فصلنامه پژوهش های اقتصادی ایران
پیاپی 46 (بهار 1390)

This paper, which is developed within the framework of political economy of petroleum starts by a brief reviewing of OPEC’s policy instrument based on members’ excess production capacities and quota systems for managing the global oil market. The basic shortcoming in modeling OPEC’s economic behavior is then examined. The analytical framework used in this paper for speculations on the future role of OPEC in a diversified future energy market incorporates the impacts of the followings on expected OPEC’s supply: Non-OPEC production potentials of crude oil, long-term supply of unconventional sources of crude oil and long-term potentials of production from renewable sources of energies. It is concluded that there are a number of evidences to support the scenario of continuity of the significant share of OPEC’s crude oil production in the future diversified energy mix, hence enhancing OPEC’s role in the management of global energy market.

In this paper, we first consider the role of rational expectations, the Lucas critique and the policy ineffectiveness debate in economic applications of optimal control theory. The problem of time-inconsistency in optimal control of macro-economic models with rational expectations will then be analyzed. The impact of reputation and the stochastic environment on the problem of inconsistency in dynamic choice together with the question of how can the developments in optimal control of macroeconomic models with forward-looking expectations contribute to the practice of econometric model building are the other topics which are discussed. We have adopted a historical approach in this paper, and the scope of our analysis is confined to the basic contributions made in the 20th Century.

Water scarcity in Iran has reached a level that calls for the attention of all stakeholders including water consumers. While the government as water distributor has made significant efforts in managing water on the supply side, an annual average rainfall of 251 mm limits the capacity of this supply-side approach. As a result, policy efforts have increasingly turned towards demand management approaches. The subjects of this research are the determination of existence value of drinking water for the households in Larestan, and a measure of an individual’s willingness to pay (WTP) based on Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) and dichotomous choice (DC). The logit model was used for measuring the individual's WTP. Estimation parameters of the model are based on the method of maximum likelihood (ML). We used data from 320 randomly selected households in Larestan, Iran. Our findings show that once drinking tap water is connected, the households are willing to pay an average of US$0.24 (per cubic meter) in addition to their monthly charge for the water consumed.

Using panel data error correction models, we investigate the short- and long-run causality between financial development and economic growth in the Middle East. Three different indicators are used to measure financial developments. Generalized Least Square (GLS) method with cross-section Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) and fixed effects in cross dimension is used to estimate the models. Our estimation results suggest that there is bidirectional causality between financial development and economic growth in both the short- and long run. The result underscores the feedback between finance and growth and hence advocates the third view that emphasizes on mutual causality between financial development and economic growth. In other words, finance can promote growth and in turn output growth will enhance financial development in the Middle East. This result can have important policy implications for both policymakers and international institutions.

This paper focuses on the development of modern non-structural dynamic multivariate time series models and evaluating performance of various alternative specifications of these models for forecasting Iranian inflation. The Quasi-Bayesian method, with Literman prior, is applied to Vector autoregressive (VAR) model of the Iranian economy from 1981:Q2 to 2006:Q1 to assess the forecasting performance of different models over different forecasting horizons. The Bewley transformation is also employed for the re-parameterization of the VAR models to impose the mean of the change of inflation to zero. Applying the Bewley (1979) transformation to force the drift parameter of change of inflation to zero in the VAR model improves forecast accuracy in comparison to the traditional BVAR.

Rural inhabitants’ perception of better life changes when observing the success of other people, and hope to emulate their success. They know that University degree can lead to a higher expected income. In fact urbanism has some benefits but the costs (pollution, congestion, and crime) are also pervasive in developing countries. In order to better understand the problem, and examine policy measures for controlling its negative externalities, it is of importance to study and analyze the factors which may affect migration. Therefore, in this study we investigated this important issue with emphasis on the effect of rural literacy level on rural-urban migration by using an Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model utilizing time-series data related to the years 1959-2005 in Iran. Results indicate that in long term, rural literacy level has the most effect on this function. It was also found that, 1% increase in rural wage, urban wage, rural value added and rural literacy level can cause 0.25% decrease, 0.32% increase, 0.16% decrease and 0.32% increase in migrant’s number, respectively.

This paper intends to address the problem of inflation in less developed, and transitional economies, where the institutions of market is not fully developed. It is argued that the conventional Neo-Classical policies based on rigid Monetarist views fail to properly address the problem in less developed economies, and as a result its policy prescriptions are bound to fail. In These economies the issue of persisting inflation and unemployment, presents a serious challenge, which requires a more realistic approach in studying the problem. Considering the case of Iran, following a brief review of the background of a dualistic structure in the economy, the nature of recent price changes and distribution patterns is analyzed for various income groups. Then it is argued that while the current price and subsidy reform could lead to higher economic efficiency, a significant success in this program requires however, supplementary macroeconomic reforms in several areas, towards the goal of greater economic growth and a more competitive position in global markets.

Endogenous growth model developed here emphasizes dynamics, with explicit modeling of knowledge accumulation. Considering the uncertainty inherent in any search process, the model presents a dynamic stochastic system in which new technology and capital accumulation are bounded complements—they complement each other to a point, but beyond this the impact of each factor is constrained by the level of the other. As a result, both technological progress and capital accumulation are necessary for sustained growth, but neither on its own is sufficient. Technological advancement stimulates capital accumulation by raising the marginal product of capital. Rapid capital accumulation stimulates R&D investments by raising the expected profitability of innovation. This paper discusses different possible regimes that an economy may find itself in as a result of the interactions between capital accumulation and technological innovations and has important implications for growth-promoting policies, knowledge spillover, and international flow of capital.