محمدعلی متفکرازاد

Economic development is one of the main goals of all countries, and most scientists believe that development is only accessible if there is equality. For this reason, despite the differences and contradictions in schools and societies, the issue of inequality and especially economic inequality has been always a vital concern of economists and policymakers all over the world. Meanwhile, since justice is one of the fundamental goals of Islam, Islamic economists have a more scrutinizing and much clear vision of equality. Apart from the importance of economic equality in Islam, it has a cucial role in social security systems and equality concepts as well. Takaful insurance, is a widely used Islamic model in insurance risk coverage which has fundamental differences with conventional insurance mechanisms. Takaful is cooperative, not profit oriented, and fully allined and complied with Islamic rules and regulations. This study is aiming at  investigating the effect of various layers of social security system on Islamic-economic equality in the Iranian provinces during 2008-2021. GMM prediction model is applied for predicting the effect of Takaful on inequality and directing houshold religious expenses towards Takaful insurance.

According to previous theoretical and experimental literature, economic inequality can be affected by inequality in previous years. Therefore, in this study a dynamic econometric method is used to include the lagged dependant variable as one of the explanatory variables. In general, if a variable depends on vaiables of previous periods, among other independent ones, it is better to use a dynamic panel data model. Generalized method of moments is one of the common and widely used dynamic approaches. The reason for the popularity of this method is that it is very flexible and requires only some weak assumptions. Therefore, Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) greatly solves the problems of static panel data methods related to autocorrelation, variance heterogeneity, and skewness. The reason for using this method is that, firstly, there is a possibility that the current dependent variable is affected by the lagged variables, and secondly, since one of the ways to control the endogeneity of variables is to use instrumental variable and due to the fact that it is very difficult to find such an instrument, it is possible to use lagged variables as appropriate instruments applying GMM estimator.

The results of this research indicate that the inequality of the previous period has a positive and significant relationship with current economic inequality in all three models. This means that high inequality in the previous period causes high inequality in the current period. Moreover, consistent with some studies, GDP has a positive and significant relationship with economic inequality. It means that an increase in GDP is associated with increased inequality. This result indicates that in Iran, there is no antipoverty growth. Inflation rate has also a negative relationship with inequality in all models, and this relationship is significant in two models. Following some previous studies, this result can be interpreted as the negative relationship can be caused by the fact that the inflation of luxury goods is higher than the inflation of essential goods and therefore, increased inflation is more detrimental to the rich. In addition, all three layers of social assistance, basic social insurance, and supplementary social insurance significantly reduce inequality. Meanwhile, basic social insurance has the greatest effect, and social assistance has the least effect on reducing inequality. In addition, based on the results, it can be stated that by directing houshold religious expenses towards Takaful insurance, which is an Islamic insurance and a type of basic social insurance, it is possible to reduce Islamic-Economic inequality in 2023 and 2024. The amounts of the decreases are predicted to be a minimum of 0.31 and 0.25 (Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari) and a maximum of 5.95 and 5.91 (Markazi).

According to the results, investing in all three layers of social security can lead to a reduction in inequality. Therefore, it is suggested not to ignore any layer in policymaking. Due to the greater impact of basic insurance on equality, it is thought to consider it as the basic layer of social security and focus on this layer to reduce inequality more. Managers and policymakers can also focus on Takaful as one of the basic types of insurance and help to provide Islamic-Economic equality by directing houshold religious expenses towards Takaful. Moreover, it is suggested that the governmental plans should be based on combining economic growth with improved welfare and income distribution which is one of the main goals of the Islamic economy. It is also suggested that the religious and cultural officials should create the necessary explanation and enlightenment related to Takaful and social responsibility of people. The government responsiblity in creating a foundation and guiding people to fulfill their social responsibility by strengthening and developing Zakat headquarters and communicating with social security organization should not be underestimated.

