دکتر مهدی حاج امینی

The type of industries that grow the economy, based on their intensity of production factors, plays a crucial role in shaping income distribution within a society. Failure to consider the intensity of production factors in industries may result in a scenario where production grows while income inequality worsens. The primary objective of this study is to examine how variations in the value-added share of industries, based on production factor utilization intensity, impact income inequality in the economy of Iran. The research employs the generalized method of moments (GMM) and utilizes data from all 31 provinces of the country spanning from 2010 to 2019. Findings indicate that a proportional rise in the value-added share of labor-intensive and natural resource-intensive industries contributes to a decline in income inequality at the national level. Given Iran's significant abundance of labor and natural resources, these industries exhibit comparative advantages in line with the Heckscher-Ohlin theory. Consequently, prioritizing the nation's comparative advantages serves to enhance income distribution, aligning with the Stolper-Samuelson theorem. Thus, transitioning towards a market system mechanism over government intervention in price determination for production factors or industry selection not only preserves economic efficiency but also enhances income distribution compared to the present scenario.  The government must provide direct financial assistance to individuals with low incomes and adhere to appropriate strategies for redistributing income via the taxation framework. By doing so, based on the principles outlined in the second welfare theorem, it becomes feasible to attain a new optimal Pareto equilibrium, resulting in a more just allocation of income, all the while preserving overall efficiency.

The role of financial development as a prerequisite for economic growth and development on environmental pollution has remained ambiguous. Also, the direct impact of financial development on climate change has merely been investigated in a limited number of foreign studies. Therefore, the current study delves into examining the joint influence of financial progress and pollution on climate change. Data encompassing economic, environmental, and climate change aspects from 1990 to 2021 across 99 developed and developing nations have been collected, and a regression model has been employed utilizing the unbalanced panel technique. The results validate the robust positive impact of the evolution of the banking sector and the relatively weaker positive influence of the growth of the stock market on the mean temperature, serving as an index for climate change. Furthermore, the affirmative correlation between pollution metrics and the mean temperature is affirmed. The differentiation in this association across diverse climates, according to the De Martonne climate classification, highlights its intricate nature. There is a more immediate impact in arid and semi-arid climates compared to the delayed effect observed in humid and semi-humid climates. Consequently, the progression in financial sectors is likely to increase the mean temperature both directly and indirectly (via pollution), particularly in these specified climates. Effective policies need to be implemented to guide the financial sector towards allocating capital to socially responsible industries, environmentally sustainable projects, and eco-friendly production. This should also include avoiding financial support for polluting ventures.

IntroductionIn today’s world, the socio-economic positions of women and men have changed; but impacts of masculine ideologies are still observed, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries. Inequality and gender discrimination are reprehensible for two basic reasons. First, gender is an identity factor. Secondly, gender inequality is probably the most pervasive example of human rights violations. Half of the world’s population is made up of women, and the existence of institutions and laws against their rights means a violation of freedom and identity as sources of power and trust of the society. In addition, women have not had the same “opportunity” and “freedom of choice” as men. MethodologyPrevious researches have mostly dealt with gender discrimination in the labor market; hence the present paper focuses on the issue that gender discrimination at the micro level (the labor market) may have macro origins. For this purpose, economic freedom indices, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, gender development and inequality have been collected for more than 90 countries during the period 1970-2020. Hofstede’s index has six key dimensions including long term orientation (vs. short term orientation), individualism (vs. collectivism), uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity (vs. femininity), and indulgence (vs. restraint). The gender development index is calculated based on the ratio of the human development index of women to men. Therefore, this index reflects the status of women compared to men in the three sub-indices of health, education and per capita income. Another indicator is gender inequality, which shows the status of women in terms of reproductive health (maternal mortality and adolescent fertility), empowerment (parliamentary representation and education attainment) and the labor market (labor force participation). To analyze this large sample of data, two methods of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Random Forest are used. In this way, it is investigated whether the factor of economic freedom played a role in explaining gender inequality or not? Results and ConclusionAccording to the results of covariance analysis, the role of economic freedom, cultural dimensions and their synergy in explaining the difference between gender development and gender inequality in countries is confirmed. Also, the findings of the random forest show that the sub-indices of economic freedom, especially property rights, international trade and government size, were the most important. However, the results related to cultural dimensions are fragile and differ depending on the indicator and the sample. Therefore, gender discrimination is influenced by non-cultural aspects such as the economic system rather than the result of cultural aspects. As a result, striving for economic freedom, especially from an institutional perspective, can facilitate the achievement of a society with fairer opportunities between men and women.

