فصلنامه پژوهش های رشد و توسعه اقتصادی
پیاپی 13 (زمستان 1392)

The transference of economic activities to the private sector and the government withdrawal of its economic activities are introduced as dominant solutions to today''s economic problems and growth in countries، over the past two decades. This strategy -which takes place in order to return the government activities to the private sector known as privatization- can make fundamental changes in behavior and nature of the economic activities. Unlikely to the previous studies، which have been extremely done so far regarding the effects of privatization but in micro scale there are still few studies regarding the practical experiences of the privatization in different countries، in macro scale. This research demonstrates the effects of privatization on economic growth with controlling of critical Levine and Renelt (1992) growth models، as well as، empirical findings from previous studies، about D-8 countries، for the period between 2001-2009 and by using of the dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM). The results confidently prove that، as was expected، the privatization strategy has positive (although negligible) and significant impacts on economic growth in the mentioned countries.

An increase in production and economic growth leads to more and better opportunities for economic prosperity and enter to new scope. Exports، as one of the sources of national income can lead to the GDP growth، and foreign investment as the largest source of external finance in developing countries with positive spillover effects، provides economic growth conditions. Considering the economic monoculture and oil-export-based for countries in the MENA region، and the potential in the region to attract foreign investment، this paper investigates the relationship between non-oil exports and foreign direct investment with economic growth in the MENA region over the period 2000-2010 using GMM panel data approach. The results suggested a significant positive effect of non-oil exports and foreign direct investment on economic growth in the countries which were the focus of the study. Therefore، it is suggested that for development of non-oil exports، the structure of domestic production should be changed in such a way to provide the opportunity to enter in global markets and consider the comparative advantage as well as competitive advantage in production structure. For development of domestic production capacity، it is necessary to set conditions to attract foreign investment to overcome obstacles in attracting this kind of investment.

Estimation of the poverty line (A minimum subsistence) to determine the minimum required contribution to the implementation of poverty alleviation programs is essential. In this study، using a linear expenditure system (LES) and the results of surveys of household spending in urban areas during the period from 2005 to 2010، relative poverty and poverty indices were calculated. Equations of linear expenditure system for the commodity groups were system estimated method by using ISURE. Monthly poverty line in urban areas raised from 4500884 RLS in 2005 to 9197571 RLS in 2010 for 4-person household. The results indicate the relative poverty line، has increased 17% annually. By quadratic and Beta Lorenz curves fitting، poverty indicators and the Gini coefficient were calculated. Real income inequality indicators show worsening of income distribution over the years due to inflation. It is suggested that the appropriate measures to be taken to inhibition of inflation in the country and the protection of vulnerable groups and poverty alleviation programs could be more effective.

Environmental issues، especially «climate change» due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions in recent decades has become a global issue، so that today the pollution remains a challenge for countries. Given the importance of social capital and public awareness about the environmental impact of human activities on environmental problems confronting، aim of this paper is to answer the question that is there a relationship between social capital and environmental practices? In this study، we used Fukuyama index as a measurement of social capital. Initially، using factor analysis، social capital index is calculated for the period (1984-2011) and then using the Auto Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) model، long-term relationship between social capital and the environment has been tested. The results of the study show that in the period، social capital has a positive and significant effect on the health of environment and there is a strong relationship between environment and components of social capital.

Political stability and democracy، is an important characteristic of a developed political system. In fact a developed political system، with a democracy pattern، has a coordination relationship in other developed sections especially in human and economical issues. In these countries the government provide the basis to develop other sectors by economic freedom. This study describs economic freedom، political freedom and human development by using the simultaneous equations model investigates the effect of economic freedom، political freedom and human development on each other in selected Islamic countries. This model is estimated in selected countries by panel data approach between the years 2001-2010. Results show a signicant positive effect of human development on economic and political freedom. In addition economic freedom and human development have a direct effect on each other. More over political freedom doesn’t have any effect on human development. Finally، there is an adverse effect between economic and political freedom.

Tourism as a highest earning industry in the world can play an important role in the economic growth of countries. On the other hand، economic growth can also lead to the development of tourism facilities and infrastructure and finally to tourism development. Therefore، in this study the relationship between international tourism and economic growth in the OIC member states is discussed. In this study -to evaluate the impact of tourism on economic growth and the impact of economic growth on tourism- using panel data econometric framework، tourism and economic growth models in the period 1995-2011 for 21 OIC member countries are analysed. Results represent a significant and positive impact of international tourism، foreign direct investment، the degree of economic openness and economic freedom on economic growth and also economic growth due to increase of infrastructures and facilities leads to tourism development and increase the per capita income of any of the Islamic countries which lead to increased demand for tourism among members. Also the expansion of trade and lower prices affect tourism development.

Regarding the important role of health in economic growth and development، the purpose of the present paper is to investigate the impact of life expectancy، as the most important indicator of health، on economic growth in Iran during 1965-2009. The estimated Smooth Transition Regression (STR) model supports a nonlinear threshold behavior in the relationship between life expectancy and economic growth in the country in a two regime structures with a threshold level of 55. 34 years. In other words، our findings are both consistent with Acemoglu and Johnson (2007) for the negative impact and with demographic transition theory for the reducing effect of life expectancy on economic growth in Iran. This shows the country is approaching the stage of the fertility transition، where the increase in life expectancy will bring about a decline in population.