All economic systems create and regulate their subsystems to fulfill their goals. One of the most important economic subsystems is the banking system. In Islamic texts, three main intermediate economic goals have been set for the Islamic economic system in order to achieve economic welfare, which are: security, justice and economic growth. In this analytical-descriptive research which is applied in terms of purpose, first, economic objectives of Islam i.e., economic security indicator and growth index along with economic justice have been calculated in the period 1985-2018. Then, the impact of the banking system through its facilities on these goals has been evaluated using the simultaneous equation model and the 3SLS estimation method. The results show that the facilities of the banking system have a positive effect on growth along with economic justice, but its effect on economic security is negative. Therefore, review in allocation of facilities of banking system is required for simultaneous achieving to the security and growth along with economic justice with Islamic approach

At the same time as entering the third millennium and with increasing population, in many countries demand for water in order to supply dem world population needs has increased considerably. But because of scarcity of water resources and water crisis in intire world the concept of water security and water poverty persresented into the economic literature of countries wich facing water crisis. Water poverty is one of the greatest challenges of this century and the multidimensional crisis of the next incoming decades in the world, especially in countries with low lelvel of water resources. This crisis can lead to many changes in the world. In this paper, unlike the usual methods op other lasr aricles to calculate water poverty, we calculate the water poverty index is on the base of Catastrophe theory multi-criteria evaluation system and mathematical fuzzy logic method. The sub-indices  wich used to calculate the water poverty are including: water resources (water deficit ratio, surface water supply ratio, the proportion of other factors in water supply), access to water (per capita water resources, price elasticity of water demand, Gini coefficient for domestic use), capacity of Underground aquifers (groundwater utilization rates, surface water utilization rates, dilution rates), using of water resources (per capita consumption of water for irrigation in the agricultural sector, per capita consumption of drinking water, per capita consumption of water in Industrial sector) and environmental integrity (surface water drying, desertification rate, create desert rate). The results of calculating the water poverty index during the period from 1989 to 2015 indicate the upward trend of this indicator and its subset components, which indicates the worsening of the state of water security in Iran in recent years and possibly the deterioration and continuation of this complicated situation for next decades. In the other hand, as the current trend continues, both in terms of resources and in terms of managing the production and consumption of the country's water resources, Iran is gradually losing its ground and becoming poorer in terms of water resources.

Population growth, followed by rising water and food consumption, as well as disruptions such as the disparity of population distribution patterns with the distribution of time and place of water, have caused water-security access to Iran in crisis. 

This paper is the first to accurately calculate the Poverty Index for Iran over the period from 1989 to 2015. In this paper, a new model called the Water Multiplier Evaluation System with the Disaster Theory approach is used to calculate the water poverty index. For the first time using the censored regression econometric model, the effect of economic factors affecting the water poverty index during the period of 1989-2015 has been evaluated.

The results of calculating the water poverty index indicate the upward trend of this indicator and its components. The results of estimating the coefficients of the sensed regression model indicate that population growth, GDP, human development index and added value of the agricultural sector have worsened the water poverty index in Iran

In other words, the current and past trends of the human development index, GDP growth, population growth, increased agricultural production, insecurity and rising water poverty in Iran are inevitable.

Purpose of the present study is to estimate the fiscal illusion index, using Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes (MIMIC) model, using longitudinal data during the period of 2001 to 2021, for 31 provinces of Iran country. The results indicate that the most important causal variables of fiscal illusion index are educational costs and tax burden (with a negative effect) and economic participation rate (with a positive effect), and the most important indicators of fiscal illusion were Herfindahl index (with a negative coefficient), budget deficit, inflation rate, indirect tax ratio, real effective exchange rate and Oil revenue (with a positive coefficient) (and all are statistically significant). Also, the results showed that the average value of the estimated fiscal illusion index, among of the provinces, the lowest average value belongs to Khorasan Shomali and the highest value belongs to Khozestan province. Furthermore, the lowest average value of fiscal illusion index in the country level belongs to 2001 & 2002 and the highest is in 2021.

The aim of this study is analyzing fluctuations and uncertainty in the financial market and its effects and outcomes on real variables. To do so, in this study a DSGE model is used in which economic agents are heterogeneous (skilled and un-skilled person) and live for two periods (young and old generations). Moreover, firms are active in a monopolistic competition market with sticky prices. In this structure, financial market uncertainties are analyzed by fluctuations in stock prices, pessimistic of un-skilled agents about risky assets and uncertainty of un-skilled person regarding future of market. The difference of this study from related others is that government debt (from budget deficit) is financed by Islamic treasury bonds (Akhza) and therefore unlike interest rate – based economies, macro variables did not influence by interest rate. Model parameters is estimated using Bayesian approach and quarterly data on 2004 – 2019 period. The results from stochastic simulation shows that by increasing pessimistic degree of un-skilled persons, total consumption of economy and thereby output level will decrease. Moreover, increasing in uncertainty of un-skilled persons about future of stock market leads to increase in total consumption spending, investment spending and inflation rate in economy. Finally, the increase in variance of risky assets prices lead to increase in consumption spending of un-skilled persons but reduction in consumption spending of skilled persons

