Journal of Money & Economy
Volume:5 Issue: 2, Spring 2009

Different countries have implemented various methods in their poverty elimination programs. Redistribution policies, financing low income groups, subsidizing, enhancing the capabilities of the poor, and… are among the traditional policies for poverty elimination programs.The study of concept of poverty is always one of the most important considerations in Islamic thoughts. Islamic Shariat with special consideration of economic poverty roots and causes has introduced numerous bases and tools to cope with this sinister phenomenon in Islamic societies. Ihsan, zakat or alms, Waqf and Qard-al-Hasan are part of principles and economic behaviors of Muslims which have considerable positive effects on poverty elimination in these societies. By emphasizing on Qard-al-Hasan as a means of microfinance in the banking system and Islamic Shariat in order to finance the poor in accordance with modern financing tools, this paper will evaluate the effects and results of the application of interest-free loans in poverty elimination programs in Iran I.R.Accordingly, by compiling data of 28 provinces of the country during 1996-2003, the effects of providing interest-free loans on per-capita income as a proxy variable for poverty elimination indicator will be analyzed and evaluated.

A global Slowdown, rising oil prices, and monetary tightening in industrial countries may lead to net capital outflows which accentuate high ratios of short-term to total external debt.This paper focuses on finding consistent indicators of financial instability. Knowledge of these indicators should assist attempts to implement institutional financial reform and improve an economy's resilience to shocks. It is highly useful to provide policy-makers with tools that measure financial crises, and in particular, to examine how macroeconomic aggregates behave during episodes of financial instability cycles. This is the objective of what follows and these indicators signal the variables that need to be monitored for effective policy responses to emerging financial difficulties.

Advances in leasing industry as a means of finance mainly started in 1900 though leasing dates back to centuries ago. Despite its differences in different countries as a result of differences in laws and regulations, finance function has been a common distinctive function of leasing all over the world. Leasing has its modern and unique features and advantages to establish itself as one of the most important means of finance in countrie's economies. Studies by famous economic and research institutes of the world indicate that leasing ranks second among methods of finance with banks standing at the top. Although a major portion of leasing activities has mainly occurred in highly advanced economies, it will keep growing in such newly emerging markets as Iran in the future. Having existed in Iran for 30 years, leasing industry is making progress toward completion. Figures show that over 300 leasing companies have been established in Iran most of which have been set up in the last 5 years.This article sets out to explain the role of leasing industry in the country's credit system. It first gives an account of the theoretical bases of leasing industry and continues with the status of leasing in Iran and in the world. The final sections explain the different aspects of leasing including its legal aspects, pricing, credit risk, methods of financing, and its development capacities in the country.

Bank supervision and monetary policy are strategic concepts in the economy of countries. Development of electronic communications, especially in online and international spheres, has largely threatened financial services in view of security and illegal access to banking networks. Anonymity and identity theft has endangered electronic commerce by crimes like phishing, fraud and different types of unauthorized access. However these probabilities which sometimes become true have not stopped developing fleet of World Wide Web. In fact successful experience in internet banking indicates the necessity of use of new technologies to facilitate and expedite electronic commerce. In this paper, different legal aspects of internet banking have been analyzed briefly from Iranian law perspective.

Many of the pious bequest policies (Vaghf) at present time are denominated by old or ancient coins, the present value of which is not well known. Therefore, fixing the annual custodian fee for Vaghf is quite difficult. Moreover, the difficulty of evaluation of the present value of the dowry the husband has to pay to the bride after the marriage (Mahr) has created lots of difficulties for Ministry of Justice. Regarding the methods of minting coins in the past which were not centralized and the coins were “hammer hardened”, they were of different value, different weight and even different names and place of issue. This variety makes the evaluation of the ancient coins very sophisticated. In addition, the evaluation of the present value of the ancient coins which were themselves mediums of measuring the value of other goods is rather a difficult task. For this reason, the correct method of evaluating the present value of these coins is to recognize first the characteristics of these coins, and then selecting the best method of evaluating its present value as considered in this research.

The conduct of monetary policy in an oil economy with a managed floating exchange rate regime can be challenging in an environment of fiscal dominance and incomplete transition to a market economy. The Five-Year Development Plans provide a natural benchmark against which to assess monetary policy performance in Iran. Price stability has proved elusive, with liquidity growth targets constantly exceeded by a large margin. The paper examines the reasons behind these results and, based on the lessons that can be drawn from the literature and the international experience, makes some proposals on how to improve on this record. Although fiscal dominance remains the main obstacle to disinflation, reforms to strengthen the anti-inflationary mandate and the operational independence of the central bank, and more effective monetary instruments are also needed.

Most of the growth empirics emphasize the ambiguous impact of government activities on economic growth. The provision of public goods and development of infrastructures, on the one hand, stimulate economic activities. But on the other, the contractionary effect of tax collection, through lowering the saving rate and investment, depresses economic growth. In the standard growth models such as Barro (1990), government size is related to economic growth within an inverted "U" curve framework. The government involvement in the economy, however, is not restricted to budgetary activities. Governments own enterprises and they also intervene into different markets. This is specifically the case in developing countries. In assessing the impacts of government activities on economic growth, we need to take into account each role played by the government separately. In this paper, we have examined the significance of government activities for the economic growth of the oil exporting countries, through three channels of: government expenditure, ownership of enterprises, and intervention in the economy. The results indicate that the distortionary impact of government intervention, in addition to a government size much bigger than its optimal, contribute significantly to the observed phenomena, known as the growth failure of the oil exporting countries.