In today’s world, the socio-economic statuses of women and men have evolved; however, the effects of masculine ideologies are still evident, particularly in developing and underdeveloped countries. The function of governments as a shield that protects the interests of men is widely believed to be historically and institutionally related to this inequality of opportunities. As a result, the present paper has investigated the role of political structure and power on gender inequalities using two methods of variance analysis and random forest, as well as over 2500 observations from 94 countries between 1970 and 2020. For this purpose, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and political rights and civil liberties indicators were implemented. Based on the variance analysis, two dimensions of democratic political structure were found to be significantly involved in the explanation of the disparity between gender development and gender inequality, particularly the primary difference between not-free and partly-free countries and free countries. In order to experience a society with minimal gender discrimination, it is imperative to prioritize civil liberties and political rights, as the random forest results also confirmed. However, the results concerning cultural characteristics are exceedingly susceptible to fluctuations and are contingent upon the sample or gender index . A policy trade-off between gender freedom and development is not presented to policymakers in developing and underdeveloped countries; rather, they are presented with an all-or-nothing choice. Reducing gender inequality and achieving a free political system are two aspects of the same coin.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the experimental effect of non-renewable natural resources on the quality of regulation and economic growth in Iran, as a rich country in natural resources, for the period of 1997-2021. In order to achieve these goals, a model including the production function, regulatory quality changes and the creation of new technology has been designed, assuming the distribution of productive labor in these three economic sectors. The results show the negative effect of non-renewable natural resources on economic growth, so the elasticity of production with respect to the mentioned resources is -0.043%. The elasticity of production with respect to the quality of regulation is estimated to be equal to 0.10, so the improvement in the quality of regulation has led to an increase in production. The effect of non-renewable natural resources on changes in regulatory quality has become statistically insignificant, but the effect of GDP per capita on changes in regulatory quality has been positive. Therefore, both regulatory quality and economic growth are endogenously determined and mutually affect each other. It is recommended that policymakers should simultaneously focus on solving the institutional and non-institutional issues of the resource curse.

In recent decades, economists have considered institutions as effective agents in economic growth and included them in growth models. The role of institutional quality in the long-term economic growth of a country is determined through transaction costs. In a weak institutional environment, companies and economic actors cannot enter complex, long-term exchanges and multiple contracts, nor can they bring such exchanges to the fore, as in industrial economies. As a result, economic growth in these economies is lower. The quality of regulation as an institutional factor is one of the main functions of the new governance system. This factor can play an effective and decisive role to explain the reasons for economic growth in countries. Stigler (1971), Peltzman (1976), Koedjik and Kremers (1996), Loayza et al. (2005), Spiller and Tommasi (2005), Crew and Parker (2006) and Silberberger and Königer (2016) have dealt with the effect of regulatory quality on economic growth.

