فصلنامه اقتصاد اسلامی
پیاپی 35 (پاییز 1388)

Keeping in view that the downsizing of the government is one of the currenteconomic discussions of the country, it is necessary that by differentiating betweenthe authoritative and incumbency roles of the government, the status andimportance of the government in economic matters and its influence onimprovement of the income distribution system, from the view of IslamicEconomics, be thoroughly studied.The hypothesis of this research is that an Islamic government has an effectiverole in the improvement of income distribution, and fulfillment of authoritativeresponsibilities in the economic issues is one of the important aspects of this role.The results of this research reflect that considering the role of an Islamicgovernment in the pre-production distribution, functional distribution, redistributionand organizing the qualitative distribution, it can be expressed thatenlargement of the government size with respect to authority and policy-makingpower, and reduction of its size with respect to managing the firms and directcontrol of economic issues, in order to strengthen the competitive environment, willresult in improvement of the functional distribution and quantitative distribution ofincome in the Islamic society.

The role of effective governments and institutions in equitable developmentand progress is undeniable. In the decade of equitable progress, the IslamicSystem of Iran, in order to achieve such a progress must rely on a committed,religious, tactful and effective government.Religious governance is one of the most important responsibilities in order to“create a Progressive and Justice-Oriented Islamic country”. Determination ofthe responsibilities of an Islamic government in the areas of providing religiousidentity, progress based on Islam, and focusing justice, provides a correctpicture of governance based on religion.This research which aims at answering such a need, in gathering the librarybasedinformation and Quranic, traditional [hadith-ic] and jurisprudentialconclusions uses textual analysis, and in the economic discussions acts upon theanalytical method. The main problem that this article discusses is theexploration of responsibilities of a religious government on the levels ofproviding identification, progress and justice. It portrays the macroresponsibilities of a religious government in the areas of governance,legislation, planning, supervision, investment etc. The government officials andthe planners of the country can expediently identify the position of these issuesin the three levels of providing identification, progressive, and pivotal status ofjustice; can become aware of their responsibilities, avoid the overlapping ofmatters and increase their own effectiveness.

Conventional banking, answers all consumptive needs of the households, andinvestment needs of the economic firms, through provisions of interest basedfacilities, without considering the kind of need the applicant needs the loan for.Whereas the Islamic banking has a separate instrument for each kind of need, on thebasis of which the provision of facility takes place, and the real advantage ofIslamic banking lies in this very aspect.Islamic banks, with an experience of over forty years have shown that allthe demands can be answered through the profit based and non-profit basedcontracts authorized by Islam. This article strives that through an analyticdescriptivemethod and a financial structuring technique, benefiting from theIslamic banking experience and Imamiya jurisprudence and the popularSunni jurisprudence, it can prove this hypothesis that: “By categorizing theIslamic contracts, needs of the applicants and the types of banks, a mostlegal, comprehensive and efficient model of offering facilities in Islamicbanks can be designed.” Proving such a hypothesis will help instandardization of facility granting methods in Islamic banking.

Considering that ‘Riba’ and interest has been prohibited in Islam, Muslimexperts try to present contracts compatible with ‘shar’ei’ [jurisprudential]principles as substitutes for interest based transactions. One of suchcontracts, which has been suggested based on the partnership contract, is the“Declining-Balance Partnership.” This contract, on one hand can fulfill theaims of the depositors and on the other, can satisfy the goals of the economicagents. This contract can be used to construct and purchase a variety ofprojects and assets specially housing. The simplest form of this contract isthat two persons through a partnership contract invest in a property andstipulate in the contract that within a specified period, one of the partieswould sell his share to the other. The partners can agree on the selling priceprevailing at the time of the contract, or they can agree on the current marketprice prevailing on the transfer date. The peculiarities and advantages ofDeclining-Balance Partnership in comparison with other contracts such asHire Purchase and Installment Sale, and the capability of designing afinancial instrument, have resulted in the popularity of this contract.Similarly it also helps in the equitable distribution of income; one of thegoals of the Islamic economic system. This article which has an analytic andexploring essence, strives to analyze jurisprudentially and design anoperational banking model and financial papers based on Declining-BalancePartnership, based on Imamiya [Shia] jurisprudence. During the course, theobjections already raised or, which can possibly be raised regarding the saidcontract, will also be answered.

In the beginning this article deals with the effect of interest-freebanking laws on structure of the country’s demand function formoney in Iran. Subsequently it studies the stability of coefficientsof the demand function for money. In this article the limited andbroad definitions of ‘money’ I.e. m1 and m2 will be used. Themodels have been derived by using Autoregressive Distributed Lag(ARDL) models. The results show that the implementation of thislaw [in Iran] has affected the coefficient of exchange rate in thedemand function. However it has had no effect on coefficients ofinflation and gross domestic product variables. Moreover, it hasalso affected the y-intercept and, subsequently, the structure of m1demand function. In order to analyze the stability of parameters ofthe demand function erogeneity and super erogeneity tests havebeen used. The results of these tests show that the demand functionfor is more stable than that for. This result has special importancefor the authorities making monetary policy.

These days our country is facing fundamental difficulties regarding,the production structures, management of energy consumption and anequitable distribution of subsidies. In Iran production has been foundedon cheap (almost free) energy, and for this very reason the productivityof energy is very low. Similarly, the dependence of the country onenergies derived from oil and gas, which are non-renewable, will makeus face the danger of an impasse in near future. At the same time thedistribution of subsidies is also extremely unfair. [Therefore] To improvethe production structures in the country, optimum management of energyconsumption and equitable distribution of subsidies, targeting thesubsidies using the most adequate methods, appears to be necessary.This applied research, using the survey research technique, to gatherinformation and data, and also the library research techniques andinterviewing the experts, tries to analyze and evaluate the risk of changingthe current method of payment of subsidies and converting them to cash.We also present a more effective general plan in order to avoid theprobable risks that this scheme could carry for the economy, and putforward the commitments required for the application of this plan.

One of the expense-types incurred by Muslims, are those incurred fornearness to Allah. In this article, while theoretically studying the factorsinfluencing it, along with the collection of related information in the familybudgets for various income deciles of urban households, during the timeperiod 1361-84, with the “Panel Data” technique, we strive to study themanner of influence of these factors and while determining the coefficient ofeach factor, calculate the income elasticity. The required study is achievedthrough “Random Effect” model and shows that the income of households,the household dimension and the imposed war has had a positive, andinflation, a negative effect on religion oriented payments. During war thedependent of religious payments has been shifted upwards. Similarly theincome elasticity of these payments, in different deciles had a rising trend,and for the upper three income classes was more than the unit.