فصلنامه برنامه ریزی و بودجه
پیاپی 112 (بهار 1390)

About hundred years ago, Walton Hamilton, in a historical event tried to introduce an alternative approach to economics, known as institutional economics. He intended to show that the institutional economics is an extensive and comprehensive scientific paradigm that could unite the whole economics. In fact, this school of thought well succeeded to rule over the prestigious universities of the world for some decades with the help of its founders and explainers. Commons, one of the founders of the institutional economics, trained great economists and for many years his institutional ideas ruled over Wisconsin University, one of the most prestigious universities of the time. This paper tries to answer such questions as follows: What was Commons’ analytical approach to economic issues and problems? What were the differences caused by his institutional perspective in conducting economic analyses? Like Veblen and Mitchell, Essentially what shortcomings did Commons assume in the mainstream economics that led him to found the institutional economics? What differences did Commons create in economic analyses and what subjects did he emphasize on? Specifically speaking, what transformations did his emphasis on the concept of transaction bring about in the principles of economics? Having a specific and different viewpoint, this paper uses a textual analysis to discuss these subjects in a try to show that Commons with his unique vision toward the concept of ‘institution’ could change the unit of economic analysis and was successful to introduce a new approach to this field of study, which might be referred to as ‘transactional approach’.

Jurisdiction and applicable law issue in cyberspace is one of the most challenging issues of the private international law, because conventional jurisdiction rules traditionally have territorial origin and are based on border and location while there is no place in cyberspace. This placeless characteristic of cyberspace raised these questions: whether traditional Jurisdiction rules which are based on location and are prescribed for application within certain territories are compatable with cyberspace and applicable in this area? And can we regulate legal act that occurs in this space by the traditional competence legal rules or is nessasary to establish different rules for this area? This challenge has theoritical and practical appraoches. To solve this problem, legislators established universal, regional and internal law which hasn’t resulted in establishment a separate legal system for legal act in cyberspace. Emphasizing applicatory equality and technical neutrality as two principles, legislators have chosen adaption of existing jurisdiction rules for legal acts in cyberspace.

Petroleum price is a variable which affects the economies of all countries (either exporters or importers). This paper uses Iran’s economic data during 2006-1959 to study the petroleum price impact on Government’s financial variables and economic growth through cointegrated VAR method. An influential facet of petroleum price is uncertainty and its effect. This uncertainty is taken from GARCH (1,1) model. Unsymmetrical effects of petroleum price on the variables of the model are examined as well. According to the findings, the main hypothesis of the study about the effectiveness of the petroleum price on Iran’s economy through Government’s budget, is not rejected.

Increasing number of urban trips and inappropriate use of motor vehicle fleet, especially private passenger cars with its unwanted consequences, including excessive increase in fuel consumption, makes it necessary to think about appropriate strategies and policies for planning and management of energy resources. This paper tries to identify fuel management strategies and policies in urban transportation, based on information gathered from 14 selected countries over the world, and to prioritize them using the Hasse diagram method (partial order theory). Based on the findings, 13 strategies and 44 policies (sub-strategies) may be categorized in three areas (fleet, transportation management, and fuel). Prioritization results of Hasse diagram method indicate that 13 policies from 10 different strategies are generally suitable for metropolises in Iran. Superior strategy is public transportation development. Also the most appropriate policies are: 1- expanding public transportation network, 2- formulation and implementation of fleet fuel consumption efficiency standards, 3- informing users about the various transportation methods to improve travel demands which indicates remarkable priority of ‘transportation management area’ policies compared to two other areas: fleet and fuel.

Contemporary global economy is known as modern economy, digital economy or knowledge-based economy. Extraordinary promotion of the knowledge role in recent decades as the main factor of production (particularly regarding modern and knowledge-based industries) and also effective factor in improvement of total productivity of production factors, have been important in theorizing knowledge-based economy. In recent centuries and decades, economic thinkers of various schools have paid much attention to the role of knowledge in production and economy. However the speedy development of Information and communication Technology (ICT) and other modern sciences as well as globalization of economy have led to wonderful growth of knowledge effectiveness in contemporary economics and theorization in this field. Considering role of knowledge in the contemporary economics, many countries including Iran have been trying to plan their economic development policies according to this element. In order to collect the related information with the aim of improving, completing or repairing the country knowledge-based development policies, this paper studies the theoretical aspects of the subject as well as the experiences of the leading countries in this field. The findings of this paper shows that issues such as research and development activities commercialization, regional and inter-regional knowledge-based development policy-making, infrastructure and e-government services development, and so on are some shortcomings of the country’s knowledge-based development policies.

This paper mainly tries to study the relationship between financial resources and educational performance of the City of Tehran’s educational districts during 2000-2006. Statistical data were collected from educational districts and analyzed by appropriate statistical techniques (correlation analysis and multiple regressions). The main results of this study are as follows: (1) Educational performance trend was not optimal in the educational districts during the study period and in certain courses, especially high school courses, the performance quality was very poor. (2) Allocation of resources and facilities, especially number of teachers and financial resources per student has relatively developed. (3) Regression analyses in the framework of ‘educational production function’ for evaluating the factors which influence performance quality of the educational districts’ show following three (a) in the primary school stage, financial resources per head, teachers’ salaries and education, student-teacher ratio, and female teachers’ share positively affect the statistics of educational performance quality of the educational districts while the size of the schools negatively affects it, (b) in the secondary school stage, all the variables except for ‘teachers’ education’ did not have positive effects, and finally (c) in the high school stage, the most variables affected differently from both previous stages and were against the theoretical expectations. Therefore the degree of optimality in using resources and facilities decreases in higher stages. Extra educational human resources (teachers) resulting from input-orientated financial resources allocation method as well as concentrated decision-making system are two of the main reasons of allocation inefficiency in the City of Tehran’s educational districts.

Iran’s 20-year vision document has defined the roadmap of development toward an ideal society by 2025. Each five-year development plan within these years is duty-bound to partly meet the requirements of its goals. At the start of the Islamic Revolution’s fourth decade named as “Development and Justice”, the fifth five-year development plan has a crucial mission which is responsible for setting the stage and meeting the needs to fulfill the goals of the 20-year vision as well as to complete process of both development and justice together, in the framework of formulating and executing Iran’s Islamic-Iranian development model. This may seem difficult to achieve though some leverage points could be introduced that will play the vital role in hitting the targets if the attempts are focused on them. These leverage points are as follows: intellectual and cultural transition of the people in the society appropriate for the development path; taking advantage of adequate knowledge and expertise needed for development, existence of proper economic infrastructures and funding development projects, suitable managerial and social systems, and finally security and stability in these systems since the process is long-run. This paper tries to study such issues in brief. If these five mentioned items are duly adjusted, it is hoped that the fifth development plan would be successful in the attempt to accomplish the projected goals.