Sharif Digital Repository

Co-movement between inflation and nominal interest in response to an interest rate shock, dubbed neo-fisherianism, has been the subject of contentious debate since the advent of non-inflationary ZLB environment. We design an economic model rich with banking features to understand the economic responses to permanent and long-term interest rate shocks. We find that responses to a permanent positive interest rate shock depend on the monetary authorities’ speculation of the new long-term inflation rate, with the most probable outcome being a permanent increase in inflation. Responses to a long-term positive interest rate shock depict an increase and then decrease in inflation. We also discover... 

In the present study, the effects of increasing the value of shale gas production, either due to increased production or price increases, have been studied on economic variables such as employment, wage, property value and the number of births. In this regard, the data for each of these variables was used at the county level in the United States of America between 2000 and 2011. In order to estimate the desired effects, counties are divided into two types of boom and non-boom counties. The findings indicate that increasing natural gas production will lead to more employment and wage growth in boom counties than non-boom counties. Also, during the period of increasing production, the value of... 

The low female labor force participation rate in the Iranian labor market relative to the global average and even to countries that do not differ significantly from the socio-economic characteristics of our country is one of the important questions of the Iranian labor market. In this study, we seek to answer the question of whether the economic participation rate of married women will increase if the gender gaps in wages, job findings and job losses among women and men are eliminated in the Iranian labor market. To answer this question using household expenditure and income data and labor force data, we show that between the two categories of occupations, in terms of the share of women's... 

On May 5, 2014, Iran began the Health Transformation Plan in public hospitals to promote vaginal delivery by increasing physician fees and by freeing payment of natural labor. About five month later part of the plan extended to non-public hospitals, and the fee of vaginal delivery increased there as well. These consequent exogenous policies provide an ideal environment to examine how Ob/Gyn physicians and pregnant mothers respond to financial incentives using difference-in-difference identification. We find that after the first reform caesarean rates declined by 4.92 percent in public hospitals without any health deterioration, a significant but modest drop. Our results suggest that in the... 

Gasoline consumption resulting from vehicular traffic is one of the most significant factors influencing the emission levels of pollutants. Since the sold gasoline at fuel stations does not necessarily translate into vehicular traffic, tracing the final consumer becomes challenging. hence, estimating the impact of gasoline consumption on air pollution is accompanied by biased results. Moreover, the COVID-19 outbreak, acting as an exogenous shock, has provided an opportunity to use data such as COVID-19 and intercity travel as instrumental variables, gasoline consumption, and emission levels, between 2018 and 2020, show unbiased estimates of the effect of gasoline consumption on air... 

Daily price limits are boundaries that regulators impose to control daily volatility in stock market. This paper studies the impact of an imposing price limit in Tehran Stock Exchange. To this end we use all the data about companies which were accepted in stock exchange and fara-stock exchange in 1392.In this year the price limit imposed on companies in stock exchange and fara-stock exchange are 4 and 5 percent respectively. Therefore, to estimate the effect of price limit we use the propensity score matching method and inverse probability weighting.The results indicate no significant differences between returns and trade volume between 4% and 5% price limits, but a significant difference... 

This study investigates the price elasticity of gasoline smuggling demand in Iran. For this purpose, a panel data of monthly gasoline consumption has been used that contains data for 160 regions of distribution for Iran's Oil Production Company between 2005 and 2014. The results of estimating the monthly elasticity of gasoline smuggling demand in each region show a significant impact of the gasoline price differential between Iran and its neighboring countries, as well as the distance of each region with the neighboring countries on the demand. The results of this study show that whenever gasoline prices increase inside the country, the inclination to smuggling has been decreased due to a... 

Iran has one of the lowest rates of female participation in the labor market among countries. In 2015, for every 100 men over 10 years old, only 21 women’s labor force participation was confirmed. This paper attemps to determine factors which cause low participation rate of women, particularly married ones. For this purpose, using structural estimation method, a dynamic discrete choice model was built, and estimated with means of simulated method of moments (SSM). The results indicated that the most important factor for low participation rate of married woman is children cost. Elimination of this cost would increase participation rate of married women about 30 percantage points  

The goal of this research is to obtain optimal toll for saveh-salafchegan, Tehran-pardis and Ghazvin-karaj highways. To obtain optimal toll, Small and Yan value pricing model was extended and then parametrs of the model was estimated by using daily data of Maintenance and road transport Organization, then value of time parameter was structurally estimated and optimall toll was numerically obtained for the highways. Finally sensitivity analysis was performed for all parameters. Results show that optimall toll for saveh-salafchegan highway is unique and respectively, are in interval τ≤0.03 and τ≤3.72 . Magnitude of value of time of road users and difference between value of time of users... 

This research is aimed at analyzing the effects of forming relationships between oil and gas companies and drilling rigs owned by drilling companies. For this purpose, panel data on 13240 contracts signed between 2000-2010 worldwide are used through employing a model with fixed effects and an instrumental variable for day-rate. Results show that repeated interaction between oil and gas companies and drilling rigs, does on one hand increase the number of contracted projects in future contracts, and on the other hand, improves their drilling performance. Moreover, it is seen that such effects are only captured by the first few interactions, and that they subside and vanish after the firms have... 

