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Casual relationship between financial developments and economic growth is one of the striking empirical macroeconomic relationships. Following the development of financial issues, our attention turns from economic growth to another issue of economic welfare. In this study, we try to examine the relationship between financial developments, economic growth, poverty and inequality in OPEC countries. The simulation of the models and statistical inferences, in this study, are based on the static and dynamic panel data approach. The empirical models are estimated by using GMM estimators, fixed effects and random effects using the data between 1990 and 2004. The results of this study show that financial developments through its effect on economic growth can mainly contribute poverty alleviation and inequality reduction in these countries.

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In spite of a lot of studies in field of housing, housing supply has been less addressed. One of main reasons is complexity of housing supply field. In this study we use Capozza and Helsley urban growth model which assume housing supply as a function of variations in both housing price and construction expenses. The model is estimated with General Method of Moments (GMM) using seasonal data of Iran for 1996:2-2008:1. Results show that effect of housing price variations on housing supply is positive, however the effect of building material expenses and construction opportunity cost (stock exchange index) are both negative on it, but coefficient of stock exchange index is statistically insignificant. In addition, housing price variations and building material expenses with two period lags are effective on housing supply which indicate role of expectations. Also results show that variations in the other markets such as building materials market play important role in housing supply. It is proposed that because of high sensitivity in increasing of housing price, policies of housing supply to be followed by this market.

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One of the most important issues in economics is to explain the considerable differences among nations in context of economic growth and well-being. In the recent decades, a consensus among economists suggests that institutions are the main reason for mentioned differences.  If this is the case, immediately a question arises: which institutions are of the most importance in the growth and development process? So far, various classifications of institutions discuss on roles of them on economic performance. Rodrik (2005) classify institutions into four various categories; market creating institutions, market regulating institutions, market stabilizing institutions, and market legitimizing institutions. In this paper, we estimate the effect of these institutions on development by using dynamic GMM panel data method for the periods 1980-2009 and 1995-2009. The results suggest that market creating institutions and market stabilizing institutions are affecting per capita GDP, but the other institutions have no significant impact on global economic growth.

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In this paper, we analyze the determinants of Intra-Industry trade (IIT) between Iran and her trading partners, i.e. European :union:, ECO, GCC and ASEAN countries using dynamic panel data and GMM during 1997-2009. This study uses country-specific characteristics such as economic size, per capita income, foreign direct investment, geographical distance, and trade imbalance as explanatory variables. The results indicate that economic size, per capita income, and geographical distance explain most of IIT between Iran and her trading partners. According to econometric findings, the economic size has high and positive correlation with IIT, however per capita income affects negatively IIT. Thus, differences in aggregate demand and supply should be considered in selecting trade partners. The similarity in income structure leads to same demand structure and expansion of trade volume. In addition, geographical distance and trade imbalance has negative effect on IIT flow in Iran. 

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This research examines the effect of monetary policies on unemployment under inflation uncertainty in Iran using the annual data during 1974-2011. The basic model is selected according to the simultaneous equilibrium of dynamic aggregate demand and supply. In addition, inflation uncertainty is calculated using the GARCH family models including ARCH, GARCH and EGARCH. The generated data from a novel model is considered as a proxy for inflation uncertainty, and Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) is used to estimate this model. The estimation results show that inflation uncertainty reduces the unemployment rate, i.e. the effect of monetary policies on unemployment is decreased under inflation uncertainty, and there is a significant and positive relationship between unemployment and inflation rates. Henceforth, an increase in inflation uncertainty leads to an increase in unemployment rate, which is in line with Friedman's theory in this field

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Economic security is one of the most important aspects of national security. It is a basic pillar of the economies for achieving economic development and improving social welfare, too. The demographic changes may widely affect the development and trend of target variables of the economy. The identification of the effects of demographic changes on economic security can help policy-making and planning of economic development. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of age structure of the population on economic security in Iran during the period 1981-2016. In this regard, the economic security index (ESI) is firstly estimated using fuzzy logic. The findings indicate the instability of this index. Then, the impact of demographic model of Iran along with other variables affecting Iran's economic security is evaluated using generalized method of moments (GMM). The results show that age structure of the population has a negative and significant effect on Iran's economic security. Population growth, capital stock, financial development, trade openness, and saving rates have positive and significant impacts on the ESI. However, the inflation rate has no significant effect on the ESI. Iran’s population is rapidly aging, and if the current trend continues, the limited economic resources should be assigned to meet the needs of the elderly instead of investing in productive sectors. Therefore, there is a need for planning to tackle this problem.
 

