Cardinal Measurement of Welfare and Evaluation of Macroeconomic Variables Effect on Welfare Changes in Iran Based on Fuzzy Regression

This paper examines the level of cardinal welfare influential factors on the welfare changes in Iran. The Sen''s index، both in Pareto and non-Pareto states، is used to evaluate the level of cardinal welfare and in order to evaluate the macroeconomic variables effect on the welfare changes a fuzzy least-squares regression model (FLSR) is used. The findings indicate that the welfare level index increased about 4. 8، 3. 1 and 2. 7 percent during 2002-2007، 1997-2001 and 1992-1996 respectively. According to the findings، the highest level of social welfare improvement in Iran has occurred during 1997-2007. The results of the fuzzy regression show that the unemployment rate، inflation rate and Gini coefficient have an inverse relation with the cardinal welfare in both Pareto and non-Pareto cases while the literacy rate and government expenditures have a positive relation with the welfare. The findings also imply that there is a positive relationship between economic growth and welfare level in Iran