arash jamalmanesh

This research has provided a model for analyzing policies to deal with the water crisis in Iran with regard to climate and population changes in a twenty-year horizon with a system dynamics approach. model was designed according to the hydrological cycle of water and the effective representation of the security of water resources in the country with Vansim software. Surface water sources, underground water, dam water and population are considered as accumulation variables of model. The required statistics were extracted from the Iranian Statistics Center, the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad for 2017-2037. Based on the research model, the state of water resources in the country shows a downward trend during the mentioned time horizon. various policies regarding dealing with the water crisis and its impact on the security of country's water resources were examined using the designed model. dimensions of the model were changed under 5 scenarios and its effect on the security of water resources was investigated. The investigated scenarios are in the two sectors of supply and demand management of water resources. These scenarios include climate change and reduction of renewable water, low water productivity in different sectors, population increase and water return from different sectors. These scenarios change the security of water resources according to their nature. At the end, the conceptual model of analysis of policies to deal with the water crisis is presented and practical suggestions were adopted by integrating water supply and demand management to deal with this crisis.

Today, the optimal governance paradigm is used on a wide scale from local to international level. According to many experts and experts in this field of research, the most important and effective theory on the way to achieving the desired governance is "decentralization of (political-economic) power" (Chigbu, 2021). Decentralization has been considered as one of the indicators of reducing power distance. Decentralization, means the delegation of power (in political and economic matters), leads to a reduction in the power gap between different levels and the power gap between the government and the people (Rodríguez, 2018). The main problem of this research is that currently there is no firm determination in the country's political and policy-making system to realize the model of decentralization and delegation of authority to local authorities (such as governorates, etc.). On the other hand, it has been found that simply increasing decentralization does not increase welfare; rather, the necessary infrastructure for handing over affairs to the provinces should be evaluated first, and then the realization and improvement of social welfare in the provinces (Khanzadi et al., 1400). From a theoretical point of view, not much effort has been made to provide a political-economic decentralization model, which indicates a major research gap in governance literature. With all the aforementioned, the question of how decentralization helps to realize the desired governance, due to the disagreements and deficiencies that exist in the field of theoretical literature and research background, remains without a firm and definitive answer; Therefore, the main question of this research is: "What is the model of decentralization (political-economic) in Iran's provinces in the direction of good governance?"

This research is practical in terms of purpose, which was done with a mixed (qualitative-quantitative) approach. The statistical community in the qualitative section includes university experts who have a history of education in the field of public administration and valid scientific articles in this field. To determine the samples of this research and to determine this group of experts, a non-probability and purposeful sampling (Judgmental Sampling) method was used. The criterion for determining the sample size in this research is to reach theoretical saturation, which was achieved after fourteen interviews.The snowball technique was used for sampling. The statistical population of the quantitative stage was the senior and middle managers of the governorate and the program and budget organization and managers of general offices in the provinces of Tehran, Isfahan, Kurdistan, and Khuzestan (N=183). Considering that the number of the studied community is limited, the entire studied community has been used completely and non-randomly as the investigated sample. The main tool of data collection in the qualitative part is the semi-structured in-depth interview. To determine the validity and reliability of the interviews, two methods of retesting and double coder agreement were used.In the quantitative part, to test these research hypotheses, a researcher-made questionnaire including 147 items was used to collect information. The items of the questionnaire were compiled exactly based on the indicators identified in the qualitative phase of the research. In this research, the database theory method has been used to analyze qualitative data. Data analysis in the qualitative section has been done using MAXQDA software version 2020. Inferential statistics and Partial Least Squares (PLS) version 2024 were used to analyze the data and test the research hypotheses.

Based on the results of three stages of coding in the second part of the research, the obtained data are classified into 9 main categories. According to professors and experts, out of all the indicators obtained from the qualitative analysis of 14 interviews, including 9 categories and 30 indicators, have been used to formulate the model of decentralization (political-economic) in the direction of good governance.Figure 1- Research paradigm model.A survey approach was used to validate the obtained model. To check the validity of the questionnaires, two indices Content Validity Index (CVI) and Content Validity Ratio (CVR) have been measured. The results of the content validity index of the questions show that the CVI of all the questions is higher than 0.8, which is the result of the validity of the content of each question. Also, considering that the CVR value of each question is greater than 0.56, the content validity ratio of this questionnaire has been confirmed.The value of Cronbach's alpha reliability and composite reliability for all variables in the research model is more than 0.7. Therefore, the research questionnaire has the necessary reliability. Based on the obtained results, it was found that the conditions of convergent validity are also established. Therefore, convergent validity is also confirmed. The results of the Fornell-Larcker test also confirm the validity of the tool. The coefficient of determination test (R2) and the GOF index (equal to 0.698) also confirm the appropriate fit of the research model. In total, the results of the quantitative part showed that the proposed model in this research has good validity from the point of view of path coefficient and significant value.