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This study examines the effects of ownership, competitiveness, firm size and research and development (R&D) expenditure on exports of Iran's vehicles manufacturing industries. A panel data model is set up using 4-digit codes of the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) related to vehicles manufacturing industries in Iran over the period 2005-2013. The dynamic panel data technique and two-stage generalized method of moments (Arellano and Band method) are used to estimate the econometric model. The estimation results indicate positive and significant effects of private ownership, R&D expenditure and competitiveness on export intensity in Iran's vehicles manufacturing industries. According to the positive effect of the private ownership on exports, facilitating the entrance of the other private firms aiming at producing and exporting of vehicles’ products can be a considerable step for promoting foreign trade in Iran. In addition, findings show that real exchange rate has no significant effect on export intensity among mentioned industries. Moreover, higher tariff rates on imports of vehicles in Iran and higher relative prices of vehicles compared to world prices have limited the potential of exporting the products of such industries.
 

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This paper aims to investigate the effect of social capital on banking stability in Iran. For this purpose, a sample of 18 public and private Iranian banks is selected over the period 2007-2017, and the System Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM) is used to estimate the research model. The social capital index is proxied by the ratio of the bounced checks to the total traded checks. The results indicate a significant positive impact of social capital on bank stability. Moreover, the ratio of capital to asset and GDP per capita are positively associated with bank stability, but the non-performing loans have negative effects on bank stability.

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Many studies have confirmed the acceleration of economic growth through financial development, but just a few studies have discussed the disproportionate effect of financial development on the growth of the firms with different sizes. So the distributional effects of financial development among firms are still unclear. Accordingly, using a dynamic panel model, we have examined the role of small firms in different industries on the effect of financial development on industrial development of Iranian economy. This study has been carried out on 22 industries according to ISIC4 two-digit codes for the period 1383-1393 (Iranian Calendar) using the Generalized Moment Method (GMM). The results of the model confirm that the development of financial intermediaries exerts a positive effect on the industries with a bigger technical share of small firms. In other words, financial development through banking development has a more positive effect on small firms than large firms. This result is not valid for the development of the stock market.

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This paper aims to examine the effects of access to information and communication technology (ICT) on income distribution in Iranian provinces, with an emphasis on the per capita income and education. Using economic theories, the relationship between access to ICT and income distribution was evaluated within a dynamic panel model by use of Generalized method of moments (GMM) during 2010-2015. The results indicate that access to ICT significantly reduces income inequality. In addition, education as a complement factor for ICT, strengthens the positive impact of access to ICT on reducing income inequality.  This impact is greater among provinces having lower GDP per capita than nation-wide GDP per capita. Furthermore, inflation rate leads to an increase in income inequality, and government spending is not an influential factor in the proper distribution of income in the provinces of Iran.
 

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The purpose of this research is to study the effects of democracy and corruption on attracting foreign direct investment in West and East Asia. To do this, a dynamic panel model and generalized method of moments are employed over the period 2009-2018. The results of the estimates for the 13 countries of the West Asia Group indicate a positive and significant relationship between the democracy and foreign direct investment and the existence of a significant negative correlation between corruption and the consumer price index with the foreign direct investment. Also, in this group of countries, the effects of the degree of trade openness, democracy and real exchange rate on foreign direct investment were positive and significant and the effects of corruption and consumer price index were negative and significant. Besides, according to the results of this method for 15 East Asian countries, the corruption and consumer price index had negative and significant effects, and the democracy, corruption, trade openness, economic growth and real exchange rate had positive and significant impacts on foreign direct investment. Therefore, regarding the effect of democracy on attracting foreign direct investment, Jensen's theory was approved in both groups of countries, but regarding the effect of corruption on FDI, in East Asia the theory of helping hand of corruption and in West Asia the theory of destructive hand or the corruption was confirmed. According to the results, the impact of these variables on foreign direct investment in the East Asian group was greater than the West Asian group.

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The quality of manpower is one of the factors affecting the environmental degradation. According to studies, air pollution is affected by its past values, so a dynamic model should be used to study it. Accordingly, using the GMM method, the present study evaluates the impact of human capital on air pollution in Iran during 1981-2019. Human capital is a latent variable in economics and is often replaced by alternative proxies. In this paper, like most previous studies, the research model was firstly estimated using the average proxy of years of schooling (as an indicator of human capital), which resulted in statistical insignificance and theoretical inconsistency in the estimated coefficients. Based on theoretical foundations, it is argued that the human capital index in addition to the education component is influenced by other aspects such as skills and health. Therefore, using fuzzy logic, an indicator for human capital in the Iranian economy has been constructed, so that it includes three main aspects (education, skills and health) of human capital. The results of estimation of the air pollution model using the human capital index showed that improving the level of human capital had a negative effect on air pollution. Therefore, by increasing human capital and improving the quality of manpower, we can expect to reduce air pollution and environmental degradation. In addition, urbanization, industrialization, trade freedom, economic growth and pollution in the previous period had positive and significant effects on air pollution.