The paper aims to investigate the importance of firms’ financial constraints for pricing equity in Iran. We study the impact of financial constraints of non-financial firms on their stock returns using a sample of 241 manufacturing firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) for the period of 2007 to 2014. We use a similar index as in Kaplan and Zingales (1997), KZ, to measure financial constraint. We examine whether financial constraint influences stock returns and can improve the explanatory power of the Fama and French three-factor asset pricing model. Our findings indicate that financial constraints can be considered as an important factor affecting asset returns. Cross-sectional... 

The case for boosting the share of children benefiting from early childhood development (ECD) programs is strong, but expenditure has to be well-aimed. Not every program adopted under the name of ECD will provide the positive impacts that currently anchor ECD discussions among policy makers. In this report, we present results from an experimental evaluation of Cash Grant for Child Care program implemented in Sistan & Baluchestan province of Iran as a government subsidized ECD. The program provides monthly grants to ECD centers, as well as in-kind food quota per every child attending the center. At the end of school year, we did not find any significant differences in cognitive and... 

Assuring households’ access to essential goods at economy’s hard times has always been of policymakers’ main concerns. Using Household’s Income and Expenditure Survey data during Iran-Iraq war during 80’s, we have calculated welfare and distribution effects of rationing by coupons of three essential goods in these years. We found that rationed quantities were inefficiently excessive and due to their significant low prices, they were overconsumed. Also, without any extra financial burden, government could have improved lowest income quantile’s aggregate utility by 5.2% or 5.6%, if cash subsidy equal to each household’s previous subsidy value or an equal per-capita subsidy were distributed... 

In this reaserch by comparing some of the recent litreture on indentification production Function,we estimate total factor productivity. We focous on parametric methods, especially Blundell and Bond (2000), Ollay and Pakes (1996), Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) and OLS.Using panel data on plant-level of 4-digits isic in Iran from 1380 to 1390. We choose Levinsohn and Petrin (2003) as the most appropriate estimator then we use that estimator for estimating productivity of plants. At the end we investigate the relation between firm size and productivity, also its ownership and productivity  

In order to estimate the inter-sectoral labor mobility costs in Iran’s economy, in this research, we design and estimate a structural model of worker’s decisions. The estimation method used in this research is Simulated Method of Moments and we have used Labor Force Survey and Household Expenditure and Income Survey in order to extract necessary moments. Our findings show that: 1) inter-sectoral labor mobility costs in Iran’s economy are large and they are between 3 to 11 times the annual income. 2) These costs are higher for female, rural, older and high-educated workers. 3) If these costs were zero, production in tradable and non-tradable sectors would have been 36 and 16 percent larger... 

Estimating electricity demand elasticity in different sectors has been an essential research topic. Considering the fact that pricing electricity in various countries does not follow the same rules, many econometrics methods have been developed to estimate this crucial parameter. Electricity demand elasticity is defined as the percent change in electricity consumption in response to one percentage change in electricity price. Having a correct estimate of this parameter would help policymakers to price electricity properly in order to reach desirable goals in electricity consumption optimization and many other aspects of electricity consumption. In Iran, Tavanir Co. which is a subsidiary of... 

One of the most widely discussed parameters in energy economics is the price elasticity of gasoline demand due to its substantial implications for taxation, energy efficiency, and environmental policies. This paper aims to estimate the price elasticity of gasoline demand using a novel source of data. The data is from Iran, in the early months of 2014. Vehicles get a quota of 60 liters per month as subsidized gasoline at a lower price. The quota is transferable to the next months if it has not been consumed. All of the information about each pumping transaction is gathered in a centralized database, assigning a unique fuel card to each vehicle. Consequently, the structure of the market provides... 

What is the effect of access to paved roads on farmland rental rates? To answer this question, I estimate the impact of the increase in the share of people in counties that access asphalt roads on irrigated farmland rental rents between 2006 and 2011 in Iran. For this analysis, I construct a county-level panel dataset by combining 2006 and 2011 Iranian census and agricultural data on cropland as well as farmland rental rates and exploit a fixed effects approach. I show that the availability of rural asphalt roads, rural sanded roads, and railroad stations increased irrigated farmland rental rates by 3.4 percent, 4.0 percent, and 1.6 percent, respectively. I also show that the effect of... 

The provision of developmental infrastructure by governments and their various effects on the lives of citizens has always been the subject of discussion among researchers and policymakers. In particular, the infrastructure associated with access to modern energies causes changes in household economic behavior. The effects of pipeline gas connection on household behavior is the main subject of this research. By using micro level data, these effects compare the behavior of beneficiary households and lack of natural gas. The data includes households living in the entire geographical zone of Iran and between 1377 and 1394. First, we show that natural gas is a direct substitute for liquid fuels... 

Auction is one of the most important and oldest institutions in economics, enabling resource allocation and trade of goods in the economy. Investigating the effects of changes in reservation price in auctions is an important question in auction theory research. In this study, focusing on a policy implemented by Yektanet, which involved altering the reservation price in auctions for advertising slots, we assessed its impact on advertiser costs. The implemented policy led to the activation of two distinct mechanisms, resulting in conflicting effects on the company's revenue. The first mechanism involved an increase in bid and intensified competition for ad placements on average, while the...