Factors Associated with FDI Inflows to MENA Region: An Empirical Examination
Sanaz
Khatabi
Department of Economics, Research and Science Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
author
Akbar
Komijani
Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
author
Teymoor
Mohammadi
Faculty of Economics, University of Allameh Tabatabae'i, Tehran, Iran.
author
Abbas
Memarnejad
Faculty of Economics, Research and Science Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
author
text
article
2020
eng
The purpose of the current research was to empirically examine the relationship between six independent variables and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows (dependent variable) to countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for the period of 2002-2016. The independent variables studied in this research were foreign exchange systems, good governance, inflation, gross domestic product, market openness, and doing business. To test the research hypotheses, a two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression was used to analyze the imbalanced pooled data for the years 2002-2016. The hypotheses were tested at a 95% confidence level, and Eviews produced two-tailed probability T statistics. Based on the analysis results, none of the six hypotheses could be rejected. This result shows that good governance, gross domestic product, openness, and doing business had a positive relationship despite inflation and the negative effect on FDI inflows. As for the foreign exchange region, the result showed that countries with fixed exchange rate systems attracted more FDI inflows than countries with the two-tiered system.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
313
331
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76006_b4ec562977907084eb3a29a72f51d763.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76006
The Effects of Bank Regulation on Financial Development in the MENA Countries: The Supporting Role of Supervision
Chadi
Azmeh
Department of Banking and Financial Sciences, Faculty of Business Administration and Finance, International University for Science & Technology, Damascus, Syria
author
text
article
2020
eng
This study investigates the impact of bank regulation on financial development in the MENA countries for the period 1995-2014. Restrictions on activity, foreign banks, and capital were used as proxies for bank regulation. Also, bank supervisory power, independence, private monitoring, and moral hazard were used as proxies for bank supervision. Liquid liabilities, private credit, and z-score were chosen as proxies for financial development. They represent, consecutively, size, activity, and stability of the financial sector. A positive and significant impact of bank regulation was observed on all measures of financial development. The most important contribution of the present study is that, it gives evidence of an important supporting role of supervision on bank regulation, to realize its desired impact on financial development. This final result is important for the MENA countries, since data analysis shows that financial sector reform is more concentrated on regulation than supervision. Policy makers in the MENA countries need to focus more, in their financial sector reform, on bank supervision to realize the expected impact of bank regulation on financial development.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
333
352
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76007_f35de1a2f629cd6af6a989d5d724d6a6.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76007
Tariff Pass-through and Firm’s Productivity: A Case Study of Iran
Zahra
Sheidaei
Faculty of Economics, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.
author
Saeed
Rasekhi
Faculty of Economics, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.
author
text
article
2020
eng
This paper investigates the heterogeneous reaction of Iranian exporters to the tariff rate changes, how export prices are influenced differently by the increase or decrease in foreign importers’ tariff rate. Using the Iranian transaction level export data and firm level data during the period 2002-2015, we find that tariff pass through for Iranian firms are incomplete and exporters absorb part of the increase in tariff rate in their markups. The results also reveal that there is an inverse relationship between the tariff absorption elasticity and firm productivity, as higher productivity firms absorb less tariff changes in their markups and pass most of it into their prices than lower productive firms. There is the same finding on the relationship between export volume elasticity relative to tariff changes and firm’s productivity.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
353
370
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76008_a32c15a888da08b46ce50aca12d1e744.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76008
A Study of Testing Mean Reversion in the Inflation Rate of Iran’s Provinces: New Evidence Using Quantile Unit Root Test
Arash
Hadizadeh
Department of Economics, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran.
author
text
article
2020
eng
This paper examines the mean-reverting properties of inflation rates for Iran’s 25 provinces from 1990:4 to 2017:7. To the end, we use various conventional univariate linear and non-linear unit root tests, as well as a quantile unit root test by Koenker and Xiao (2004). The results of conventional unit root tests indicate that the unit root test null hypothesis is accepted for most of the inflation rate series. Using the quantile unit root test, we found that the null hypothesis of the unit root test is rejected for all inflation rate series globally. But the mean-reverting properties are rejected at low quantiles. The empirical results have important policy implications.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
371
392
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76009_986bec0070b70e3df597961204e75617.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76009
ARDL – Analysis of the Relationship among Exports, FDI, Current Account Deficit and Economic Growth in Pakistan
Khalid
Zafar
SDM, Education Department, Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan
author
text
article
2020
eng
This paper empirically examines the relationship among exports, foreign direct investment, current account deficit, and economic growth in Pakistan during 1975-2016. We adopted the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach to co-integration together with ECM techniques to trace long-run and short-run relationships. The results demonstrate a positive and significant relationship between exports, foreign direct investment, and economic growth in Pakistan in the long and short-run. In contrast, results depict that the current account deficit is negatively and significantly correlated to economic growth in the long-run and short-run. Furthermore, the Granger causality test reports the unidirectional causality from exports to economic growth.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
393
414
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76010_4d384e4248450f9aab5441210691d3ff.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76010
The Effect of Technological Changes on Employment: Regional I-O SDA Approach
Nour Mohammad
Yaghoubi
Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran.
