مجله اقتصاد و توسعه منطقه ای
پیاپی 8 (پاییز و زمستان 1393)

Almost, the traditional comparative advantage indices especially employment, value added and profitability are considered in all studies in the context of regional comparative advantage. While the study of comparative advantage, regardless of the sustainable development indices is a flawed study. Therefore, in this study, in the first stage, Iranian provinces are ranked according to employment, value added and profitability and then, air pollution indices are added into the analysis. The development level of each province is calculated by using the Technique for the Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and 2005 data which are presented by Statistical Center of Iran. The results show that the comparative advantage of areas with and without consideration of sustainable development indices is quite distinct from each other. Hence as a policy recommendation, determination of regional comparative advantages regardless of sustainability indices would be not a good Guide for regional industrial planning.

Nowadays, aims such as development, social welfare, structural and infrastructure developments and achieving economic growth by benefiting from government expenditure have become one of the main concerns of the countries. It asks for reviewing the role of government in economy all over the world. This study, investigated the effects of the components of government expenditures on Components development and welfare in Selected Developed and Developing Countries during the period of 1996-2010, by using panel data approach.The results show that although public, social and economic expenditures have a positive impact on development and welfare in developed countries, but just the social expenditure has a statistically significant effect. Regarding the developing countries, the results show the positive impact and significant effect of public and economic expenditures on development and welfare of these countries. But despite of being positive, the Coefficient of social expenditure is not significant statistically. Also the findings reveal that defense expenditures in both groups of countries have a significant and negative impact.

In this context, this article tries to presents a conceptual model of the factors affecting the government size and empirical test through econometric generalized methods of moments (GMM) by using data from 15 developing countries, review relationship between fiscal decentralization and the government size. The results of dynamic panel data indicate a positive effect of income and expenses fiscal decentralization and meaningless effect of vertical imbalance on the government size and therefore cannot approve the Leviathan hypothesis for the countries studied. Other results of this study indicate a positive and significant influence on the government size of GDP per capita (confirmed the Wagner’s low), the degree of openness of the economy (confirmed the Rodrik hypothesis) and democracy net and it negative influence of degree of urbanization.

Efficiency concept has a long history in the sciences and its measurement and analysis is a vital importance for firms to achieve the best performance. Hence, the aim of this paper is efficiency evaluation of Mahan air compared to IATA member airlines in Middle East and Africa. For this purpose, the indicators include available ton kilometer, revenue ton kilometer, revenue passenger kilometer, available seat kilometer, number of employee and fleet, operating expense and operating revenue. These data collected by statistical annual reports available in airlines and air transport authorities websites for 15 airlines that analyzed by using standard and two stages DEA approaches. The results show only two Emirates airline and Ethiopian airlines are efficient and Mahan air has acquired third place among surveyed companies that relative increase in revenue passenger kilometer, revenue ton kilometer and operating revenue are required for efficiency of Mahan air. In addition, surveyed companies are less than capacity about 27% in which Middle East airlines are7% more efficient than African airlines.

In economic literature, there are two hypotheses regarding the link between economic development and gender inequality. the first gender inequality decreases with economic development. Second, economic development increases gender inequality. This research is conducted to investigate the effects of economic development on gender inequality according to Kuznets gender curve in Iran provinces. This curve is estimated using OLS. The results showed an inverted U relationship between gender inequality and per capita income in the provinces. Also there is inverse relationship between gender inequality and exports, and gender inequality with foreign direct investment. While the relationship between gender inequality and the share of industry in the economy, is indirect. Our findings challenged feminist and neoclassic perspectives about uniform effect of development on gender inequality and instead of accepting a general policy, suggests the need for gender inequality reduction programs tailored to economic development of different regions.

Production is a process by which a productive activity will require some conditions (before and after the start of the production). One of the most important pre-required factors for start up a production unit is suitable Business Environment. One of the most important factors that must be provided after the start of production -During the production process and the time to market and export- is economic freedom. Hence, this paper explores the impact of Business Environment and economic freedom on economic growth in 30 selected countries during 2004-2013. Panel data estimation results indicate that Business Environment and economic freedom have positive and significant relationship with economic growth.Our findings show that the impact of economic freedom on economic growth is greater than the Business Environment.

In this paper, we analyze the determinants of Intra-Industry trade (IIT) in the Agriculture, Industry and service sectors between Iran and her trading partners, i.e. European Union, ECO, GCC, D8, OIC and ASEAN countries using dynamic panel data and GMM during 1980-2009.This study uses country-specific characteristics such as economic size, per capita income, foreign direct investment, geographical distance, and trade imbalance as explanatory variables. The results indicate that economic size, per capita income, and geographical distance explain most of IIT between Iran and her trading partners. According to econometric findings, the economic size has high and positive correlation with IIT, however per capita income affects negatively IIT. Thus, differences in aggregate demand and supply should be considered in selecting trade partners. The similarity in income structure leads to same demand structure and expansion of trade volume. In addition, geographical distance and trade imbalance has negative effect on IIT flow in Iran.

The main focus of this study is to examine empirically the impulse response functions of inward Foreign Direct Investment to the shocks of Terrorism on 13 selected MENA countries from 1970 to 2012 by using Panel VAR method. Findings show that Terrorism shocks have negative impact on Foreign Direct Investment in selected countries. Adversely the results emphasizes that the impact of GDP per capita and openness shocks on Foreign Direct Investment is positive.

Of the issues facing present age countries is the phenomenon of globalization. Globalization, mixture and integration of national economies into the global economy is whose effects can be considered in increasing international trade, globalization of production and the flow of foreign direct investment. Investigated broad effects and consequences this process on various aspects of human life including political, economic, social and cultural has attracted Particular attention of thinkers, politicians, economists in worldwide. This investigation, first of all need to quantify this phenomenon, construction and use of appropriate indicators to measure it. The aim of this study is the investigation of the globalization effect by using a new integral index of economic globalization, KOF on attracting foreign direct investment in selected countries, member of the MENA and 20 year’s period is 1990-2009. Research model was estimated by using panel econometric techniques such as panel unit root, panel co-integration and GMM. The results of research implies a significant and positive relationship between globalization and foreign direct investment. Also the size of the market index, the human capital index have positive and significant impact and population parameters on attracting foreign direct investment has a significant and negative impact.

The exchange rate as a key variable in economic policies have been considered. Moreover, the volatility and uncertainty of exchange rates and their effects on international trade in terms of policy is extremely important. Although most trade models argue that exchange rate volatility increases the uncertainty and risk and therefore reduce trade flows, including imports, however, some studies suggests the opposite. This study investigates the impact of real exchange rate uncertainty on import demand of member countries of the MENA. The period of study is during 1980 – 2012. The EGARCH model is used to generate the log of GARCH variance series and the panel data with random effects method was used to estimation of the model. The variable of real exchange rate uncertainty imposes a negative impact on real import in the long run. In the long run, a rise in real exchange rate uncertainty can improve the country’s trade balance by substantially lowering import demand, but can harm industrial production at the same time. Therefore, stabilization of real effective exchange rate via major nominal exchange rates may deem necessary.