Economics Research

Abstract   Married men are one of the main groups of labor market employed and therefore the study of their labor market behavior is one of the priorities of labor market policy. The present study attempts to identify the variables affecting the market working hours of married men with employed spouses based on the literature of the collective model (CM) of household labor supply. The research information is based on micro and cross-sectional data of Iran in 2018 and the statistical sample includes 724 married men living in urban and rural areas. The model was estimated using the generalized method of moments (GMM) and related tests. The results show that the labor supply function of married men is standard (the substitution effect is larger than the income effect) and the supply increases with wage but at diminishing rate. Also, married men with higher levels of education than their wives spend more leisure-living time. Also, working hours of married men with employed spouses decrease with age. Moreover, higher education and number of  children increase married men working hours.

Abstract  
The study of the effect of education on total factor productivity is one of the important topics in the macroeconomic literature and educational policy. However, identifying the threshold of the effect of education on total factor productivity is of more interest to policymakers. The present study investigates the nonlinear relationship between education and total factor productivity for the period 1365-1397 SH (1986-2018). Average years of study have been used as an indicator of education and the Gentle Transfer Regression (STR) model has been applied to estimate the threshold. The results confirm the nonlinear effect of education levels on total factor productivity and show that the quantity of education index in a two-regime structure with a threshold of 81.86 (equivalent to the average years of study 7.82 years) has a significant effect on total factor productivity. Given that the Iranian economy has exceeded the threshold since 1390 SH (2011), increasing the quantity of education will have a negative impact on productivity. Therefore, reviewing the quantitative development of education and giving priority to improving the quality of education has more priority than in past.

Abstract  
We use the budget expenditure approach to evaluate tax evasion of self-employed businesses in Iran. As self-employment guilds cover various jobs, we choose dentists as a sample. Facing limited data access, we use household budget expenditure in 2016. We first calculate the the income of dentists’ society and then estimate the income tax they should pay according to the tax law. Finally, we compare the actual income tax paid with the calculated income tax to estimate the tax evasion. Since the data published by the two official institutions are different, we have two different numbers of dentists: 20405 and 26301. We find that in both cases, like other countries in the world such as the United States, England, Italy, Russia, and Greek, self-employed individuals have a high level of tax evasion.

Abstract  The purpose of this study is to explain the factors affecting the economic growth gap between OPEC and East Asian countries using the Shapley–Owen–Shorrocks and Oaxaca–Blinder variance decomposition methods over the period 1996-2018. The results of the Shapley–Owen–Shorrocks decomposition reveal that in East Asian countries, institutional and policy variables (government consumption, inflation, rule of law, trade) and human capital explain 53.31 and 31.38 percent of economic growth fluctuations, respectively. In contrast, in OPEC members, institutional and policy variables and physical capital (investment, Fertility rate) explain 66.72 and 17.75 percent of economic growth fluctuations, respectively. According to the results of the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition, about 43 percent of the economic growth gap between East Asia and OPEC is due to explained components (mainly rule of law, investment, human capital) and 57 percent due to unexplained components (mainly the return of investment, human capital, inflation, rule of law). Accordingly, efficient use of factors in relation to their endowments has a more important role in explaining the economic growth gap of  the countries. A noteworthy point in this regard is the important role of institutional and policy variables. Since institutional and policy variables as well as human capital, fertility rate, and investment are greatly influenced by governance, in order to promote economic growth in OPEC, policymaker should focus on the factors improving good governance.

Abstract   Income inequality has received much attention from economists and policymakers as one of the components of economic development. On the other hand, the difference between developed and developing economies can be checked in the efficiency of their financial systems. This study investigates the effect of financial development on income inequality in Iran using the threshold regression method during 2020-1967. The results show that the effect of financial development of the banking sector and the stock market on income inequality has a threshold limit. in model one, the financial development of the banking sector before and after the threshold has a significant and negative effect on inequality. In model two, stock market financial development has significant and negative effect on income inequality before the threshold but not significant effect after the threshold.  However, there is insufficient evidence to support the effect of financial development on income inequality in the form of Greenwood and Jovanovic's inverse U hypothesis.

Abstract  This paper aims to empirically assess Schumpeter's view that access to credit is vital for entrepreneurial activities. Credit allocation refers to the allocation of bank credits by the monetary authorities to non-financial economic activities. To measure the scope and penetration of entrepreneurship, two common indicators are used: The New Business Entry Density (ED) of the World Bank (WB) and Total Early-stage Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). Our sample for the first case includes 66 countries over the period 2006 to 2016, and for the second case, 54 countries during the period 2001 to 2016. The results rejects the hypothesis of the impacts of credit allocation on entrepreneurship in the case of former indicators, but do not reject it in the case of the latter indicators.  Furthermore, the sensitivity of the results to the choice of entrepreneurship measure indicates that further inquiries as well as alternative indicators are required to address the Schumpeterian hypothesis.