مجله اقتصاد و توسعه منطقه ای
پیاپی 6 (پاییز و زمستان 1392)

Regional production advantages determination is important and considered in the areas of operational development policy making for a country. For determination of regional advantages, there are two approaches: the first approach is to identify qualitative and quantitative advantage with respect to environmental factors (potential advantage) and the second approach is to identify the advantages according to the rate of growth in different sectors, based on historical records (the revealed advantages). The main questions of this study are: i. what are the factors and indicators of revealed and potential regional production advantages? And how are they different? ii. According to the theoretical framework, what are the revealed and potential advantages of the Khorasan region provinces? And how are the results at these two models related?The research results indicate that the outcomes of these two methods are relatively mismatched.

The main approach of this study is sensitivity analysis of indicators and examination the effectiveness of each of them, in addition to calculating the relative efficiency of provinces during 2000 to 2007. For this purpose, five indicators of decent work, 4 indicators of socio- economic situation, DEA statistical model and multiple diagnostic statistical analyses were used. Also, the researcher used descriptive- analytical method and the information of 27 provinces. Based on the relative efficiency rank, West Azerbaijan, Tehran and Ilam are in the top and Chaharmahal, Kurdistan and Qom are in the bottom of the efficiency chart. Based on sensitivity analysis, the socio- economic indicators (outputs) have been more sensitive. Also, based on diagnostic analysis, the socio- economic indicators are in the top. With the findings of two approaches, it was found that social indicators in the current situation of employment in country need more urgent attention and planning.

A great portion of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in economy of developing countries encourages economists to find methods to make these enterprises efficient, advantageous and using them in industrial and economic development. In this paper efficiency’s types (internal efficiency, external efficiency and collective efficiency) have been identified and Cluster organization as a way to improve efficiency and competitive advantage of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and considered. In "Tehran stone processing cluster" cluster effects on efficiency and competitive advantage of this cluster enterprises is evaluated based on method of competitive advantage analysis (MCAA). This method is based on single-sample t-test and Porter's diamond model (PD). The result shows us those enterprises of stone processing cluster of Tehran are not so successful in achieving to competitive advantages and acceptable efficiency. However advantages of clustering compensate internal inefficiency by external efficiency which helps them stay competitive. Moreover the attainment to collective efficiency (which is assumed one of advantages of clustering) is assumed as one of methods of efficiency enhancement.

Access to the high and stable economic growth rate is one of the important issues in each country. Because of close relationship between welfare of societies and economic growth, most of the economists are attempting to recognize the sources of economic growth. According to existing theories; one of the important sources of economic growth is technology development or total factor productivity. To achieve sustained and sustainable economic growth requires high growth rate technology or TFP.In this research, an extended version of the Solow (1956) growth model have been developed to estimate steady state growth rates of selected OPEC countries in which total factor productivity is assumed a function of two important externalities viz, learning by doing and openness to trade. In order to estimate production function we used general to specific modeling.Results have shown that the highest steady state growth rate belongs respectively to Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Algeria. But the growth rate of Nigeria and Venezuela have not been accountable clearly. According to these results, openness to trade has played an important role in improving the long run growth rate in Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Iran, but a negative effect on the growth rate of Venezuela, yet learning by doing has had no effect on the growth rate of any country.

Naghsh-e-Jahan Square with its complementary set of buildings as one of the important attractions of tourism and cultural heritage in Iran is considered. It is important to preserve this valuable heritage. Therefore, this research will discuss to estimate a visitor's willingness to pay (WTP) for preservation of Naghsh-e-Jahan, based on contingent valuation method (CVM) and analysis of effective socio-economic factors on visitor's willingness to pay. For analysis of affecting factors on visitor's willingness to pay Ordered Probit and Tobit models were employed. Required information from 550 completed questionnaires and confronting interview with visitors of Naghsh-e-Jahan Square in 2010 were collected.The results indicate that 68.5% of visitors are willing to pay for preservation of Naghsh-e-Jahan Square. The average monthly amount of willingness to pay for preservation value of Naghsh-e-Jahan Square was estimated Rials 47790 and Rials 171251 per person and household, respectively.According to the findings, Between the results of Ordered Probit model and Tobit was a great adaptation. Age, education, income and conservation of cultural heritage variables in Ordered Probit model were statistically significant and sex, education, income and conservation of cultural heritage variables in Tobit model were statistically significant. Other variables have the expected sign. The results indicate contingent valuation method and models used in this research are suitable.

Foreign direct investment is one of the affective factors on economic growth. This paper investigates the effect of economic policies through indexes of economy openness degree, liquidity and real interest rate with emphasis on role of institutions on foreign direct investment (FDI) in two groups of G8 and OPEC countries over the period of (2000-2010). The results from response functions in estimated panel data vector auto regression model show i) quality of institutions which contain government effectiveness, political stability and absence of violence, rule of law and the regulatory quality in the public sector has a positive effect on FDI in G8 countries; ii) policies such as trade freedom, growth of liquidity and decreasing real interest rate lead to more FDI, only with existence of institutional suitable conditions such as political stability, rule of law and high productivity of government. These findings help to policy maker to provide conditions that make more FDI inflow.

High economic growth always has been of interest to policy makers and administrators that these strategies have been proposed to achieve this. Energy is a production factor and its impact on economic growth can be observed, therefore in this study was investigate the causality between energy consumption and economic growth in the ASEAN member countries, the period 1978 of 2008, for the purpose of the exam panel unit root, panel cointegration and panel vector error correction model is used. The results of this study indicate that in this group of countries there is not co-integration relationship between energy consumption, economic growth and price growth. But there is the co-integration relationship between energy consumption and economic growth. However, long-term bilateral causality between energy consumption and economic growth in the short term, there is also a one-way causality from energy consumption to economic growth.

Tax can be discussed from various aspects and in the meantime, evaluation the tax system performance is very important. This article try to point this out in 2005 and 2008 (the second and final year of the forth development plan) in the Iranian economy and in provinces separately. To enable this comparison and homogeneity, Iranian provinces are divided into three groups (developed, less developed and underdeveloped) according to the industrial and mining logistic project by the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade. In addition, the three criteria of number of employees, value added of industry and services sectors, as well as the number of declaration of tax resources are used as tax system inputs and the summation of direct taxes and taxes on goods and services is also used as output. The results of this study, which was conducted by DEA, indicate that the efficiency of the tax system represents a clear distinction, even in terms of homogeneous industrial development (non-industrial development) groups, especially in developed and less developed provinces. This finding suggests that the tax system can increase its performance, especially in industrial developed and less developed provinces, to significantly increase the amount of tax.

The investigation of inclusive growth is one of the main issues in urban economics. For this purpose, the main objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between income inequality and growth in Iranian provinces by GMM approach in panel data over the period of 2000-2009.The empirical results of study reveal that, initial value of Gini coefficient; unemployment rate and Gini coefficient growth have negative and significant effects on the Iranian provinces growth.With respect to the results of this paper the main policy implication is that the policy makers should adopt the pro-poor policies to improve the economic growth in Iranian provinces.