The banking system in Iran operates based on the monetary and banking act and the law for usury-free banking operations; however, in most Islamic countries, there is a dual system of Islamic banking and conventional banking. In this study, the monetary policy in Iran is investigated by Taylor rule firstly then the optimal monetary policy (Ramsey method) with maximizing household utility as a target of the central bank is considered by using the nonlinear new Keynesian DSGE model. Necessary changes in various sectors of the model, including households, production sector, government, oil sector, central bank, state-owned banks, non-governmental banks and stock exchanges as financial intermediaries, for a small oil-exporting economy within the framework of usury free banking system is considered and its results are evaluated and described. The results show that in the case of deterministic steady state (Taylor rule), monetary shock has greater impact on gross domestic product, and if Ramsey’s optimal monetary policy is pursued, the effects of shocks, will decreased and economic stability will be improved.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of food price uncertainty on food security in Iranian households during the period 1981-2018 in a nonlinear model. To estimate uncertainty, the Generalized Autoregressive Score Model, and to estimate the effect of food price uncertainty on food security, the Smooth Transition Autoregressive model has been used. The results show that food price uncertainty in the first regime (low level of investment in agriculture) has a negative and significant effect and in the second regime (high level of investment in agriculture) has a negative and non-significant effect on food security. In the first regime, where the level of investment in the agricultural sector is below the threshold, as food price fluctuations increase, market uncertainty increases and signals with less transparency to producers and consumers. Under these circumstances, consumers will face the problem of reduced purchasing power and insecurity in access to food, which has a negative impact on food security. While the second regime and increasing the level of investment in the agricultural sector, the negative effects of uncertainty on food security can be partially offset. According to the results of the present study, officials should take effective steps on one hand, by prioritizing the financing of investment in the agricultural sector and facilitating the conditions of activity of the private and cooperatives sector in this field like moving from traditional to industrial agriculture. On the other hand, to reduce the price gap, regulate the market demand of agricultural products, and create conditions for food price stability, create a kind of protection against short-term fluctuations and shocks.

Today, foreign direct investment is an important factor in creating broad economic changes for all countries, especially developing countries. Therefore, considering the importance of attracting foreign investment in the Iranian economy, the present study has examined the effect of economic sanctions and exchange rate uncertainty on FDI absorption in Iran using fuzzy regression model during the period 1990-2018. The results showed that high-intensity sanctions, which were mostly economic and comprehensive sanctions (such as the Central Bank and Iran oil sales sanctions), had a much deeper impact on capital inflows than low-intensity sanctions. Have had. It was also shown that the main obstacle to attracting foreign direct investment in Iran is the severe sanctions, which, like a high wall, overshadow other factors and have greatly reduced the incentives for foreign direct investment in Iran. Also, according to other findings, exchange rate uncertainty has a negative effect on attracting foreign direct investment in Iran. This finding confirms that the widespread exchange rate uncertainty in the Iranian economy has created an environment of uncertainty for investors to make decisions. Because it is difficult to predict profitability in the commercial and non-commercial sectors, as well as the cost of new capital goods.

In the modern world economy, foreign direct investment plays a very important role. Empirical studies show that the simultaneous study of the impact of corporate tax and exchange rate uncertainty on FDI absorption has not received much attention. In this article, we refer to the tax on corporate profits and exchange rate uncertainty on attracting FDI in Iran during 1981 to 2018 were studied. Other innovations of the present study can be described in terms of two virtual variables of low intensity and high intensity sanctions as well as the use of fuzzy logic concepts in estimating the coefficients of variables. The results showed that the intersecting effect of corporate income tax and exchange rate uncertainty, which represent profit and risk factors on FDI absorption, respectively, had a negative effect on FDI absorption. Also, comparing the coefficient of this variable with other factors of inflation rate, exchange rate and sanctions, it can be concluded that the intersecting effect of corporate tax and exchange rate uncertainty after the sanctions factor is the most important obstacle to attracting foreign direct investment in Iran.

The vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the 1404 horizon illustrates a bright future for the country, a program that is more qualitative than a little. To achieve the objectives of the vision document, there is a need for a quantitative analysis of the indicators discussed in the document. To achieve this, economic exports as one of the major macroeconomic indicators have been simulated and predicted by Pso algorithms for Iran and Turkey. Using the bands pattern, using the four criteria of mean deviation (MSE), root mean square deviation (RMSE), absolute error percentage (MAPE) and absolute error (MAE) simulation have been performed. The results indicate that the gap between exports of  two countries has continued since 2000, with the current trend of Turkey's exports going to double the export of Iran's economy.

The purpose of this study is to examine the response of charity to tax incentives using tax returns submitted by real individuals. Since governments use tax incentive policies to attract voluntary contributions from the private sector to reduce costs, in this study, it has been tried while addressing the concept of altruistic forgiveness and tax incentives, the altruistic forgiveness in the moral economy and the effect of tax incentives on it to be investigated by using panel data during the period of 2009-2016 in eight cities of Tabriz, Isfahan, Shiraz, Urmia, Mashhad, Ahvaz, Rasht and Arak. The results of the research confirm that there is a positive and significant relationship between the income of individuals, the giving cost and age with altruistic forgiveness; this means that by increasing the income of individuals, the giving cost and age, altruistic forgiveness increases. Since a large number of job-seekers are in the middle and lower income classes and in the current situation, this group pays more for charity than the high-income group, so the cost or the price of aid should be reduced to encourage this group. On the other hand, income elasticity is 0.85 and the elasticity of giving cost is 0.06 which reflects the coordination between income and price and its effect on altruistic forgiveness. In the following, the response of charity to tax incentives using tax elasticity indicates that there is a negative and significant relationship between the tax and altruistic forgiveness.

In the literature on energy economics, estimating and analyzing price elasticities of energy demand is one of the important issues in examining the effectiveness of pricing modalities for energy conservatin and environmental policy follow-up. In this regard, low price elasticities of energy demand will increase the need for non-price policies to change consumer behavior and stimulate energy savings. This study aims to estimate and analyze the price elasticities of energy demand with an emphasis on regional (provincial) diversity. For this purpose, price elasticities of energy demand in Iran's provinces during the period of 2001-2016 were estimated using Augmented Mean Group (AMG) estimator with heterogeneous slope coefficients. According to the results, the absolute value of the price elasticity of energy demand among the provinces is less than unit (0. 92) , and by the provinces separately, it lies between 0. 37 and 1. 32, as well as the least and greatest values of the price elasticity impute to provinces Qom and Bushehr, respectively. In general, 12 provinces have a price elasticity of energy demand higher than unit and 16 provinces have less than one, among which those of Qom, Hamedan, Qazvin, Tehran and Gilan have the priority of implementing for non-price policies, respectively. Furthermore, results revealed that the price elasticities of energy demand among provinces have positive spatial autocorrelation. The most important policy and research recommendations of this study are discussed for policy makers and researchers.

Energy literacy enhancement and empowerment of citizens to adopt energy-saving behaviors lie among the most effective strategies for reforming energy consumption patterns. The present study aims to investigate the status of energy literacy in the northwest of Iran and model factors affecting it, with an emphasis on economic and financial literacy. To this end, using the survey approach and questionnaire tools, economic and financial literacy index and energy literacy index were measured and then an empirical model of research was fitted with censored econometric models (Tobit estimator). The statistical population of the study consisted of staff and professors of the universities of East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, and Ardabil provinces. After sampling, 500 questionnaires were completed and analyzed. The results showed that financial and economic literacy has a positive and significant effect on two cognitive and emotional dimensions of energy literacy, while carrying insignificant effect on its behavioral dimension. Therefore, the hypothesis of the energy efficiency gap is confirmed among the statistical sample of the study. Households’ income level also influences the energy’s cognitive literacy significantly and negatively, and decreases energy-saving behaviors with increasing area of the house.

Valid estimates of price elasticity of energy demand lead to a better understanding of the economic, environmental and distributive impacts of energy price changes, and enable policymakers to make efficient energy management decisions. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of pricing policies for the modification of energy consumption patterns among Iran’s provinces. In this regard, price elasticities of energy demand ‎are estimated for selected energy carriers and total energy price index during 2000-2015. For this purpose, a dynamic panel model is used and the price elasticities of energy demand are estimated by Arellano-Bover (1995) and Blundell-Bond (1998) approaches. When total energy price index is applied in the model, the results show that the short-run and long-term price elasticities of energy demand are -0.038 and -0.567 on average, respectively. However, regarding energy carriers, the highest price elasticities of the aggregate energy demand belong to electricity and gasoline, respectively. The effect of climate change (as a proxy for heating and cooling needs) on energy demand is significant, and the average climate elasticity of energy demand is 0.15 in the short run and 2.30 in the long run. Since price elasticity of energy demand is less than one, and its climate elasticity is greater than one in the long run, non-tariff policies are proposed for energy conservation in the country.