In this study, an endogenous growth model was designed based on Stiglitz (1974) to achieve the desired goals for an economy that is rich in natural resources. In this regard, investigations were conducted on the role of regulatory quality (institutional quality) as one of the factors affecting economic growth and the effectiveness of non-renewable natural resources on regulatory quality and economic growth. As assumed, the economy consists of many people with unlimited life span and identical preferences and unlimited planning horizons. Therefore, the consumer's welfare function reflects the society's welfare function. Also, the utility function of the representative household is a function of private consumption and regulatory quality (as a representative of the quality of the economic, social and political environment), which follows the integral function. The role of regulatory quality on economic growth was emphasized in this model with regard to the effectiveness of research and development (R&D) activities and workforce allocation among the productive and non-productive activities. As a result, it is assumed that every individual is a workforce unit presented in the productive or non-productive sector. The workforce in the productive sector is allocated to the final product, regulatory quality changes (public sector), and new technology (research and development). Hence, non-renewable natural resources as a production factor and institutional quality as one of the factors affecting economic growth are entered into the production function by assuming the effect of a productive workforce on the production of final products. Furthermore, non-renewable natural resources have entered the regulatory quality movement equation as a factor affecting the improvement or deterioration of regulatory quality. This variable has also entered the equation of technological changes by assuming the effectiveness of regulatory quality on workforce supply in productive activities in the research and development sub-sector. The data were related to the period of 1997-2019 and extracted from authentic national and international statistical sources. The theoretical model was designed according to the abundance of non-renewable natural resources, solved by the optimal control method, and then calibrated for Iran's economy.

The findings showed that realizing 8% economic growth requires almost 15% growth in regulatory quality and non-renewable natural resources, as well as 4.5% growth in new technologies. The average growth rates of these variables during the period of 1997-2021 for Iran's economy were 0.87%, 4.56% and 3.9%, respectively. It can be concluded that, in this situation, it is almost impossible to reach a steady state. In addition, with the increase in the quality of regulation, the relationship between non-renewable natural resources and economic growth turns from negative to positive. Accordingly, for every 3% of more exploitation of non-renewable natural resources, the quality of regulation and technology must grow by at least 1% in order to increase economic growth by 1%. Otherwise, the decline in the economic growth is not unlikely.

Conclusions and policy implications:

 Reducing the rate of time preferences can help to achieve 8% economic growth, but the fact is that this rate is high and sticky in developing countries. Policymakers have no choice but to increase the quality of regulation and new technologies. Otherwise, the targeted economic growth will not be achieved.

What are the prerequisites for economic freedom and economic development? On the one hand, the “Friedman-Lee hypothesis” states that a free economy does not require a democratic political system in the early stages. On the other hand, the “Sen hypothesis” states that the free market cannot happen without a democratic political system. This conflict of views becomes more important when exceptions like Singapore and China are used to emphasize the unimportance of the political structure and postpone the process of democracy. Accordingly, the House of Liberty and Fraser Economic Freedom Indices for 119 countries from 1970 to 2018 (including 2497 observations) were collected and an attempt was made to answer this question. Evidence showed that political freedom and its sub-indices play a decisive role in explaining the difference between the level of economic freedom and its components. However, some evidence indicates civil liberties to be more important for achieving a free economic system. Democracy is a part of the process of economic reforms, and postponing democracy is a failure of any economic reforms.

The Stock Market is one of the main pillars of the financial market. Increasing the analytical power of capital market investors is one of the factors that play an effective role in the development of such a market. Many investors use technical analysis to make their trading decisions. In this study, the efficiency of buying stocks of insurance companies in Tehran Stock Exchange was examined by Technical Analysis which includes Stochastic Oscillator, Exponential Moving Average, and Hull Moving Average. Then, the study compares Technical Analysis with Buy and Hold Method. To do this, the trading positions that created based on daily periods for 14 insurance companies in Tehran Stock Exchange between 2017:3 and 2019:9 have been reviewed and compared with the Buy and Hold Method. Results indicate that the quarterly returns getting by Technical Method are positive in overall, and the number of trades with negative returns is less than the number of trades with positive returns. Similarly, the average return on a trade with a loss has always been lower than the average return with a profit. Moreover, the number of days with negative returns was less than the number of days with positive returns in all insurance companies. Findings show that using Technical Method was more profitable than the Buy and Hold Method in all companies which have been investigated.

