Journal of Economic Research and Policies
Year:2015 | Volume:23 | Issue:74|Papers Count:11

Nowadays determination of minimum wage in economy is one of the important subject in labor market. That action generally is for supporting of labor welfare condition. Determination of minimum wage has some important side effects in economy such as effects on labor cost and the cost of production as a whole. This research indicates that increasing minimum wage will has positive effects on price level. The method of research in this paper is input - output method. According to the last input output tables in Iran,  24% increase in minimum wages of industry sector causes 0.21%-0.61% increase in price level of sectors in the economy of Iran. The results show that the effect of minimum wage on price level is not notable.

One of the most important policies that can be used to control gasoil consumption in Iran is improving the efficiency of consumption of this oil product. The Improvement of gasoil consumption efficiency coupled with a problem called rebound effect (RE) where the initial reduction in gasoil consumption resulting in improved performance, partially neutralized. It is natural that neglecting the effect of the RE would undermine the policy optimization. The purpose of this paper is to measuring the RE following a 5, 8 and 10-percent improvement in efficiency of gasoil. CGE model based on SAM1385 have been used to achieve the purposes of the paper. The results show that following a 5, 8 and 10-percent improvement in efficiency of gasoil cause RE in different sectors and the maximum amount of RE is in road transport sector (respectively 48.3,  33.8and 25.6 percent). In the case of households, results show that following a 5, 8 and 10-percent improvement in efficiency of gasoil, the RE for urban households respectively is equal to 3.01,  2.50 and 1.70 and for rural households respectively is equal to 5.40, 3.13 and 1.90 percent. Following a 5, 8 and 10-percent improvement in efficiency, the activity level of various activities have increased and GDP growth respectively is equal to 0.009, 0.012 and 0.015 percent.

The subject of this article is to assess Personal Income Distribution in I.R. Iran both in rural and urban areas using Gini coefficient and Atkinson index in the period of 2001-2013. These two indices satisfy Dalton principles (principles about requirements of a good income distribution index) and comparing to other income distribution indices are more precise. Although Gini coefficient is the most common measure of income inequality, since it is highly sensitive to inequalities in the middle of the income spectrum, it may not be able to distinguish between two different income distributions. But the Atkinson index considering social welfare function into the measurement of income inequality allows for varying sensitivity to inequalities in different levels of the income distribution and it can be a complement to Gini coefficient. Results based on Gini and Atkinson show decreasing income inequality during the investigated period both in rural and urban areas. Income inequality in urban areas is less than rural areas and considering different income levels, the income inequality rises in both areas as the level of income increases. Since the year 2010, income inequality has been decreasing in both areas and there was a more sensible decrease in 2011 which could be due to performing the subsidy reform program and a payment of 455000 Rials per person to Iranian families since December 2010 (as Dalton’s third principle of equal payments suggests)

Time Preference plays a prominent role in existence of interest rate and its origin. The Neoclassical economists believe that time preference equals interest rate and this equilibrium is especially necessary for monetary equilibrium. But in economic literature, particularly in government’s political economy, disequilibrium between these two phenomena is known as time inconsistency. Time inconsistency in fractional reserve banking has an important role in depositors’ behavior analysis and banking performance. In this paper we are surveying time inconsistency in banking system as well as explaining economists’ attitudes about time preference and interest rate. In this regard, the paper is modeling household dynamic consuming behavior, with assuming Clawer Constrain. As a result, time inconsistency in fractional reserve banking can create serious challenges in continuity of this system through demand for money and banking’s debt. This paper proved that banking’s rate of interest (as a general rate of interest) cannot equal discount rate (as a time preference) in finite time and equality exceptionally exist for infinite time which it is mean Fractional Banking System cannot continue its activity in infinite horizon.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors affecting the emission of carbon compounds (carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide), resulting from energy consumption in the transport sector according to the subdivision (road, rail and air) for the period 1999-2011. For this purpose, index decomposition analysis (IDA) has been used. Factors influencing on carbon compounds emissions are coefficient of emission, energy intensity, changes in fuel mix, mode of transportation, structural changes, economic growth, population growth, and price. Results show that economic activity and population growth have respectively the greatest impacts on the on CO2 and CO emission in Iranian transport sector. The effect of coefficient of emission and changes in fuel mix varies during the years. The modes of transportation have little effect. Studying on price effects shows that low fuel price cause increase in carbon compounds emissions. The energy intensity and structural changes in the transport sector has been somewhat decreasing effect on emissions. In the road transport sector the situation is similar. In this section, the greatest impact coefficients of emission and changes in fuel mix have been on reducing emissions of carbon monoxide. In the rail and air sector as subsector transportation, scale of economic activity have greatest impact on CO2 and CO emission growth. The results show that the combined use of clean fuels, development of public transport and rail and infrastructure development in all sectors of transport can reduce emissions of carbon compounds.

