فصلنامه پژوهش های رشد و توسعه اقتصادی
پیاپی 14 (بهار 1393)

Economic literature has shown significant attention towards the economical analysis of female participation rate since Mincer (1992) and Cain (1966). In the recent years، female participation rate increased considerably in the developed countries، while this rate had a little change in developing countries of Middle East and North of Africa like Iran. Hence، this study discusses the effects of economic development on female labor force participation rates in selected countries in MENA region in 1990-2010 within the framework of U-shaped hypothesis. In addition to the effects of economic development، other determinants of female labor force participation are also analyzed. To achieve this goal، the method of Fractional Panel Probit is used. In our best knowledge، this method is used for the first time for this issue. The estimation results suggest that relationship between economic development and the rate of female participation in MENA is U-shaped. Also، higher education has a significant and positive effect on the female participation rate. Unemployment and fertility rate reduce female participation rate in the labor market.

No country today without the active participation in international trade and the global economy can not reach its proper development. The challenge currently facing developing countries including Iran is how the international activities of the company are effective. Economic development will be achieved due to the increasing volume and variety of exports and attract foreign direct investment and thus increasing export competitiveness. Therefore، in this study، the impact of taxes on attracting foreign direct investment has been examined. Panel data approach for the years 1995-2012 is used in this study. Variables include GDP، the degree of trade openness، education، population، exchange rate and inflation rate. Based on the findings of the study، exchange rate، inflation rate and taxes have a negative impact on attracting foreign direct investment and variable of trade openness، population and GDP have a positive impact. It is observed that Indonesia with higher growth in attracted investment has lower tax rates than other D-8 countries in different years.

The purpose of this paper is to combine two concepts of economy and society to analyze the economic development by a social approach. Social cohesion is the situation which all elements of society be joined in a manner that makes an effective union. In this research، the social cohesion index for 85 selected developed and developing countries during 2008-2010 are calculated using “equality of opportunity” and “social capital” components. Then the effect of social cohesion on economic development has been examined، using panel regression analysis. The findings show that social cohesion has a positive and significant effect on GDP per capita، technological innovation، effectiveness of government institutions، quality of development policies and finally political and social stability.

Employment is one of the triple basic factors of production i. e. land، labor، and capital; unlike other factors، labor cannot be stored، and this power will be lost if it cannot be used in production. Therefore، the necessity of the analysis of the employment is of special importance. The question of the involvement and the role of the State in the economy also has been one of the phenomena of interest to economists. The extent and the size of government and its effect on macroeconomic variables have a decisive role in the status of the economy. In this study، variables of government size، economic growth rate، the rate of inflation and the rate of private sector investment are as the explanatory variables، and the variable of employment is dependent variable in the form of a multiple variables regression. Finally the results of the model showed that size of government has a negative effect on employment، and the economic growth rate، the inflation rate and the rate of private sector investment have a positive effect on employment. The results of the estimation in period 1976 -2011 using the self-explanatory Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and Bound Testing Approach devised by Pesaran، Shin and Smith، showed that our dynamic pattern goes towards the long term pattern. Also the results of the error correction model indicate that it is corrected from its long-term path in each period at a rate of 56%.

Export diversification in developing countries is an important tool to stabilize the foreign exchange revenue from exports of goods and services. This paper examines changes in diversification of exports for the period 2004-2012 when international sanctions increased against Iran. For this purpose، export diversification and its trend has been examined with Herfindahl، Hirschman and Thile indices. The results show that export diversification has shown a declining trend before new sanctions (in 2010) and an increasing trend after new sanctions. Diversification of 8-digit commodity code (HS) indicates that despite the improvement of export diversification، the country''s total non-oil exports remain concentrated in certain groups، and this has a negative impact on diversification. Furthermore، the results showed that the geographic diversification with new sanctions declined sharply.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has a key role in making universal political and economic decisions regarding petroleum. Therefore، it seems highly important to assess the OPEC member’s degree of concentration and its monopoly. This research، aims to assess and classify the concentration of petroleum export in the OPEC countries during the 1997-2011 period by the Herfindahl- Hirschman index method. Subsequently the impact of oil export concentration on economic growth of the OPEC member countries is assessed via the panel data pattern and the fixed effect method. The research model has been estimated in two conditions. Results of the estimation show that in the second condition there is a meaningful and positive relationship between oil export concentration and economic growth rate.

Tourism has a great impact on the economic and social activities and understanding these relationships is useful for a strong contribution to the interaction between sustainable development and tourism. This study investigated the status of tourism in Iran، and then Iranian tourism demand model using neural networks method is studied. In the model input parameters include the number of incoming tourism during 1980 to 2011، the foreign exchange earned from tourism over these years and a dummy variable to investigate the effect of war on tourism demand. The results show that exchange rate is the most important and war is the less important variables in our model. It insists on the need of development plan in this industry.