Decentralization and formation of local government is a complex and long process that works to increase the participation of all people of a society in the development process based on local capacities, abilities, and resources. In decentralization, the central government hands over decision-making authority to local institutions whose officials are elected by the people of the same place; but their performance is under the control and supervision of the central government. In better words, decentralization refers to the relative authority of local governments in terms of setting goals, providing resources, and managing and implementing public policies. Decentralization facilitates and accelerates decision-making. It increases competition between local governments. It brings regional development and increases transparency and accountability by bringing the government closer to the people. Decentralization is also mentioned in articles of the law of the fifth five-year development plan of the country. In developing countries, there are several categories of main tasks, including "establishing the rule of law and ensuring the implementation of regulations", "creating macroeconomic stability", "and creating and upgrading infrastructure "," providing welfare services "," protecting the environment "and" strengthening the productive capacity of the national economy" can be summarized as the most important activities of the public sector. This research is one of the first studies that provide a comprehensive model related to decentralization in the direction of good governance. The components identified in the model of this research can have management guidelines for policymakers to facilitate the decentralization process and consequently strengthen good governance. Also, the proposed model provides researchers with a new perspective by separating different factors so that they can identify the important areas of decentralization from the perspective of good governance.

This study was conducted with the aim of designing a model of decentralization (political-economic) in Iran's provinces in line with optimal governance. The current research is considered to be a developmental research in terms of its purpose, exploratory in terms of its method, and a qualitative method in terms of its data collection method.

The statistical population consists of 14 executive and academic experts who have a history of education in the field of public administration and valid scientific articles in this field. The main tool of data collection in the field section includes semi-structured interviews. The reliability of the interviews was confirmed by the method of intra-subject agreement and retesting. To analyze the data, foundation data theory was used using MaxQD software.

Based on the results of the qualitative analysis of six categories of factors including causal factors (planning, competence, and flexibility), contextual factors (accountability, public empowerment, responsibility), intervening factors (environmental decentralization), central phenomenon (political-economic decentralization), Strategies (social development, economic management, and promotion of public participation), and consequences (decentralization based on governance, efficiency and effectiveness, formation of public consensus for justice) were identified. Based on the identified components, a paradigmatic model of political-economic decentralization was developed.

Based on the obtained results, public empowerment, responsibility and accountability were identified as the basic conditions for the realization of desirable governance. The growth and development of any society and country is dependent on the efficient and favorable performance of government organizations and institutions, and accordingly, the efficient and favorable performance of the people working in these institutions and organizations.

Reducing inequality and establishing social justice by balancing the distribution of income and wealth is one of the main concerns of economic policymakers which has been emphasized in the constitution in Iran. Explaining the relationship between inequality and its causes has been one of the most challenging areas of economic debate in the recent decades; despite extensive research in this area, there are still many ambiguous issues in this regard. In recent years, new hypotheses have been proposed by the French economist, Thomas Piketty on the main causes of the spread of inequality. In his analysis, he considers the gap between the rate of return on capital and the rate of economic growth (r-g) to be the main causes of inequality. However, despite providing logical explanations consistent with changes in inequality patterns, he has not conducted any empirical tests for its scientific-theoretical chain. Therefore, these question arise as to how empirically verifiable the Piketty hypothesis is and is it able to explain the increase in inequality of different countries? For this purpose, a Stock-Flow Consistent (SFC) model was used as a first model in the present study to investigate the relationship between inequality and growth in a macroeconomic framework of Iran. This model tests the conclusions and Piketty assumptions for the Iranian economy when changing key parameters. The results of this model showed that under certain circumstances with decreasing growth rate, income inequality increases. However, the analysis proved that there are no inevitable conditions under which a reduction in the growth rate will lead to a sharp increase in the level of inequality.

The problem of hydropower plant profit maximization includes simultaneous programming of optimal utilization of water resources and participation in the power market. The present research was performed on a chain of hydropower plants within the Karoon river basin in Khuzestan Province (Iran) (i.e. Karoon 3, Karoon 1, and Masjid Soleyman hydropower plants). In this research nonlinear programming and dynamic systems were applied to the monthly data for the 2005–2015 period to optimize total revenue. This study calculated optimal water reserve and release of water from the dam reservoir as well as profitability of the considered hydropower plants for a period of 24 months. The profit maximization was performed considering the revenue generated from energy markets, reserve, by-services, and frequency control, along with production costs including, maintenance costs, and start and stop and penalty costs. Results indicated that profitability of the studied power plants was more sensitive to the water inflow of dams rather than fluctuations in electricity price. The results show that by using optimization methods, more profit can be obtained than the current operation of power plants.

In line with the second national conference on humanities and the second pre-conference of the economic group on explaining modernization of the subjects in the field of economics at undergraduate and graduate levels، the following points are discussed in this paper. In order to modernize the contents and titles، the subjects in the taught in the field of economics in some top universities in the world are first investigated. These subjects are then compared with the subjects approved by the High Council of Cultural Revolution in the past thirty years and the ones implemented in recent years in some top universities in Iran. The viewpoints of the colleagues mentioned in the previous pre-conference are also compared and discussed in this paper. The result indicates that the compositions and contents of the subjects in the field of economics need to be reviewed fundamentally.