فصلنامه سیاستهای مالی و اقتصادی
سال هفتم شماره 26 (تابستان 1398)

Investment and capital stock variables are considered as critical data requirements in economic policy making. In this context, having access to the statistics and performance of these variables is regarded as one of the requirements in economic planning. It will be more important especially at levels beyond the national level such as provincial level at which the data are not produced by national institutions responsible for economic statistics. In order to meet this need, in this paper we have tried to calculate the provincial capital stock index and its alternative variables using the capital stock estimation methods. To do that, an approach is introduced and applied to estimate the capital stock variable at provincial level by reviewing the literature of production function,. Also two alternative variables and their related data are suggested for a sample period 2006-2012. The results could be applicable not only in comparative studies and policy making at provincial and regional levels but in quantitative studies in the field of productivity and efficiency, economic growth ,saving and investment and input – output analysis.</span>

Even though the development planning in Iran has been applied since the 1940s, it has not still made much progress in terms of balanced development as well as the regional justice in development and a huge amount of human capital, financial and natural resources which are consumed, have obtained few achievements. Therefore, it seems necessary to examine and analyze critically the dominant approach in the country’s planning regime, focusing on the issue of balanced development, and identify the strengths, weaknesses and challenges of development plans. Although many studies have been done to undertake this issue, it is necessary to study a comprehensive pathology of challenges and weaknesses of development planning in terms of balanced and regional development. As the studies have been done so far, often have covered limited scope with little attention to all aspects of development planning, it is necessary to put them in an order. Therefore, in this paper, at first Iran development plans with respect to regional balanced development are reviewed for almost seven decades and after that, the strengths and weaknesses of development plans after the Islamic Revolution have been analyzed in terms of regional balanced development. This article then provides a comprehensive pathology for the challenges of regional balanced development based on its significance and impacts. As a result, this paper tries to explain the related challenges and help to resolve them through categorizing previous studies and organizing different aspects of the challenges and weaknesses at three levels of pre-planning, planning and post-planning. The categorization of challenges shows the most important weaknesses in the process of balanced development in Iran which included a conceptual challenge toward balanced development, the problem of defining the region, allocating the financial resources and centralised planning system.

The lag between legislation and technological advances is known as one of the key factors of economic and social crises. Technological advances have sometimes occurred so quickly that it has not been possible to be monitored and legislated and this has led to social conflicts. Because it is impossible to prevent technological advance, legislators need to have a comprehensive understanding of the nature of technological changes and also provide the possibility of innovation as well as preventing abuses. One of these technological advances is related to cryptocurrencies, which are in fact new generation of common currencies. They have helped economic exchanges to be done electronically using peer-to-peer technology, without any central intermediary. These currencies have been in the center of attention due to its many attractive aspects. All the activities such as issuing, processing and verification are done within a network and there is no intermediary or central authority to control it. This characteristic has made the central banks and regulatory institutions unable to monitor these currencies. Legislation in this area requires economic and jurisprudential analysis of these instruments. As financial and monetary markets in Iran are based on Islamic regulation and require jurisprudential approval for their legitimacy, the jurisprudential aspect is important. Findings of this study imply that using cryptocurrencies needs some requirements which included the minimum level of laws to prevent creating money in the process of cryptocurrencies issuance, providing the necessary guarantee for these currencies, developing a mechanism to prevent the price fluctuations, adopting laws for acquisition, transition and receiving cash in exchange for cryptocurrencies to prevent the expanding of shadow economy and also providing the possibility of exchanging them for common currencies.

The financial system has an important role in health, growth and success of the country. Financial institutions include financial markets and institutions, as intermediary institutions, play an effective role in supply, Equipping and allocating of financial resources. Recent crises in the country's banking system have become a national challenge due to increased outstanding claims and liquidity shortfalls. Banks and financial institutions have to accept the risks of any investment and lending which affect the repayment of loans or deposits. Loans are the greatest and most obvious source of credit risk for most banks. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of efficiency and liquidity on credit risk of development banks during the years 2003-2017. In this regard, using the panel data method, the hypotheses of the research were studied. The results of the model estimation show that liquidity, deposit ratio and bank size have a positive and significant effect on the credit risk of development banks. Also, efficiency, margin of profit and returns of assets have a negative and significant effect on the credit risk of development banks. Overall, it can be concluded that improving the macroeconomic conditions has a significant effect on the absorption of deposits in banks. The size of the bank has a positive and significant effect on credit risk. Larger and more concentrated banks have complexity and many customers with different characteristics, so it is harder to monitor them. As a result, banks have less caution in lending, act in an arbitrary way, pay less attention to paying loans, and they hope that in the event of occurring a problem, government due to their concern about occurring a crisis, will support them. As a result, above mentioned factors lead to the increases of outstanding loans, reduce the financial stability and increase the probability of bankruptcy. For this, it is suggested that banking authorities provide competitive market conditions and prevent further concentration in this industry.

This research investigates the impact of information technology on operating costs of the selected public and private banks in Iran. Independent variables are the size of the bank, cost of human resources, communication equipment and network, Database, communication hardware and software.  We use balance panel data for 9 selected banks (Melli, Mellat, Sepah, Saderat, Sina, Pasargadae, carafarin, saman and refah) in a fixed effects panel model for the period of 2009-2015. The results indicate the positive effect of information technology on banks operating costs reduction.

Crude oil is the most important input in production, and its price shocks are remarkable because of its significant impact on the real economy. Oil is important in economic activity and financial markets. The shock of oil prices may also affect the performance of banks, with adverse effects on macroeconomics such as consumption and investment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of oil price shocks on the performance of banks in Iran during the period of 1385 to 1395. EGARCH model was used to calculate oil price shocks. The statistical sample includes the following banks: Pasargad, Ansar, Tejarat, Khavar miyane (Middle East), Sina, Saderat-e-iran (Iran Export), Karafarin (Entrepreneur), Mellat, Eghtesad-e-novin (New Economy) and Parsian (Persian). In order to evaluate the Bank's performance, the CAMELS rating system indicators (capital adequacy, asset quality, management efficiency, earnings, and liquidity) were considered. The research findings show that oil price shocks have a significant effect on banking performance so that an increase in oil price will lead to a decrease in bank performance with respect to CAMELS’s pattern.

The main goal of this research is to investigate the effect of performing targeted subsidy on energy consumption inequality concerning Semnan province in Iran.  Doing so, first the Gini coefficient of the household electricity consumption is calculated using households budget micro data concerning urban and rural household during the years of 1984(1363)-2014(1393). Then, the effect of performing the targeted subsidy on Gini coefficient has been estimated using pooled data linear regression model. The results indicate that, performing targeted subsidy has increasing effect on electricity consumption inequality. Performance the policy of targeted subsidies (leaving the price control relatively) has increased the inequality in electricity consumption of the households. The lower income groups consuming less electricity when the prices are more close to real price. According the results, applying the price policies as well as non-price policy will modify the electricity consumption pattern.

The cost of equity plays a crucial role in financing and investment decisions. Investors tend to invest in stocks of companies which their cost of equity is low, therefore, factors affecting the cost of equity are important from both theoretical and practical point of view. Corporate social responsibility activities can reduce equity costs. But this can be achieved within the mechanism of protection of investors. In this research, we tried to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility activities and investor protection with equity costs. For this purpose, a multivariate panel data model has been used. The data used in this study were extracted from 116 active companies in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period of 2011-2017. The results of this research show that corporate social responsibility activities in companies that protect the investor at a high level lead to a reduction in equity costs.