فصلنامه پژوهش های اقتصادی ایران
پیاپی 73 (زمستان 1396)

The starting point of economic analyses undoubtedly is homo economicus, whose fundamental characteristic is rationality. In recent decades, the notion of rationality has been the subject of debates in social sciences, particularly economics. Conventional economists often employ the assumption of rationality in the sense that economic agents are aware of all potential consequences and capable of logical and consistent choices that maximize utility. However, critics of economic rationality argue that these agents sometimes exhibit irrational behaviors and are not always aware of all the possible consequences of their choices. Many of the behavioral economists and psychologists maintain that economic agents do not reason very well, that these agents often do not know what is good for them and that they behave in odd, non-reasoning, inconsistent ways, because of their limited mental capabilities and environmental conditions. In this article, with a comparative approach, the rational choice theory and criticisms of behavioral economics to it are analyzed. Moreover, new findings of brain function and experimental economics are examined to a deeper understanding of economic rationality and assessment its compliance with human behavior and mental abilities. The results show that although it can be acknowledged that people with regards to their limitations and capabilities of the brain do not follow perfect rationality in all everyday decisions and choices, the existence of pervasive irrational behavior can’t be recognized in all aspects of human life and people probably act more rational than what behavioral economics assumes.

The aim of this study is to investigate the role of macroeconomic policies in the financial stability of Iran’s economy. Based on Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium models, a model capable of tracing interactions between the real and the financial sectors has been constructed. In the financial modeling, the characteristics of Iran banking system, such as NPLs and frozen assets, have been incorporated. The results of simulations based on quarterly data of Iran economy during 1990-2014 show that stabilization policies are able to restrict financial vulnerabilities by reducing the fluctuations of the real sector variables. As a result, the stability of the real sector is a prerequisite for the stability of the financial sectors. Also due to the financial and real sector communications, the effects of declining vulnerabilities of the financial sector enhance the impacts of stabilization policies in the real sector. These effects result in the improvement of macroeconomic environment and increase in social welfare.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the efficiency of provincial tax affairs offices and their effect on tax revenues. To do this, depending on the type of variables used, DEA and BCC model, and the non-Controllable variables model (NCN) output-axis-return to variable scale (VRS) were used in the years 2010 and 2013. The research results show that only 7 tax administrations include tax offices in provinces Tehran, Boosher, Hormozgan, Sistan va Baloochestan, Markazi, Kerman and Khoozestan were efficient in these two years. This has made about 20% of tax revenue is not received due to inefficiency. The results also indicate that, although in the first three years of the fifth development plan, the value added of various sectors of the economy has increased nicely, but tax revenue growth has failed to move with these sectors. Therefore, if an appropriate mechanism for modeling the offices identified in this study as a reference can be created, it can also increase the efficiency of these departments at the level of the reference agencies, achievement of tax revenues and lower budget expenditures. Moreover, it is necessary to apply policies to increase the value added of various economic sectors as policies outside the control of the tax organization.

The strategy of using oil income to achieve economic growth and development in rentier economies can have devastating effects on the scientific field in the long-run. Pursuing the strategy of “injecting oil income” ultimately sends signals to players in the scientific field which encourages them to follow the path of “expanding low-quality education”. Based on the analytical framework presented in this study, domination of a rentier environment in an economy leads to establishment of a rent-seeking incentive structure. In this situation, on the one hand, the priorities of firms in production sector are changed and reaching some parts of benefits in oil sector of the economy becomes the basis of profit-maximizing of firms and these firms find themselves not dependent on science and knowledge. On the other hand, based on oil income, government finds itself needless of science and knowledge to promote its own financial and managerial capacities. In addition, the government uses the injection of oil income to achieve scientific development, which application of this method makes education system needless of financing through other sectors of the economy. The set of these consequences at last leads the education system towards the path of prioritizing quantity and disregarding quality in its activities. Available data regarding the quantity and quality of efforts in Iranian education system, including number of patents and innovations, number of academic articles and the sources of financing in education system verifies the theoretical framework presented in this paper.

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the interaction effects of risk, capitalization and inefficiency in Iran's banking system. For this purpose, combined data of commercial and private banks of Iran in years (1999-2012), were collected and analyzed using simultaneous equation approach and fixed effects two-stage least squares (FE2SLS), The results confirm the belief that these three variables are simultaneously determined. The results indicate that relationship between inefficiency with quality of loans is significant and positive. Capitalization and loan growth have positive effect on inefficiency. Capital accumulation will decrease quality loans. Capital accumulation also has negative effects on the quality of banking risk indicator.On the other hand ,due to the inefficiency of the banking system's cost and return on assets on capital accumulation, banks that arent in a good position in terms of performance, are not in a right position in terms of equipping and capital accumulation either.

In this paper, the impact of population aging on economic growth is estimated regarding the population growth factor and life expectancy index. For this purpose, the methods of differentiation, averaging and virtual variables have been utilized through the compilation of the data gathered from 146 countries during 1990-2013 aimed at controlling the unobservable factors. The results demonstrate that the negative impact of population aging on economic growth appears in countries wherein the life expectancy index is above 70 whereas in countries with a life expectancy of less than 70 years the impact of population aging on economic growth is not negative. Furthermore, the results of this research show that the population growth rate has a positive effect on economic growth only when the population above 65 years old accounts for at least 18% and a maximum of 21% of the total population. In countries wherein the population over 65 exceeds the above-mentioned percentage, the positive effect of population growth on economic growth is undermined.

Energy, one of the most essential and important factors of production and the final product, has an important role in the growth and economic development. This research examines the dynamic relationship between financial development and energy consumption based on GMM estimation in 53 developing countries and 47 advanced countries over the period 2000-2014. The results showed the positive impact of direct foreign investment and national income on energy consumption in the two groups of countries. Energy prices had a completely opposite effect on energy consumption in developing and advanced countries. The results also indicated that in both developed and advanced countries the money market plays a more effective role in reducing energy consumption in comparison with the capital markets. While the effect of financial development through the money market on energy consumption is U- inverse shape in both groups of countries, this effect through the capital market is U-shape and U-shape inverse for developing countries and advanced countries, respectively. These results might have important policy implications for energy management policymakers and authorities to achieve sustainable development in different countries.