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The objective of this paper is to investigate the validity of Wagner’s law and the Keynesian view with regards to the relationship between the non-oil gross domestic product and the public sector size for the Iranian economy during the period of 1967-2007. Time series analysis techniques have been used which include unit root tests, cointegration tests and Hsiao causality test. The findings indicate that Wagner’s Law is confirmed in both the short-run and the long-run; whereas the Keynesian view is approved only in the short-run for Iran.

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On the factors affecting economic growth and per-capita income, the less attention has been paid to “population age structure”. We aim to investigate the effect of changes in population age structure on per capita income in Iran. To do this, we identify the most important effective channels according to review of literature. Then we design an empirical model that indicates the relationship between population age structure and per-capita income based on the neoclassical growth literature. In the next step we estimate and test the model in three specifications by Auto-Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) method during 1968-2010. The results indicate that the per capita income elasticity of labor supply (as the direct effectiveness channel of changes in population age structure on per capita income) is positive. In addition, indirect channels (which include savings, human capital and government spending) indicate that the per capita income elasticity with respect to an increase in share of population between the ages 15 to 64 is positive, and per capita income elasticity with respect to an increase in share of population below age 15 and above age 65 is negative.  

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One century has passed since the explanation of relationship between financial development and economic growth by Schumpeter. However, there are serious debates among economists in this regard. Especially, the causality relationship between economic growth and financial development, in most of the cases, the causality from economic growth to financial development is confirmed in different countries. One of the neglected issues in this field is to consider the infrastructures, which can play important roles in the effectiveness of financial development on economic growth. One pillar of the financial development is the quality of banking financial services, which to a great extent is influenced by ownership and intervention of government in banking system. This paper, by using VECM model, tests the tri-variate causality among economic growthand financial development in the presence of public ownership of banks index during 1980 to 2010. The results show that in contrast to the bi-variate causality tests, which indicate the adverse causality from economic growth to financial development, the tri-variate causality tests reject this claim except for the case of the commercial banks’ assets.  

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Since financial development can contribute to the development of human capital, this paper examines the effect of financial development on human capital formation in Iran during 1973-2010. Regarding financial development as a multifaceted concept, this article first deals with constructing a multidimensional index, including ratio of M₂to GDP, ratio of private debt to banks to GDP, ratio of central bank assets to GDP and  the ratio of assets of deposit-accepting banks to GDP, using principal components analysis with SAS. Then, using Auto-Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) model, the effect of financial development on human capital is estimated through Microfit 4. The results suggest that financial development has significant positive effect on human capital in the short- and long term, and the magnitude of influence is higher in the long term than short term.  

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In this research, the impact of social capital through influencing the efficiency of government expenditure is investigated using three-stage least-squares model in Iran during 2005: Q1 to 2018: Q2. The effects of exchange rate, stock market index and oil revenues on non-performing loans of public and private sectors are also examined. Results suggest that given the increased efficiency of government expenditure, social capital has a significant negative impact on non-performing loans of public and private sectors. In addition, exchange rate has a significant negative impact on banking system’s receivables from public sector and a significant negative impact on banks’ receivables from private sector. Stock market index has no significant impact on non-performing loans of both public and private sector, since stock market is not liquid enough and has low share in financing businesses. Economic growth has also no significant impact on non-performing loans of both sectors, which can be explained by the impact of improvement in business environment and individuals’ purchasing power on their ability to repay their loans. Thus, by stabilizing economy (controlling the fluctuations of exchange-rate, stock market and so forth) and by improving social capital, it is expected that efficiency of government expenditure is increased and non-performing loans of both sectors is decreased.