Planning for ecotourism in the protected area of Manesht and Ghelarang,Ilam Province,Iran

ABSTRACT

This paper reports a study of the Manesht- and Ghelarang-protected area in Iran. The study sought to identify ways in which sustainable tourism policies could be generated that aid the natural and human environments. From surveys and questionnaires completed by tourists, residents, and officials, an initial set of 10 areas of weakness, 9 strengths, and 6 opportunities were identified. Using these classifications combined with mapping techniques that included maps of topography and flora, a subsequent Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution analysis identified potential future policies that require infrastructure development and reinforced pro-environmental policies to address the problems currently being experienced.     

Microdata analysis of the consequences of free trade port policy: the case of Iran free zones

ABSTRACT

Creating free trade zones as a policy to motivate new investment and improve the local economic indicators might be of some benefits. Following of this policy in Iranian major port, however, resulted vice versa by aggravating the current account balance that is higher imports and the same horizon diminished export sums. We derive the micro data of trade for the Iranian major Imam port according to code arrangements of harmonic system (HS), which permits the clustering of different goods categories. Then we extracted the sums of survey data for the years before and after Imam port became free trade zone and applied fixed effect difference in difference (DID) method to capture the heterogeneity of unobserved variables. Our control port of analysis was Rajaee port the policy did not implemented. Results show that just as Imam free port’s Current Account Balance deteriorated by increasing import and dampening of export sums.     

Asymmetric Causality Between Inflation and Uncertainty: Evidences from 33 Developed and Developing Countries

Empirical studies have provided conflicting findings about the relationship between inflation and inflation uncertainty. Thus, the direction of the causality is still questionable. The present paper is aimed to extend the existing literature using non-linearity models and asymmetric causality tests. For this purpose, the data for 33 developed and developing countries during 1988Q4-2016Q3 is used. The results showed an asymmetry in the inflation behavior which is specified by smooth transition process, as well as separating positive and negative shocks observed in causality test. The asymmetric causality between inflation and inflation uncertainty is confirmed in most countries, although the empirical evidence in favor of Cukierman-Meltzer hypothesis is found to be weaker than Friedman-Ball hypothesis.

     

Modeling the Factors Affecting Organic or Local Cucumber Purchasing Motivations in Northern Iran

This article has attempted to examine the impact of motivation on the purchasing and represents a model for organic or local cucumbers buying dimensions. Data were collected by a sample of 300 people in two northern provinces of Iran during 7 months and were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Results indicate that not using pesticides, preserving people’s health, conservation, better taste, and region of origin of organic or local cucumbers have significant positive impacts on purchasing dimensions and persistence has no significant effect on purchasing dimensions.     

Commodity Price Volatility and the Sources of Growth

This paper studies the impact of the growth and volatility of commodity terms of trade (CToT) on economic growth, total factor productivity, physical capital accumulation and human capital acquisition. We use the standard system generalized methods of moments (GMM) approach as well as the dynamic common correlated effects pooled mean group (CCEPMG) methodology for estimation to account for cross‐country heterogeneity, cross‐sectional dependence and feedback effects. Using both annual data for 1970–2007 and 5‐year non‐overlapping observations, we find that while CToT growth enhances real output per capita, CToT volatility exerts a negative impact on economic growth operating mainly through lower accumulation of physical and human capital. Productivity, however, is not affected by either the growth or the volatility of CToT. Our results also indicate that the negative growth effects of CToT volatility offset the positive impact of commodity booms. Therefore, we argue that volatility, rather than abundance per se, drives the ‘resource curse’ paradox. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Examination of the Naïve‐Investor Hypothesis in Accruals Mispricing in Tunisian Firms

This study extends previous studies on accrual anomaly to investigate the emerging market's mispricing of accruals. Using Mishkin (1983) test, hedge portfolio test and Fama and MacBeth (1973) regression, we test whether the Tunisian Stock Exchange price rationally reflects the 1‐year ahead earnings implications of its earnings components. We find that earnings and their cash flow and accrual components are not rationally priced by the market. Additionally, this paper examines the role of sophistication investors in the pricing of earnings and their components. Our results show that accruals for firms with higher level of institutional ownership are not mispriced, while accruals for firms with lower institutional ownership are overpriced significantly by the market.     

Green decisions: demographics and consumer understanding of environmental labels

This research examined the demographic profiles of Australian green consumers in relation to their satisfaction of environmental labelling. It examined consumers’ understanding of labelling and empirically investigated the association of demographic profile of consumers with their attitudes towards such labels. The results indicated that some of the demographic variables were significant, which is largely consistent with earlier findings by other researchers in this area. Label dissatisfaction was higher in the older and middle age respondents. However, some respondents disagreed that labels were accurate while commenting that labels were easy to understand. The key issue arising from the findings is that in order to provide perception of accuracy in labels, it is an option to use Type I or Type III labelling on products. These labels are, arguably, more credible because they are endorsed by third party labelling experts. This would come at a cost and for green products that use third party labelling, they will also have to bear in mind to keep the prices competitive.