Many studies have evaluated political power from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. But the present study tries to provide a quantitative criterion for calculation of power. To do this, using the country’s budget law, the institutions that enjoys from national budget are identified and then the officials who are at the head of those institutions from each province are identified. Then the importance coefficient of each official is calculated based on multiplication of two indicators: the allocated budget to his/her institution or organization and the duration of his/her tenure in each year. The power matrix for each province is made. Finally, the power index for Iranian provinces is calculated using methods of Simple Additive Weighting, TOPSIS, and Numerical Taxonomy. Then, according to TOPSIS method, the regions of Iran were divided into four groups. The findings show fundamental inequalities in the distribution of economic- political power in the regions of Iran during the period of 2009-2019. Also, The most fluctuations in economic-political power index have occured mainly in the middle groups. Since, most previous studies have emphasized regional inequalities in Iran based on various indicators, it seems that there is a correlation between the distribution of economic-political power and  regional  inequalities of Economic development. As a result, given the current status without change in the political power of the provinces, one can not expect a significant change in the economic development of the regions.

Artists, especially visual artists (such as calligraphers) tend to be self-employed and are rarely employed by an employer. The self-employed are sometimes by choice and sometimes by circumstances (no other choice); because official and stable job opportunities are not offered to artists. However, since artists sometimes work numerous jobs due to their self-employment, the topic of artists' livelihood is crucial to consider while studying the art market. In contrast to the market for art products and services, the majority of research in cultural economics have examined the artist labor market and its distinctive features. On the contrary, the present paper assesses the effect of selected infrastructures of the calligraphy art market on the artistic income among resident calligraphers in Mashhad (in which all of them are self-employed). Infrastructures (for example, roads, education, etc.) are prerequisites to superstructures (such as manufacturing, agricultural, and mining activities). Infrastructure is defined as a set of physical and institutional facilities that affect the quantitative and qualitative goods and services produced by economic agents. The infrastructures are very wide in terms of number and variety. In general, the infrastructures of art market can be categorized into six pillars: 1) institutional environment, including copyright, instability of laws and regulations of the culture sector and mixing with religion; 2) business environment including distribution system, multiple job-holding, access to external credits, membership in associations, working population, business establishment cost, years of earning degree and education cost; 3) the supply side including the cost of goods sold, profit margin, dependence on external credits, psychic income and pricing mechanism; 4) the demand side including the decrease in using calligraphy, consumer taste, purchasing power, the development of calligraphy software, the desire to buy copies and the share of government orders; 5) market structure including market type, market size and degree of monopoly; 6) access to the market including transaction costs, proximity to decision-making centers, specialized galleries, art fairs and expos. A sample of 33 calligraphers living in Mashhad was selected, and then required data were collected using in-depth interview and a five-point Likert scale questionnaire. One- and two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) methods are used. This method helps determine which of the substructures can explain the difference in income level among calligraphers. It is hard to study every aspect of the economic infrastructures due to their enormous range and diversity. As a result, an index is chosen for each of the six infrastructure areas (institutional environment, business environment, supply side, demand side, market structure, and market access) that were previously described. Therefore, the role of these infrastructures is examined on the difference in the income levels of the calligraphers in Mashhad. Empirical  The findings implicate that four one-way analyses of variance (multiple job-holding, psychic income, decreasing the use of calligraphy, the share of exhibitions and expos), and four two-way variance analyses (the interaction effect of multi-job, and psychic income, the interaction effect of multiple job-holding and market level, the interaction effect of multiple job-holding and the share of exhibitions and expos, the interaction effect of market structure and instability of laws and regulations) significantly explain the difference among income levels of calligraphers.  From these findings, three factors of higher psychic income, activity at the lower level of the market (primary market), and the lower share of exhibitions and expos in the income of calligraphers increase the need (as a result, their desire) to engage in other professions related or unrelated to art. This justifies the reason for accepting the income penalty for remaining in artistic activity. On the other hand, instability in the regulatory system of the culture sector (and more generally, the creative sector) reduces the motivation of artists to enter and develop artistic activity and the possibility of planning around education, skill acquisition, and creation. There are two basic causes for this problem. As a consequence of the proliferation of laws and regulations, there is a growing sense of uncertainty in Iran's cultural sector due to the multiplicity and separation of its primary policy-making organizations. Second, political regimes, through changes in policies and normative frameworks supported by the government, cause a continuous change in the art market. In sum, after recommending the necessary policies to increase the income of artists, as a sufficient condition for the effectiveness of these policies, this research suggests creating an integrated “mega-regulator” in the form of a single ministry for the whole creative sector in Iran.