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Investing in housing is one of the most common methods of investing in Iran. The housing and construction sector has a widespread relationship with other economic sectors. Housing annually attracts a large amount of liquidity in the country, so investing in this sector is more important in the process of growth. In this paper, first the relationship between investing in housing and economic growth is evaluated by the Granger causality test. The results of this test showed that there is a one-way causal relationship from investing in housing to economic growth. Then, using GMM method and time series data from 1981-2019, the impact of investing in housing on Iran's economic growth is studied. The results showed that investing in housing has a positive and significant effect on Iran's economic growth. The lag of variable “economic growth” has a positive effect on economic growth in later years. Also, other results indicate that human capital, capital stock, government expenditure index and industrialization index have positive and significant effects on Iran's economic growth. Based on the results, it can be suggested that the shortcomings and barriers to investment in the housing sector should be removed, and also incentives and facilities for investment in housing can be effective in increasing economic growth.

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Aim and Introduction 
The development of financial markets is critical for economic growth. One of the most important financial markets is the capital and stock market, where the prosperity of the stock market and financing through the stock market can develop any country's economy. Capital market development requires the efficient performance of financial intermediaries, including mutual funds. Iran’s economy has always faced the problem of insufficient liquidity and financing for production sectors. As a financial tool, mutual funds can moderate this problem with their existing potential. Therefore, the study aims to investigate the probable effect of mutual funds on economic growth.
Methodology
In the previous studies that have been done in this field, the descriptive-analytical aspect of the subject has been discussed. But these studies didn't provide an appropriate framework for analyzing the effect of mutual funds on economic growth. For this purpose, in the present study, based on the theoretical literature, a general equilibrium model has been designed, and the output of this model is obtained according to the optimization of different sectors of the economy. Assume a closed economy where mutual funds are investors with information and allocate capital to high-productivity firms. The economy has a single period with two production components, a representative mutual fund, and a representative household.  We assume a high-productivity firm (H) and a low-productivity firm (L) with an equal number of producers. Both firms can obtain funds by issuing new stocks in the primary market. There is one representative mutual fund in the economy that can invest on behalf of the representative household. Therefore, the fund can invest as much as the fund flows (F) received from the household at the beginning of the period. We assume the mutual fund has sufficient access to information and production technology and can detect high-productivity firms. The household seeks to maximize utility, and the proposed utility function consists of only consumption. As utility and consumption are positively related, utility maximization is equivalent to consumption maximization. However, since the present study adopted a single-period economy, consumption equals income. Thus, maximum utility is represented by maximum income.  Initial capital (W) can be directly invested in the primary market or indirectly invested in the secondary market by the mutual fund. This framework is a new aspect and the main contribution of research in this field. The output of the model is estimated using the GMM method for the period 2010:2 to 2020:4.
Findings
According to Table 5, most coefficients are statistically significant. The first lag of GDP was expectedly found to have a positive, significant impact on the GDP level and, thus, economic growth. Mutual fund investment was observed to have a positive, significant impact on GDP; a 1% rise in fund investment, on average, leads to a 0.473% increase in GDP. This finding is consistent with our theoretical framework. We expect mutual funds’ investments in the primary market, positively impact GDP since mutual funds have an information advantage over individual investors. Thus, they can optimally allocate resources to high-productivity firms (i.e., mutual funds have a higher ability than individual investors to identify high-productivity firms in light of their information advantage). The household wealth coefficient was estimated to be 0.255, suggesting that a 1% increase in the household’s wealth raises GDP by 0.255% on average. This finding is consistent with economic theories. The interaction of wealth and fund investment was estimated to have a coefficient of 0.257, implying a significant relationship. This coefficient was expectedly found to be positive, consistent with modeling. The interaction of fund flows and fund investment significantly affects GDP with a coefficient of -0.174. This coefficient was expectedly found to be negative, consistent with modeling. Fund flows were estimated to have no significant impact on GDP. Although it was found to have the expected sign, it has an insignificant impact on GDP and thus cannot be interpreted. The coefficient of the secondary market return was found to be significant only at a confidence level of 90%.
Discussion and Conclusion
Overall, mutual funds have a positive impact on GDP. These funds may improve the performance of Iran’s financial markets if they acquire an appropriate position in the financial market. A large number of individual traders have begun to trade on Iran’s stock market without financial knowledge and suffered massive losses in 2020-2021. If the mutual fund sector is active in Iran, in addition to the optimal allocation of resources, it can also help people for investment in the stock market and prevent crises such as 2020-2021. Eventually, the policy recommendation is that policymakers pay more attention to the development of mutual funds in short- and long-term policies.
Keywords: Mutual fund, Capital market, Economic growth, Primary market, GMM
JEL Classification: G11, G23, G51

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