فصلنامه برنامه ریزی و بودجه
پیاپی 165 (تابستان 1403)

Understanding the distribution of poverty within society—whether chronic or transient—is crucial for designing and implementing effective poverty reduction policies. This paper uses seven panels of data spanning different periods from the 1990s to the 2020s to estimate chronic poverty trends in Iran, applying two methods the components method and the equally distributed equivalent (EDE) poverty gap method. The components method reveals a lower proportion of chronic poverty compared to the EDE approach, which estimates this figure at an average of 88%. Over time, chronic poverty trends have paralleled broader macroeconomic conditions, declining from the 1990s through the early 2010s, stabilizing briefly, and then increasing again by the late 2010s. The EDE poverty gap method also distinguishes chronic poverty into two parts: the average poverty gap and an inequality component. The findings suggest that changes in chronic poverty are primarily driven by fluctuations in the average poverty gap, with inter-individual inequality playing a less prominent role, despite consistently comprising a larger share of chronic poverty.

Women, as half of the population, play a significant role in the development and growth of any country. The industrial sector has consistently drawn the attention of policymakers, with one of its key concerns being women's employment and the impact of related variables on their participation in this sector. In Iran, the labor market holds particular importance due to various economic and social factors. Over recent years, the supply of labor has consistently exceeded demand, a trend that is expected to intensify in the future, necessitating the evaluation and analysis of influencing factors. Moreover, the labor market is one of the four critical markets in the economy, given its profound influence on and interaction with other economic markets. The balance or imbalance of labor supply and demand serves as a crucial indicator of macroeconomic performance in any country. Given the importance of women's employment in Iran's industrial workshops, this article assesses the factors affecting women's participation in 24 industrial activities, categorized according to the two-digit codes of the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), fourth edition. The analysis focuses on industrial enterprises employing 10 or more people during the period from 2004 to 2020. This research derives the labor demand function by minimizing the firm's cost function, in accordance with Shephard's Lemma. The findings reveal that value-added and employment levels from the previous period have a greater impact on women's employment compared to other influencing variables.

This research examines people's willingness to pay (WTP) for improvements in public transportation as part of transportation demand management (TDM) policies. Proposed enhancements include reduced in-vehicle congestion, shorter access times for buses and metro services, increased bus reliability, and decreased travel times. An online stated preference (SP) survey was conducted to assess preferred transportation modes under hypothetical scenarios, and a nested logit model was applied to identify the factors influencing mode choice and to estimate WTP. The findings indicate that reduced congestion makes both buses and trains more attractive, while improved reliability significantly enhances bus appeal. Shortened access time positively impacts metro usage but has little effect on bus preference. Improved travel time for buses also emerges as an important factor. Additionally, the study reveals that people are willing to pay 1.4 times more for congestion improvements on the metro than for similar improvements on buses. Overall, these WTP values exceed current ticket prices, although the WTP for improved bus reliability is nearly equivalent to the current fare.

According to ins titutional growth models, efficient ins titutions positively influence economic growth. Among these institutions, market institutions play a vital role by preventing market failures and enhancing resilience to economic shocks. Government integrity—specifically through reducing corruption—can further strengthen the impact of these institutions on growth. This article aims to analyze the threshold effects of market ins titutional quality on the economic growth of 19 selected lowermiddle-income developing countries, with a focus on government integrity, over the period 2014–2022. To measure market ins titutional quality, this s tudy uses an index composed of the market regulator (averaging indicators for regulations and controls in the credit and labor markets) and the markets tabilizer (measured by access to sound money). The results indicate that government integrity acts as a transition variable in the economic growth model, with a threshold of 0.017% and two identified regimes, each showing a positive impact on growth. While the market institutional quality index does not significantly impact growth in the first regime, once the government integrity index crosses the threshold into the second regime, market ins titutional quality positively affects economic growth. Additional control variables—including human capital, capital per capita, technology, and foreign trade—also demonstrate positive effects on economic growth.

The quality of financial reporting refers to the accuracy and correctness of financial reports in expressing information related to the company's operations, especially the expected cash flows, in order to inform investors. Many researchers have found that a diversity of the board of director in terms of gender balance plays a key role in improving the performance of organizations, so it can be argued that diversity of the board of directors can be a predictor of quality financial reporting. An audit committee is an operational committee of a company's board that is responsible for overseeing financial reporting and information disclosure. Based on the stated contents, the present study examines the effect of the audit committee on the relationship between the gender diversity of  board of directors and the quality of financial reporting in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The findings of the study indicate that forming an audit committee utilizing the potential of female directors should be considered significant. It is recommended that investors carefully consider the presence of female directors on audit committee memberships when making investment decisions. Additionally, the audit committee strengthens the relationship between gender diversity on the board of directors and the quality of financial reporting.

In recent decades, bilateral and multilateral investment treaties have become key international legal tools to encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) by providing protections that attract foreign investors. Consequently, many developing countries enter into bilateral investment treaties (BITs) to boost FDI inflows. This study aims to investigate the impact of these treaties on FDI in developing countries, analyzing economic data from 21 developing nations from 2007 to 2022 through an attraction model. The findings indicate that BITs have a consistently positive and significant impact on FDI across all models, with a particularly strong effect observed among developing countries. Additional variables—including institutional quality, colonial ties, and a free trade agreement dummy variable—were added to the model. When a BIT is concluded, the host country provides foreign investors with a reliable institutional framework that may offer better investment protection than domestic institutions. In this context, BITs and domestic institutional quality appear to be substitutes, leading to an expected negative relationship. On the other hand, BITs can also serve as a signaling mechanism, indicating to foreign investors that the host country is committed to safeguarding their investments. To capture this effect, an interaction term between BITs and institutional quality was added to the model. This interaction variable is negative across most country pairs, indicating substitutability, but is positive and significant among pairs of developing countries, highlighting a unique dynamic in these contexts.