The present study has examined the effect of export and import of different classifications of technology on the growth of Iranian manufacturing industry during the period 1998-2011 based on two models (a & b). Model a tests the effect of high-tech manufacturing industry on the growth. Then, import of high-tech industry is added to Model b and the effect of export is evaluated in the presence of import. The findings of Model b indicated that in the presence of import, the export of high-tech industry has the positive effect on the growth while the effect of such level of technology import is negative. An important principle to achieve a specific level of development in developing countries is that they should consider import of low-tech goods and export of high tech goods in the early stages of growth. Therefore, since Iran is a developing country, high-tech import could not have a positive effect on growth. Accordingly, the effect of export, with the presence of import, on growth of low-tech industry was tested and insignificant export variable revealed that import plays more important role than export on growth in Iranian low-tech industry.

Studying about Business situation in different regions is the first step to identify the barriers and benefits of the business environment must be taken in economic policy and planning to be more efficient and effective. The aim of the present study is based on North Khorasan Business Space pathology. In this paper the impact of business component in a monitoring field is studied. For this purpose, 58 of active investors in the province, as a sample group, were interviewed about the impact of business component on investment and the results their opinions were analyzed in SPSS and Excel. The results indicate that two components have the greatest impact on the ravages of economic activity in recent years in this province. One of them is government political stability and the other one is policies and regulations.

This paper has compared welfare loss from seignorage tax and consumption tax. Seignorage tax is in the form of higher money creation and transferring purchasing power from people to government and consumption tax increases level of expenditure that reduces economic welfare. In this study, by using an endogenous growth model, a structure is prepared to compare and evaluating welfare effects of these two tax policies, in which, two criteria, changes in consumption level and leisure time are used. Based on quarterly time series data for the period of 1369-1390, the results show that in the long run, seignorage tax compared with consumption tax causes more reduction in consumption and economic welfare. Moreover, model simulation shows that seignorage tax leads to more volatility in variables and has more welfare changes.

Considering the advantages of foreign investment, Iran the same as other countries made a lot of efforts to attract foreign investment. Despite these efforts, the great potentials, capacities and geostrategic location, Iran in comparison with others who have week and unsuitable potentials, did not obtain any significant result and the foreign investment attraction rate in Iran is much lower than its capabilities. Much effort and less result is the main challenge that the economic policy makers facing it and various studies has been done to diagnose this issue. On one hand, some studies concluded that Iran international political situation particularly the international sanctions imposed in recent years were the reasons that Iran efforts didn’t reach any significant results and opponents of the Iranian regime in different ways prevented the foreigners to invest in Iran. On the other hand, some believe that the local obstacles, restrictions and unnecessary official bureaucracy prevent Iran to attract foreign investments and if these obstacles remove, Iran foreign investment attraction will increase. The aforesaid studies have not considered the status of the foreign investment projects in Iran, the obstacles that they are facing with and the reasons that some of these projects not succeed. This study deals with the impressive factors on the foreign investment attraction and also the positive and negative effects of foreign investment on the host country. It studied more than 300 foreign investment projects and the obstacles that these projects faced were verified and analyzed.