building materials market play important role in housing supply. It is proposed that because of high sensitivity in increasing of housing price, policies of housing supply to be followed by this market.