The optimal allocation of water is importance because Yazd province has very limited access to water resources. The optimal allocation requires that the water price be approximately equal to its economic value. Accordingly, the present paper calculated the economic value of water consumed by manufacturing industries in Yazd province. The Cobb-Douglas, transcendental, translog, generalized quadratic, and Leontief production functions were estimated using panel data method for 11 industries during the period 1996-2015. The findings shown that water tariff is much lower than value of marginal product of water in all 11 industrial activities in Yazd province. Then first, the firms obtain excess benefits as rent which is unfair. It leads to develop water-intensive and relatively less labor-intensive industries. Second, it would be rational to consume too much water, to use outdated technology, and even to postpone structural reforms. Therefore, price liberalization policy aims to improve justice, efficiency, and comparative advantage.

What are the prerequisites for economic development? What system should countries choose in the economic and political structures to achieve economic prosperity? Theoretically, there are some implications that political freedom is necessary for economic freedom and economic development. In fact, it is the choice of a democratic political structure that puts countries on the path of development. Of course, some believe that political freedom is not a necessary condition, and countries can move towards development without political freedom. Accordingly,, there are two general views regarding the development process. On one hand, some believe that development is a fierce process that requires an iron fist. As a result, political and economic freedoms can be postponed until per capita income increases sufficiently. On the other hand, others consider development as a friendly process and believe that a growth-oriented strategy will be possible along with the strengthening of political and social freedoms. The present paper evaluates the role of political and economic freedoms to achieve human development. TIn this regard, the Freedom House, Fraser’s Economic Freedom, and Human Development Indices for 119 countries from the 1970 to 2018 (including 2497 observations) were collected. The findings showed that the level of political freedom explains the difference in human development and its sub-indicators (per capita income, education, and health) among countries in the world. The role of economic freedom is also weakly confirmed for the 1990s onwards. Therefore, human development is not possible without the expansion of civil liberties and political rights based on democracy, although the democracy alone may not be enough.

According to relevant international economics theories, imports either substitute for or complement FDI. The present study aims to examine this issue in 27 selected developing countries that joined the WTO during 1990-2019. At the first step, Granger and Dumitrescu-Hurlin tests were used to determine the direction of causality between two variables. The results demonstrated a strong one-way causal relationship from imports to FDI. Then, the effect of imports on FDI was estimated by FGLS method. The results showed a significant positive effect of imports on FDI. Hence, in the selected countries, imports complemented FDI rather than replacing it. This finding confirms that a competitive economy in which low barriers are imposed on imports is more attractive for foreign investors than a protected economy. The results also confirmed the hypothesis of the positive effect of accession to the WTO on FDI absorption. The obligation of the member states of the WTO to observe the principle rules of non-discrimination and transparency (through binding their tariffs and trade regulations), as well as to respect all aspects of intellectual property rights and above all the efficiency and effectiveness of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the WTO are among the main reasons behind this fact. Therefore, Iran by lowering its tariffs through joining the WTO, not only does not cause destruction of its industries in long run but it is expected to accelerate the economic growth based on its comparative advantages.

As countries seek higher per capita incomes and economic development, hence water consumption in the agricultural, industrial and domestic sectors is increasing. Due to the water crises, it is important to study the factors that increase water demand. In this regard, the present paper employs the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method to analyze the factors affecting changes in the water demand of Iran’s industries. According to this method, changes in water demand (at a two-digit ISIC level) are divided into three factors economic growth, technical coefficient (inverse productivity), and structure of the industry. In the following, demand decomposition with the variable base year (1997-2001, 2001-2007, 2007-2011, 2011-2017) showed that  industrial production has the largest share in increasing water demand and its share has increased from 43% to 80%. On the other hand, the share of water productivity has decreased from 45% to 7%, and the effect is reversed. Changing the structure of the industry also has a somewhat constant share of around 10%. In general, it can be concluded that the increase in industrial production has been the main driving force of the water demand in the industrial sector in Iran. While improving productivity and increasing the share of lower water-intensive industries have not been able to neutralize it, and even their impact has diminished in recent decades. Therefore, a self-sufficient strategy has not been sustainable in terms of water. The current path will lead to an escalation of the water crisis and even a choice between the survival of the industry or the reduction of water stress.

