Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 18 1 2013 4 1 Evaluating Cost-Efficiency of Iran's Banking Industry: 2001-2007 3 24 FA Farhad Kodadkashi Mohammad-Reza Hajian This paper tries to evaluate the cost-efficiency of Iran's banking industry for the period 2001-2007. To meet this end, an output-oriented stochastic frontier Translog cost function was applied for two products, namely: loans and deposits. The study employs Battese-Coelli's time varying cost inefficiency model to examine Iran's banking efficiency. The data are collected from the financial statements of 10 state-owned and 4 private banks in Iran. Findings indicate that cost inefficiency increased from 0.22 (in 2001) to 0.37 (in 2007) during the period of the study. However, the results show that the private banks are more efficient than state -owned ones.

Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 18 1 2013 4 1 Sociology of Globalization: Contributions to Development Planning in Iran 25 58 FA Masoud Mohammadi Alamuti This article examines the implications of globalization for development planning in Iran, and tries to give suggestions to the policy-makers with the aim of establishing constructive interactions with globalization in the context of Iran's development plans. Needless to mention, such development plans, as national documents, are influenced by ideas of policy makers. To these ends, the article first, briefly, explains three sociological theories of globalization which cover the economic, political and cultural driving forces of globalization. The article critically reviews the basic assumption of these three theories of globalization, their main reasoning and conclusions in order to provide a new analytical framework for analysis of globalization and its implications for social planning in developing countries in cultural, economic and political areas. Later, the article tries to study how to apply the findings in the context of Iran's five-year development plans. It surveys Iran's development plans' major goals and policies regarding globalization and argues that the plans have not employed a sociological approach to examine the effects of globalization. The paper concludes that the sociology of globalization leads us to some important contributions to the Iran's development planning. One of such contributions holds that the development planning should initiate a cultural dialogue and a political interaction with the globalizing world to fulfill the required preconditions for using economic, scientific and technological advantages of current globalization. The recognition of the global development experiences and their fair critique assume a key role in accomplishing such preconditions.

Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 18 1 2013 4 1 The Effect of Transparency of Financial Information on Investors’ Behavior in Isfahan Stock Exchange 59 75 FA Mehdi Abzari Hamed Derakhshideh Within the two past decades, transparency of financial market has been regarded as one of the variables that affect investment strategies in financial markets. This research investigates the relationship of transparency of financial information with the investors’ behavior in Isfahan Stock Exchange. The statistical population of the research is composed of investors in the Isfahan Stock Exchange. The research employs the questionnaire tool during the period between 23, September, 2012 and 21 November 2012. To test the hypothesis, correlation test, paired comparison test and one-way factor analysis were used with the help of SPSS software. The three hypotheses of the research were tested at the level of 95 percent. The results show that the all three aspects of transparency, i.e. the disclosure of financial information, transparency within the structure of the board of directors and the transparency of ownership structure influence the behavior of investors in the Isfahan Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, investors’ understanding of the aspects of transparency depends on demographic variables concerned. This research tries to offer helpful recommendations to the investor to adjust their behavior according to the stock exchange conditions.

Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 18 1 2013 4 1 An Explanation of Some Philosophical Issues in Economics 77 94 FA Hasan Sobhani Abulghasem Mahdavi Hamid Padash The main purpose of this paper is to find an answer to the key question: “What kind of philosophical issues could be expected to be dealt with in economics?” Having reviewed the related literature, the researchers try to explain the philosophy of economics in the context of three domains, i.e. ontology, epistemology, and methodology of economics. The results suggest that ontological issues in economics cover the objectivity in economic phenomenon, causality, the tendency of economists to the universalization, and the origins of economic behavior. The epistemological issues are rationalism vs. empiricism, doubting the law or law-like statements in economics, and the aggregation (of issue micro- vs. macro-economic issues). Finally, from the methodological perspective, these issues could be discussed in the frameworks the value and fact distinction, mathematicization and quantification explanation methods in economics.

Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 18 1 2013 4 1 The Effects of Power Plants’ Fuel Prices Adjustment on Electricity Prices in a Restructured Market: System Dynamics Approach 95 108 FA Davoud Manzour Hossein Rezaee Following the rise of the fuels that power plants consume in the deregulated market, an increase in the electricity prices would be expected. This article tries to study the effects of power plants’ fuel prices adjustment on the amount of increase in electricity prices in the market. The components of the deregulated power market were modeled in the systems dynamics method with the aim of finding a reasonable answer to the question of this research. The model encompasses three parts, namely demand, price and production run through powersim software. The change in the prices of fuels delivered to power plants is considered as the policy variable of the model. The results of running the model illustrated that it is anticipated that the price of electricity will reach 409 rials in a kilowatt per hour by the end of the period providing that the power plants’ fuel prices are not adjusted. If the prices of fuels delivered to power plants are adjusted, the power market prices will reach 556 and 585 rials in a kilowatt per hour by the end of the period, assuming that the price growth may be by 5 or 8 percent, respectively. In the final part of the paper, the effect of economic growth increase as well as that of value added taxation on power market is analyzed in the framework of a suggestion model. Therefore, in such a case, assuming a 6 and 8 percent price growth, the prices of power market will reach 611 and 641 rials in a kilowatt per hour by the end of the period.

Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 18 1 2013 4 1 Institutions and Economic Growth 109 132 FA Ali Taiebnia Ali Nikoonesbati Instead of surveying the effects of institutions on economic growth through statistical analysis, this study tries to review them from the standpoint of institutional theorists with the aim of giving some explanations on economic growth. The study reveals that formulating appropriate policies to expedite economic growth, which is indeed resulted from the impacts of various institutional elements on economic growth, requires more than merely pure quantitative surveys. This means that to do so, the researchers should take into account the factors such as market-creating institutional components, institutional change know-how, and socio-political institutions' impact on economic performance. On the other hand, apparently, from among the various solutions to forge economic growth, the one proposed by North and his colleagues, i.e. moving toward democratic order to reach economic growth is the best sustainable approach.

Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 18 1 2013 4 1 Behavioral Economists and their Theories 133 165 FA Farhad Rahbar Mahmoud Motavasseli Meysam Amiri Today, in the eyes of most inside or outside economic observers, economics apparently equals to the elements of neo-classical economics in short, methods and solutions of neo-classical economies define the principles of economics. However, in spite of such dominance and notwithstanding all evident accomplishments of neo-classical economics, it has always been subject to myriads of critique and recommendations considering alternative options and methodical approaches. One of such approaches is the behavioral economics. The followers of the behavioral economics claim that its use of psychological and social principles has strengthened its economic analyses, and it has improved the specific characteristics of this field of study including theoretical insight, prediction of phenomena and suitable policies. These economists express that although the classical economics used to be interested in psychological principles, such a tendency has gradually diminished and in some cases, it has even led to confronting these principles. Yet, behavioral economists have employed pioneering studies of Katun and Herbert Simon, followed by the works of Kahenman and Tvrsky as well as others to succeed in bonding unification between these two. Each of these thinkers has contributed to this unification only to a limited extent, and there is a long way ahead to forge a close and systematic bond with the aim of forming a dominant paradigm.

Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 18 1 2013 4 1 Competitiveness of Major Industrial Export Products in Fars Province 167 201 FA Mahboubeh Jafari The first part of this article tries to study the dynamic competitiveness of the industrial export products in Fars province. Industry sector data of the province within 2001-2009, shift share analysis indicators and the trade plan were examined to materialize the purpose of the first part of the study. According to the findings of the study, Fars province has been practicing the export of those industrial products that lack competitive advantage or the ones suffering from too frequent fluctuating competitive advantage. Moreover, 91.11 percent of the industrial products of the province were supplied to downgrading markets, out of which 36.27 percent of the exports were in winners group and the remaining 58.84 percent went to the losers. Therefore, it is pivotal to identify the export markets and the factors determining the competitive advantage. In the second part of this study, the products enjoying competitive advantage were identified using three indicators, namely “revealed competitive advantage”, “coefficient of variation”, “Cumulative Export Experience Index” as well as through the “Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)” based on 4 digit HS codes during the period. Such products make up 12 percent of the province’s industrial exports. Eventually, through the use of the simple export potential capacity method, Fars province’s export potential capacity was calculated for the leading industrial export codes in accordance to the trade partners of each code in the province. The results of the calculation demonstrate that export destinations of leading industrial export codes were not appropriate and the exports of these codes are just limited to some specific markets.