فصلنامه پژوهش های اقتصادی ایران
پیاپی 83 (تابستان 1399)

The aim of this paper is to investigate the responses of stock, gold and foreign exchange markets in Iran, with an emphasis on the spillover volatility effects. For this purpose, the rate of return of variables is calculated by using the daily data of Tehran Stock Exchange price index, exchange rate and gold price during the period of 25 March 2009 to 18 July 2018. The estimated model investigates volatility spillovers in the markets using the VAR-BEKK-GARCH approach. The impulse-response functions are estimated by including the possibility of the asymmetry of the coefficients of the cross terms of the errors in MGARCH-type equations. The results show two-way volatility spillover between foreign exchange and stock markets, one-way volatility spillover from the foreign exchange to gold markets and one-way volatility spillover from the gold to stock markets. Moreover, the findings obtained from the impulse-response functions confirm the spread of uncertainty among the financial markets in Iran.

Oil price shocks have direct and indirect impacts on the economies of oil-exporting and oil-importing countries. The direct impacts are through demand and supply channels and the indirect (spillover) impacts are through interaction between the countries. Most studies have focused on the direct effects of the oil price shocks in a specific country or a region and research works on indirect impacts are limited. In this research, the direct and indirect effects (spillover) of oil shocks on both groups of oil-exporting and oil-importing countries are estimated using a dynamic system model. The spillover effects are defined and measured by the “Trade Ratio” and “Weighted Average Economic Growth” indicators. The sample includes 30 oil-exporting and oil-importing countries with a share of 73 percent of the world’s economy. The results show that a positive oil price shock reduces economic growth in oil-importing countries and increases it in oil-exporting countries, but international trade between the oil- exporting and oil-importing countries mitigates the impact of oil shocks on economic growth of both groups.

Economic policies include policy-making in monetary_ banking, financial and commercial aspects. Monetary policies are more important in bank-oriented economies and in this countries, The Government determines other policies based on monetary market policy. The present research is conducted concerningthe challenges of the national economy including inflation growth, price shocks, liquidity growth, bankruptcy of financial institutions and failed projects, with the goal of proposing a model for monetary policy-making process. In this research, an analytical model was designed based on a six-stage policy-making process, and effective organizations and factors were identified after explorative studies and interview with scholars. The Results confirmed the necessity of the existence of 8, 8, 12, 7, 7 , 11 organizations in the stages of identification, formulation, approval, implementation, evaluation and modification/ termination of policies, as well as confirmed the effect of 7 internal and 6 external factors on policy-making process.

Financial crises, along with the negative and destructive effects of the debt stocks on the economy of countries with the national debt, have caused the "economic effects of the public debt stocks problem," and has become a controversial issue in the public sector economics literature. Using a Smooth Transition Regression (STR) model, this paper investigates the asymmetric impact of the size of government debt - the ratio of government debt to the central bank to GDP - on economic growth in Iran during 1973-2017. The findings showed that the size of government debt to the central bank in a two-regime structure, with two thresholds, affected economic growth by 4.40% and 28.98%. At low levels of debt (years that the size of government debt to central bank is less than 4.4%) and high levels of debt (years that the size of government debt to central bank is greater than 4.40% and less than 28.98%), government borrowing from the central bank has had a negative and positive effect on economic growth, respectively.  Finally, contrary to the expectations, during the period 1980-1991 (years that the size of government debt to the central bank is greater than 28.98%), the amount of government debt to the central bank has positively affected economic growth. This positive impact can be due to the specific features of the revolution and war periods in Iran, such as reducing crowding-out effects, the significant gap between real and potential production, and the more efficient cost management during years.

Improving food security status through  socio-economic ‎determinants is always important at the household level. In this study, ‎after assessing the food security level of households in urban and rural ‎areas of Khuzestan province, associated factors including economic, social, and racial with food security were identified in 1397. To achieve the goals, 1876 and ‎‎1495 questionnaires were collected in urban and rural areas ‎respectively. The logistic regression model was used to identify effective ‎factors. The results showed that 63 % and ‎‎68 % of households in urban and rural areas face food insecurity respectively. Hamidiyeh county with 18 %, Omidieh 25 % ‎, and Dezful 28 % had the least percent of food secured households in the urban areas of Khuzestan province, respectively. Also, ‎the cities of Shadegan with 13 %, Izeh with 15 %, and Mahshahr port with ‎‎18 % had the least percent of food security households in ‎rural areas, respectively. The results of the quantitative estimated model in the present study showed that employment of the head of the household, income, number of rooms and personal car ownership were significantly and directly associated with food security in urban and rural areas of Khuzestan province. Therefore, due to the weakness of income policies which are applying as the only ways to ameliorate food security status in Iran, paying close attention to socio-economic factors related to improving the level of household food security before any intervention is necessary.

The vulnerability of Iranian economy to various shocks has attracted attention to economic resilience. In this regard, foreign trade, which is inherently more exposed to shocks, merits careful consideration. In order to examine the effects of imports on economic resilience, a small-scale macroeconometric model has been specified. Having solved the model and run simulations, the effects of shocks stemming from imports on GDP is measured. This study, for the first time, quantifies the concept of resilience by examining the implications of economic shocks in a large-scale macro-econometric model. Accordingly, the modeled system received three types of shocks caused by the imports of consumer, intermediate, and capital goods. Then, the magnitude of their effects on GDP as well as the pace in which the variables back to their equilibrium are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the shocks coming from intermediate goods have the most severe consequences and threaten Iranian economy severely.

This study, by using data envelopment window analysis method examines the efficiency of 9 Iran’s oil refinery over the period of 2008-2013. Results of the study has shown that, during the period of study, only Kermanshah refinery was efficient in four windows and the rest of the refineries have experienced a stable trend of inefficiency. The inefficiency of oil refining companies has been mostly due to inefficiency in resource management. Inefficient companies in the field of scale efficiency have had a decreasing return to scale, that can be achieved by reducing the size of the company to the optimal scale. The highest amount of resources wasted in the refineries was related to the refinery's fuel and feed consumption. Isfahan refinery had the highest loss of capacity, fuel and feed consumption, and Abadan refinery had the most labor force wastage.