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Industrial energy demand analysis has always been one of the leading fields of research in economics. This issue is more critical in the case of developing countries especially those with transition experiences. In this paper, third generation of dynamic factor demand models for the Iranian manufacturing industries is estimated to analyze the speed of adjustment in factor demands. Data which is used in this study is an Iranian industrial plant based on two-digit international classification code during 1374-1386. The translog functional form is used as model specification. The main findings are the complementary relation between energy carriers, electricity, and capital and low adjustment speed of capital stock. In Iranian manufacturing industries, demand for energy carriers and capital, with expansion of manufacturing activities and technological change has increased, while the demand for labor has decreased.

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The theoretical literature of economic growth (endogenous and exogenous growth model) and empirical evidence in developed and developing countries show that without financial reform, sustainable development is impossible. The positive effects of financial sector development on economic growth and developments in the international financial sector make a more important issue. Some economists believe that financial reforms through increasing the level of savings and investment can provide economic growth. Also, some economists believe that financial reform by international capital mobility and technology transfer can cause income convergence among countries. This study investigates the theoretical foundations of financial development, financial system and its functions, and also the analysis of the effect of financial reform on economic growth and creating income convergence among selected Islamic countries during 2008-1979. Estimation results show that financial reform through liquidity has direct and significant impact on economic growth. The crossover effect of economic growth and liquidity has direct and statistically significant effect on income convergence.

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The aim of this paper is to consider the effects of monetary policy on production and prices through asset price channel (the housing price index) in Iran during 1368Q1 to 1387Q4. By Vector Error Correction (VEC) Model, the effect of monetary policy has been considered through this channel. In general, the results show that the debt of banks to the central bank as instruments of monetary policy through the housing price index, at least in the short run could increase the production level and decreases prices. Thus central bank with given facilities to banks can directly and through the housing price index strengthen production level and control prices in the short run. Also we found that shock of the required reserve ratio in general, directly affects production levels and don’t have any effect on production level and prices through the housing price index. Therefore, in using of these tool as instruments of monetary policy, the housing price index channel in monetary transmission policy, has a little effect and only on the production.

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The Iranian electricity market is undergoing the first decade of restructuring. Effective competition in wholesale electricity market is a necessary feature of successful electricity industry restructuring. The paper examines the degree of competition in the Iranian electricity market during March to September 2009. The competitive benchmark analysis has been used to simulate producer’s behavior as a price taker firms and compare the competitive market results with actual market outcomes. The competitive benchmark has been calculated through generation costs of producers. Moreover, the possibility of execution market power has been considered by structural index. The finding indicates that the Iranian electricity market has a considerable potential to exercise power market and there were significant departure from competitive behavior during 2009.

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  The aim of this study is to calculate the marginal private and social costs of two thermal power plants in Isfahan region for a particular day in January 2010. For this purpose a nonlinear planning model with linear constraints has been used. The objective function (social cost) which is a twofold objective function is calculated by the summation of variable costs and external costs of power plants in the above mentioned region.

  The results of minimizing the objective function of private cost and also minimizing objective function of social cost indicate a significant difference between marginal social cost and marginal private cost. This difference is considered as marginal external cost in peak hours of electricity consumption and has had an obvious increase to the off-peak hours of electricity consumption in the region of the study. Taking into account the social costs of electricity generation, green power generation technologies can compete with thermal power plants.

 

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Although fossil fuels consumption may causes to rapid economic growth, but due to related pollutants and its consequences, the world has suffered from climate changes. Moreover, fossil fuel resources such as petroleum, gas, coal and uranium are being exhausted rapidly in the last decades. Therefore, seeking an appropriate as well as low-cost alternative for the above-mentioned energy carriers is one of the most important research topics. Regarding this situation, the utilization of renewable energy sources especially solar and wind energies is very important. In this study, the social welfare is maximized and optimal trajectory of solar and wind energy substitution is derived by using an optimal control approach. The model is solved empirically by genetic algorithm using MATLAB software. The results show that assuming social discount rate of 5% and no reduction in solar and wind energy conversion cost during next years, transition from fossil energy to solar and wind energy must occur in 2089 while assuming a 50 % reduction in solar and wind energy conversion cost in every 10 years period, this transition must take place in 2032.

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Energy carrier’s subsidization has placed a significant pressure on government budget in Iran thus, energy price increase is performed in order to ameliorate this case. One of the main challenges that policymakers need to consider is the impact of energy prices increase on the labor market especially, when the national unemployment rate is high. This paper utilizes a computable general equilibrium model based on a Micro Consistent Matrix for 2006 in order to evaluate the impact of energy price increase on the Iranian labor market during 2006. The empirical results are based on two scenarios: Baseline and FOB price increase scenarios. They show that the activity level and demand for labor in “crude oil, natural gas, and coal” as well as “other services” sectors will increase in short-run while the energy carriers’ prices increase. However, in long-run, the labor increment will be lower. Furthermore, the model results indicate that in short-run, the activity level and demand for labor in the other sectors will decrease. On the other hand, the policy will result in a larger decrement in the activity level and demand for labor in these sectors in long-run.

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The main objective of this study is to investigate the effects of oil shocks on GDP, prices level, money and exchange rates in Iran by using the structural vector error correction (SVEC) approach model covering the period 1980Q2-2010Q1. The findings of this study reveal that positive shock in oil real price has significant and positive effect on the real GDP in the short, medium and long. The impact of oil price shocks on domestic prices in the short, medium and long term is negative and significant, such as creating a positive shock to the real price of crude oil, reduce the domestic price. In addition, a positive shock to the real price of crude oil has the negative effect of the exchange rate in the short, medium and long term. However, the impact of oil price shock on the real exchange rate is permanent. Imports also will increase, due to the increase in wealth and demand for intermediate products. On the other hand, a positive shock to the real residual money in the short run cause to immediate increases in real out put.