In Islam the family has a very high rank. On the one hand, Islamic religion emphasizes the role of women in marital, motherhood and home affairs responsibilities, and Women's employment is highly respected within the framework of Islamic values. In this regard, the present study examines the impact of flexible women’s hours of work on their family responsibilities with an Islamic approach. In this research, 260 married women employees of higher education centers located in Tabriz were selected using a probabilistic sampling method sorted from universities and higher education institutions and questionnaires were randomly distributed among them. data were collected in the Winter 1396 and the Spring of 1397. Results analysis using Pearson correlation coefficient, simple and multiple linear regressions showed that the flexibility of women’s hours of work would improve their family responsibilities. Also, the results of the Friedman test showed that in the event of shorter working hours due to the use of flexible working hours, women would spend their free time to better off their family responsibilities.

This study aimed to investigate the influence of cultural factors on the risk power of companies in Iran's stock exchange. The companies surveyed included 178 companies selected by sampling method based on the specified criteria. To estimate the impact of cultural factors on the risk of active companies in the Iranian stock exchange and to analyze the relationships between the variables presented in the model with the use of panel data extracted from the financial statements in the stock exchange and other reports published by both statistical and religious institutions and Cultural was used. In this study, the panel method was used and before that Chow and Housman tests were used to determine the type of test. The results of the study on the effect of cultural factors on the riskiness of the companies active in the stock exchange showed that cultural factors have a significant effect on the standard deviation of the company's returns, the standard deviation of the firm's return on assets and the costs of research and development of the company, and This relationship is negative for all of the three risk aversion factors. In sum, it can be concluded that the promotion of cultural factors in the society influences all three indexes related to the risk appetite of companies in the stock market and thus reduces the risk aversion of these companies.

The appropriate theoretical explanation and the empirical prediction of adopting ethical behaviors by individuals are among the challenges in the economic literature. The most important theory in predicting the empirical behavior of individuals, i.e. the theory of expected utility, lacks unanimity towards dealing with ethical behaviors and explaining the mechanism of the emergence of such behaviors in everyday life. However, previous studies also had less achievement in predicting the variability of the ethical behaviors of individuals in the proposed models. In this study, a new behavioral model is presented to complete the previous models by highlighting the role of economic variables and incorporating the individuals’ self-interests in ethical decisions. In order to measure the predictive power of the proposed model in explaining the ethical behavior of time volunteering, data from nearly 25,000 people of twenty-five countries around the world is evaluated. The results of statistical analysis indicate the significance of the effects of economic variables on time volunteering while getting the more desirable explanation of the variability of ethical behaviors compared to the previous models. In addition, the findings show that economic variables have more explanatory power than other variables in sustainable ethical behavior model while the cultural and personality variables have more explanatory power than other variables in unsustainable ethical behavior model. These results, with emphasis on the economic aspects of adopting ethical behaviors, can provide a new horizon for further understanding and the new context for the emergence of such behaviors.

Environmental issues are related to social capital. Increasing human capital can reduce environmental pollution. The main of this paper is to investigate the effects of social capital and human capital on air pollution in Iranian provinces during the period of 2000-2015. In this regard, using fuzzy logic of social capital was estimated in each province of the country and resulted showed large difference between provinces. Then, considering the dynamism of the research model, the effects of social capital and human capital along with the control variables on air pollution emission were studied using GMM method. The results showed that social capital and human capital have a significant negative effect on air pollution in Iranian provinces. Therefore, the government can reduce the spread of air pollution by planning in the field; increasing expertise, improving the quality of manpower, raising awareness, reducing corruption, increasing people's participation, and reducing the gap between people and government. Other results of the study showed that economic growth, industrialization, energy intensity, urbanization, and past pollution contributed significantly to air pollution in Iran's provinces. However, squared per capita income variable have no significant effect on air pollution, so the Kuznets environmental hypothesis is not confirmed in Iran's provinces. Therefore, in order to establish this EKC, special attention should be paid to the role of variables of social capital and human capital.