author
Ramezan
Hosseinzadeh
Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran.
author
text
article
2020
eng
In this study, the Regional Input-Output Structural Decomposition Analysis (I-O SDA) is used to investigate the effects of technological changes on employment in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran during 2006-2011. This paper develops the SDA method to decompose the technological change from two viewpoints of supply and demand for intermediate inputs in each sector. These changes from a demand perspective are decomposed into changes in the share of each sector in total intermediate inputs used by specific sectors (input substitution effect) and backward linkage. From a supply perspective, these change is decomposed to the share of each sector in total intermediate demand supplied by a specific sector (selling structure) and forward linkage. The results show that changes in forwarding linkages of sectors caused to decrease of 127351 jobs in total employment. The effect of changes in backward linkages is negative in all sectors of the economy and caused to decrease of 75581 jobs in the regional economy.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
415
429
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76011_7023e4dc9bcffb118b45cac81e512023.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76011
The Assessment of Final Value of Selected Agricultural Products under Water Economic Scenarios
Ali
Sardar Shahraki
Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Management and Economics, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran.
author
Samira
Amirzadeh
Department of Economics, Zabol University, Zabol, Iran.
author
Majid
Dahmardeh
Department of Agricultural Economics, Payame Noor University (PNU), Zahedan, Iran.
author
Nasim
Safari
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
author
text
article
2020
eng
This research is an attempt to determine the agronomic plan, shadow price, and final value with an emphasis on the optimization of water use in five main agricultural regions of Kerman province (Kerman, Baft, Bardsir, Bam, and Jiroft) and five crops (wheat, barley, potato, onion, and tomato). Analysis was based on three scenarios: (i) current planting conditions, (ii) profit maximization considering the constraints of required water and land, and (iii) profit maximization considering the constraints, including land and local consumption constraint. The results revealed that wheat and barley are eliminated from the planting pattern when water and land constraints are applied (Scenario 2), but other crops gain more planting area. Under all constraints (Scenario 3), barley is eliminated from the planting pattern, but other crops will not have changes in the cultivation area.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
431
447
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76012_f23b3b67959d4f6a79dd624b2d56a3ca.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76012
The Impact of International Migration on the Economy with the Assumption of Labor Heterogeneity
Hadi
Keshavarz
Department of Economics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr, Iran.
author
text
article
2020
eng
This study investigated the effect of international labor migration on Iran’s economy using a neo-classical growth model with the assumption of labor heterogeneity within the framework of the dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. After solving the model, the obtained equations were linearized, and different values were assigned to the parameters according to information about Iran’s economy. The results indicated that emigration of skilled labor force reduced production, investment, and per capita consumption, increased skilled individuals’ wages, and decreased wages for unskilled individuals; however, immigration enhanced the labor force and population and reduced production, investment, and per capita consumption. On the other hand, the labor force’s wages also declined with an increase in the unskilled labor force. Furthermore, a variation in the degree of substitution between unskilled labor and capital only changed the impact of the immigration momentum and had no impact on the type of relationship. If emigration consists of a combination of the skilled and unskilled labor force, its effectiveness only changes.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
449
469
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76013_a8a87215dd01e65bb4672c98c1c65acf.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76013
Portfolio Diversification and Net Selectivity Performance of Mutual Funds in Iran by Using Fama Decomposition Model
Samira
Sadeghi Goghari
Department of Economics, Kish International Campus, University of Tehran, Kish, Iran.