With population growth and industry development, water demand has dramatically increased in different regions of the world. Rising water demand, climate change, and limited water resources have exacerbated the global water crisis. This issue is very important in a developing country like Iran, which is in the dryland belt of the world. In this regard, the present study investigates the water consumption of Iran’s industrial sector during the period 1996-2017. Using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method, changes in water demand (in two-digit ISIC level) are divided three factors of economic growth, technical coefficient (inverse productivity) and structure of the industry. Findings based on the fixed base year of 1996 showed that the share of industrial production has increased one and a half times during the period of 5 to 21 years (from 43% to 70%). In contrast, the effect of the technical coefficient on reducing water demand has been halved, reflecting a reduction in the share of productivity improvement in water saving. Also restructuring the industry (in favor of reducing the share of water-intensive industries) somewhat reduced water demand. Then the increase in industrial production has been the main driving force of the water consumption, while improving productivity and increasing share of lower water-intensive industries have not been able to neutralize it. Hence, if the current trend continues, the choice between the survival of the industry or the reduction of water stress will not be far from expected.

It is important to answer the question of how countries should design their financial and banking structures to achieve low stable inflation rates. This paper investigates the effects of financial and banking structures on inflation in Iranian economy from 1987 to 2016 using FMOLS method. Our findings reveal that the effect of bank-based financial structure on inflation is negative. From different indices for banking structure, deposit money bank assets can reduce inflation significantly. Moreover, the one-to-one relationship between liquidity and inflation, as monetarists claim, is applied only when the impact of financial structure and banking structure is considered in regression. These findings, generally, are in the support of designing a less unbalanced financial structure and promoting the financial strength of banks in order to lowering the inflation.

The economic literature has long conceptualized the terms of absolute and comparative advantage, and so the competitive advantage theory has been introduced for explaining the regional inequalities in recent decades. However, the results of previous studies have not been able to indicate caused factors of the regional inequalities in Iran. In other words, the above three advantages cannot explain the differences in the levels of development in Iran’s regions. For this reason, the present paper doesn’t try to evaluate regional imbalances with the economic variables and advantages, but it tries to focus on economic power crystallized in political power. This study examines the distribution of Political-Economic Power Advantage (PEPA) among the regions of Iran during the period of 2012-2019. In this regard, it depicts the power imbalances between the provinces of Iran based on the budget of institutions and their officials as well. The results show that PEPA is unevenly distributed among the provinces of Iran. Based on the government’s centralized and comprehensive dominance over the budget, the inequality of political-economic power among the provinces of Iran can be considered as a factor for the unbalanced regional development.

Dependency of Iranian Economy on oil revenues has provided conditions for imposing further sanctions on Iran. One way for Iran to get rid of sanctions is to sell its oil in currencies other than US dollar. In this regard, this article evaluates the risks for Iran if it, in selling oil, substitutes US dollar with currencies of its oil importing countries. We firstly apply Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Self-Exciting Threshold Autoregressive (SETAR) models on Yuan and Rupee data for the period of 1990:01-2019:05 as well as on Euro data for the period of 1999:01-2019:05 and then based on the estimated models, forecast losses and gains for the period of 2019:06-2021:12 if Iran sells oil to China, India and Europe and receive payments respectively in Yuan, Rupee and Euro. Our forecasts indicate that selling oil to India and China and receiving oil revenue in Rupee and Yuan respectively will significantly decrease value of oil exports in range of 5-23 percent due to very likely devaluation of these currencies vs. the US dollar. Therefore, Iran must firstly use in its oil transaction relevant diplomacy with its oil importing countries, requesting them to share in risks of devaluation of their currencies vs. US dollar. Secondly, as a particular example, this article shows that political decisions may bring in economic consequences for the country. Therefore, Iranian authorities are expected to consider economic consequences of their political decisions more seriously and with sufficient transparency.

