International Economic Studies

accentuate on the programs advocated by the IMF and the World Bank from the model known as the "Integrated Model IMF-World Bank". This research makes a comprehensive evaluation of the applicability of this model to analyze the performance of adjustment programs in the case of six countries in the Mediterranean and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, namely, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey during the period 1974-2006. We analyze also the effects of different policies (domestic credit, government spending, tax proceeds and exchange rate), on three objectives: growth, balance of payment equilibrium and inflation. Regarding to our results, the model gives us good economic comparison among these countries. Turkey is the closet to the anticipation of the model. For all of the countries there is a downward trend in domestic prices. Thus balance of payments is considered as the priority and inflation remains the second goal of the model. Therefore the model is not capable of giving a complete package of policy for no country.   JEL Classification: O10, O49  

In this paper, we empirically investigate the relationship between oil price changes and output in a group of oil exporting countries. The dynamics of business cycles in Libya, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Kuwait, Venezuela and Qatar are modeled by alternative regime switching models. We show that the extension of uni-variate Markov Switching model in order to include oil revenue improves dating business cycles in these economies. For all countries, the optimal specification suggested by the data is to consider three cycles or regimes, namely, high growth, mild growth, and recession. These three regimes can be associated to high positive oil shock, mild positive oil shock and negative oil price shock. An interesting finding of the paper is that there is a variety of relationships between oil price shocks and business cycles. Thus, in order to see the effects of an oil price shock one should take into consideration the economic regime when the oil price shock hits the economy. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about a general relationship between oil price shocks and macroeconomic variables for all the main oil exporting countries. JEL Classification: E31, E32, E52, Q41

In the discussions of trading, unemployment and income distribution inequality, this question is raised by economists that in economic development of developing and developed countries, which policy is necessary in the first stage. Is trading liberalization the pre-requirement of transfer from a close economy to a relative open economy and is it necessary for the developed economy compared to other policies, or after achieving an economic growth level and reduction of class difference, poverty and unemployment, the countries should start trade liberalization. By this pre-requirement, a two-stage systematic generalized method of moments technique (GMM) presented by Blundell & bond (1998) during 1991-2008 is applied to evaluate the relationship between three main indices for both groups of selected developed and developing countries. The results of study show that in both groups of countries, high production and increasing foreign direct investment provide open economy and can create employment and reduce unemployment but by increasing population growth rate, unemployment and inflation in both groups of countries, household income inequality is increased. The turning point of this study is regarding household income inequality as increased by increasing economic growth rate and control of open economy in developing counties but in developed countries, increasing economic growth rate and open economy, household income distribution is improved.  JEL Classification: C33, C36, D31, F43.

High degree of interest sensitivity of durable goods is now a stylized fact in the literature of monetary policy. This literature, however, does not provide a clear and consensual explanation for the modalities of this stylized fact. In this paper, two independent empirical models are performed to shed more light on the cross-sectoral impacts of monetary policy. The results of first study indicate that there is no straightforward qualitative relationship between the degree of durability and the interest-sensitivity of durables. While, the second study shows that, in response to monetary policy shocks, productive durables behave differently from consumer durables. For both studies, two models have been estimated using the quarterly data of the U.S. over the period 1954:III – 2007:II JEL Classification: E52, L68.

The relationship between financial development and economic growth is the crucial issues which could grab economists and policy makers' attention to it. Financial market plays an essential role on each economy, because it conducts funds to those individuals or firms which have productive investment opportunities. If the financial system does not perform this role efficiently, the economic efficiency will decrease and consequently economic growth will be barricaded. One of the main disturbing cases of efficient financial system is asymmetric information. This paper tries to study the effect of financial development and symmetric information on economic growth for whole European Union members. For measuring the symmetric information, some proxies like ICT, IT and economic freedom components are used. In order to have a separate model per country, Pooled Data model is applied in 2000-2012. The results Show that financial development and symmetric information lead to a higher rate of economic growth among European Union members.    JEL Classification: O16, O40, D82, E69

In recent years, supporting intellectual property right has gained more significance. Intellectual property rights could be considered as legal rights resulting from intellectual activities in industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Today, many countries are seeking practical information about using intellectual property to improve economic growth. Intellectual property rights have an important role in long term, economic growth of communities so international institutions such as Global Business Organization and Global Intellectual Property Organization have been advising their members based on providing and reinforcing this determinate in recent years. Also the gap in intellectual property regimes among developed and developing countries is considered as one of the reasons of differences in economic growth and development in these countries. Intellectual property right is important from the viewpoint of developing countries and in relation with its impact and outcomes on economic development, and stable human development. Considering the global changes and internationalization of production, distribution and consumption, it is necessary to observe all aspect of intellectual property rights. In this research, we intend to study the relationship between intellectual property rights and economic growth for 10 countries of ECO members during 2000-2009. Analysing the effect of intellectual property rights on economic growth is focused on the quantity index of intellectual property rights. The key finding of this study suggests the significant effect of intellectual property rights on economic growth of the ECO member countries.  JEL Classification: E11, C52, C22, B52, O48, O43, P48.