author
Ali
Souri
Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
author
Hossein
Abbasinejad
Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
author
Mohsen
Mehrara
Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
author
text
article
2020
eng
The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the performance of mutual funds in Iran using the Fama decomposition model (1972). Thus, the daily data of 55 mutual funds during four years from 21/3/2014 to 21/3/2018 were investigated. First, the performance of mutual funds was broken down into Fama components to achieve this goal. It was shown that mutual fund diversification and risk performance were negative, but net selectivity performance was positive. Finally, the panel method was used to investigate the effect of Fama's components on the performance of mutual funds. The results indicated that the effect of Fama's components on the performance of mutual funds is positive, and the effects of the net selectivity and risk are more than diversification.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
471
487
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76014_fc2a30a4df178deb5a81053cece393aa.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76014
Risk Management in Oil Market: A Comparison between Multivariate GARCH Models and Copula-based Models
Farkhondeh
Jabalameli
Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
author
Pourya
Ghorbani
Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
author
Majid
Ahmadian
Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
author
text
article
2020
eng
High price volatility and risk are the main features of commodity markets. One way to reduce this risk is to apply the hedging policy in future contracts. In this regard, in this paper, we will calculate the optimal hedging ratios for OPEC oil. In this study, besides the multivariate GARCH models, for the first time, we use conditional copula models for modeling the dependence structure between OPEC oil and WTI future contract with different maturities and estimating hedging ratios for OPEC oil by using WTI future contracts. The results of this study show that the dependence structure between OPEC oil and WTI future contract in three maturities is asymmetric. In addition, results indicate that during the studied period (2003-2017), Copula-based models have more efficient in applying the hedging policy than multivariate GARCH models. The average optimal hedge ratio increases with a rise in the maturity of contracts. On the other hand, the highest performance of hedging strategies was achieved by using WTI futures contracts with six months’ maturity.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
489
513
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76015_c38140a75f74c942b20db4a48c6bd01d.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76015
Estimating Shadow Economy and Tax Evasion by Considering the Variables of Government Financial Discipline and Behavioral Factors in Iran’s Economy
Masoumeh
Motallebi
Faculty of Economics and Administration, Lorestan University, Khoram Abad, Iran.
author
Mohammad
Alizadeh
Faculty of Economics and Administration, Lorestan University, Khoram Abad, Iran
author
Sajjad
Faraji Dizaji
Faculty of Management and Economics, University of Tarbiat Modares, Tehran, Iran.
author
text
article
2020
eng
Low tax incomes and the large size of the government in Iran lead to a budget deficit, which increases the inflation rate. It also causes economic instability and fluctuations in inflation, leading to tax non-compliance and the transfer of people to the informal economy. Therefore, considering the variables of financial discipline and behavioral factors, this research examines these variables' effect on the shadow economy's size and the tax evasion caused by it in Iran from 1967 to 2015. For this purpose, first, we select eight models, and the final model is selected with the Multiple Indicators and Multiple Causes (MIMIC) approach. Then, using the side information and calibration of the time series, the relative and absolute sizes of the shadow economy and the tax evasion resulting from it are calculated. The results indicate that the tax morale and tax burden on imports and unemployment rates are the main causes involved in the creation of the shadow economy. Moreover, the results indicate that the effect of behavioral factors on increasing the size of the shadow economy and tax evasion resulting from it is more than that of variables of financial discipline in Iran.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
515
544
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76016_44188425779ec88fd61c6fea67797dac.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76016
The Effect of Electronic Banking on Deposit Attraction and Market Concentration in Iran’s Banking Industry
Shamsedin
Hosseini
Faculty of Economics, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
author
Nasim
Dargazani
Faculty of Economics, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
author
text
article
2020
eng
Along with the development of electronic banking due to the rapid growth of information technology, many banking indices, including concentration, are affected. This influence is made among different variables, of which the amount of banks’ deposits and the level of deposit attraction are the most important. This study the influence of electronic banking on concentration in Iran’s banking industry, considering each bank’s portion of total deposit. To do this, using the annual data of the years 2006 to 2016 and in panel data form, along with descriptive-statistical analysis, bank concentration was studied under the impression of E-banking development. Concentration is measured using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index based on the deposit portion. Results indicate that small banks’ portion of deposits has flourished, and the concentration has decreased. The reason is that small banks use more electronic banking services than larger ones. Results also show a positive, logical relationship between each bank’s portion of total deposits and the development of Electronic banking.
Iranian Economic Review
University of Tehran
1026-6542
24
v.
2
no.
2020
545
565
https://ier.ut.ac.ir/article_76017_ce1d659785ad170883275184216e8fe9.pdf
dx.doi.org/10.22059/ier.2020.76017