In recent decades, the effect of financial development on real sector growth has been discussed from different aspects. This paper focuses on financial structure and explains the role of bank-based and market-based financial structures on economic growth by classifying the literature. Using the FMOLS method for the period 1979-2016, the effects of financial structure and banking structure on per capita GDP and sectors’ growth (agriculture, industry, and services) in Iran are estimated. Empirical findings indicate that discriminating policies and bias in financial structure in favor of a specific sector has a negative effect on real sector growth, especially agriculture and industry. Therefore, in support of the design of a balanced financial structure, it is recommended that the state should avoid any intervention or discrimination in favor of a specific sector. In the case of banking structure, the findings show that increasing the financial strength of banks encourages economic growth.

To reply to the question of whether financial development leads to economic growth or financial development benefits come from economic growth, macro-financial economics literature suggests testing a two-way and even non-linearity relationship. In this paper, by applying markov-switching approach, we investigate the two-way linkage between universal financial development indicators (in aspects of depth, international flows, access, efficiency, and stability) and total and sectoral (agriculture, industry, and services) growth in 3rd to 11th cabinet after the revolution (1982-2017). Evidence reveals that there are co-movements between different aspects of financial development and real sector growth regimes (except 9th and 10th cabinets); such that, ome stylized facts are supporting the financial services supply-leading hypothesis. Moreover, there are more than 60 notes (in 1st and 2nd development programs) and articles (in 3rd, 4th and 5th development programs) related to the financial system, which are made without a comprehensive strategy and are based on financial repressions and sectoral discriminations; therefore, they did not contribute to "balanced financial development".

Theoretically and empirically, FDI may have positive (complementary) or negative (substitution) effect on the host country’s domestic investment. This study aims to examine the existence of crowding out (in) effect of FDI for MENA countries with high- and low- level income. Using the GMM, several regressions were estimated over the periods of 1981-2017 and 2001-2017. The immediate positive effect of FDI on domestic investment was confirmed in all regressions. In addition, the long-run positive effect of FDI on domestic investment in both groups of high- and low- level income countries is strongly confirmed over the 2001-2017, but it was not significant for the 1981–2017 period. To enhance the positive effect, it is suggested that the "forms" and "conditions" of using foreign investment are cosidered. Foreign capital absorption in the form of joint ventures and buy back and also the use of conditions such as export performance and technology transfer will be beneficial.

Many factors affect the exit of firms from the industry sector. In this regard, the role of macroeconomic factors is very important due to their impact on the growth environment and firm activity. Hence, the purpose of this research is to study the macroeconomic factors’ influence on the exit of manufacturing firms in the provinces of Iran (ISIC codes: 15-37) during the years 1996-2014 by using the spatial panel econometrics method. The results confirm the impacts of inflation, population, economic growth, and industrialization index of each province's economy on the exit of firms in the province and its adjacent provinces. The exit of firms in each province has also a negative impact on the exit of the firms in the adjacent provinces. Considering the role of macroeconomic factors on the exit of firms from the province and adjacent provinces, it is recommended to implement the regional policies which are in regard to the synergy of industrial production within and between provinces.

The mutual relationship between financial development, as a multilateral concept, and inflation, as a key indicator of macro-economy is crucial. In this paper, inflation regimes are identified using Markov-Switching approach, and then the finance-inflation mutual relationship is investigated in post-revolution cabinets in Iran (1982-2017). Our findings suggest that there are mutual co-movements between different laterals of financial development and inflation regimes in Iran. On one hand, financial access can decrease inflation. On the other hand, inflation distorts international financial depth, financial system efficiency, and financial stability. However, it encourages some domestic financial depth laterals. Generally, the best performance of financial development to maintain inflation in the low regimes was in the 7th and 8th cabinets, and the worst performance was experienced in the 9th and 10th cabinets because of the release of the suppressed inflation accumulated due to severe financial repressions.