Income distribution is of crucial importance for policymakers from the social justice viewpoint.  In recent years, financial tools and intermediaries have been developed in the global economy. Thus, investigating the impact of financial development on the income inequality has attracted the attention of economic researchers. Financial development affects income distribution through both channels of economic growth (directly) and increasing access to financial services (indirectly). Many studies have been conducted regarding the effects of financial development on income distribution in Iran with different methods and indicators, and even contradictory results. This study analyzes the effect of financial development on income inequality using various indicators and the structural vector auto-regression (SVAR) approach. The findings confirm the direct effect of financial development on income inequality, or the inequality-narrowing hypothesis, though they have no decisive implication on the indirect effects of financial development on income inequality, or the inequality-broadening hypothesis.

Women's employment is one of the major economic issues that is of interest to economic, social and political thinkers. In the opinion of the experts, the employment of women with fixed and long work hours causes physical and mental harms, and affects the welfare of the family. This research seeks to answer the question of the impact of flexible work hours for women on the welfare of the family in the Islamic sense. For data collection, a questionnaire was used in the winter 1396 and spring 1397. The analysis of results was performed using Pearson correlation coefficient and simple and multiple linear regression. The statistical population of this study included all the married female employees of higher education institutions located in Tabriz city, 260 of whom were selected using stratified random sampling by separate universities. The results indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between the flexibility of women's work hours and family well-being.

This study aimed to investigate the influence of socio-cultural factors structure of participation in the stock, according to Securities and Exchange mediator of trust in Iran.
The sample group consisted of 398 samples were selected based on random sampling. For statistical analysis of the correlation coefficient method, hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. The results show that although the test variables, socio-cultural factors influence of some variables such as beliefs, participation in stock or reject, such as education, income, and legislation is approved, but by examining the variables of trust, such as optimism, ambiguity aversion and risk aversion and direct and significant impact of these variables on participation in the exchange on the role of influential variables related to socio-cultural factors is stressed. The results of multiple regression analysis correlation and model the role of trust in the relationship between socio-cultural factors contribute to the exchange as a mediator confirmed. In the following through compliance data and conceptual model, structural equation modeling to assess the impact of trust as a mediator was fitted and the Influence of socio-cultural factors by role of mediator Trust on participation in the stock confirmed

There are wide ranges of evidence show that self-interest is not unique motivation in various games and experiments. Fairness, reciprocity, competition and altruism can take substantial role in some game. To explain contrary result of experiments some models arise by considering those motivations beside the selfishness. This study explores three types of these models. Two of them are based on fairness and last one supposes that subjects are surplus maximizer. A distributional experiment based on dictator game is established to explore models. Results show fairness motivation has main rule in subject’s choice in all treatments. However it is impossible to ignore self-interest and efficiency entirely.

Currently, National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company is the exclusive distributor of various petroleum products all over Iran. High price of land in large cities and small amounts of revenue creates a waek competitive environment in which private sector is not motivated enough to invest on construction of gas stations, hence this situation leads to a shortage of gas stations in the country. One of the ways to overcome this insufficiency is to use capacities of private sector in the process of petroleum products distribution. In order to deregulate the market for distribution of petroleum products in the country, it is necessary to reform its structure. However, implementing this change should happen gradually and in different stages. Also, in all stages the government should supervise the execution of the task. In this paper, three stages of restructuring the market for petroleum products distribution in the country has been proposed. The first stage is to creat the necessary conditions for establishment of qualified firms which their duty is to receive petroleum products from oil depots and to distribute the products in filling stations. Because petroleum products in Iran have subsidized prices, it is necessary for the government to determine the commission rate paid to private firms entering this field in a way that their activity is economically viable. In this paper, by considering current and capital costs and using economic engineering- feasibility model proposed by United Nations Industrial Development Organization- and with the help of COMFAR III Expert software, we have calculated the commission rate payable to distribution companies for different values of land prices. Calculation results show that if land price considered to be zero, net commission rate payable to private distribution companies for one liter of petroleum product should be 783 IRRs. In conditions in which the distribution company is owner of either out-of-town or center of province, this number should be 808 and 1153 IRRs respectively. This number for a case in which stations are constructed by the distribution companies in combined locations: centers of provices, other cities and out-of-town stations, is calculated to be 956 IRRs.