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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Stéphane Gauthier (PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics); Taraneh Tabatabai (UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne) |
| Abstract: | We use the Targeted Subsidies Reform implemented in Iran in 2011 to recover empirically the social valuations of Iranian households relying on the assumption of optimal taxes. Unlike the existing literature, we do not restrict attention to a specific pattern for the incentive constraints associated with nonlinear income taxation. Instead we recover the Lagrange multipliers corresponding to these constraints. We find evidence of a significant redistribution toward the bottom three deciles of the income distribution before the reform. This redistribution is however limited by an incentive constraint where the rich envy the social treatment of the poor. At the outcome of the reform incentives no longer matter and the social welfare function of the government of Iran displays a Benthamite-like form. |
| Keywords: | Principal-agent,incentive constraints,Iran,Targeted Subsidies,social valuations,AIDS, D82, H21, L51 |
| Date: | 2017–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01545856&r=cwa |
| By: | Khan, Saleheen; Jam, Farooq Ahmed; Shahbaz, Muhammad; Mamun, Md Al |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relation between electricity consumption and economic growth by incorporating trade openness, capital, and labor in production function of Kazakhstan using annual data for 1991-2014. We apply the ARDL bounds testing and the VECM Granger causality approach to examine long run and causality relation between the variables. Our results confirm the existence of long run relation among the series. The empirical evidence reveals that electricity consumption adds in economic growth. Trade openness stimulates economic growth, and capital and labor promote economic growth, as well. The causality analysis shows that electricity consumption Granger causes economic growth and trade openness. We also document feedback effect between trade openness and economic growth. Our study provides new insights for policy makers to articulate a comprehensive economic, trade and energy policy to sustain long run economic growth in Kazakhstan. |
| Keywords: | Electricity, Economic growth, Kazakhstan, VECM |
| JEL: | A10 |
| Date: | 2018–07–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:87977&r=cwa |
| By: | Fetzer, Thiemo (Department of Economics, University of Warwick); Vanden Eynde, Oliver (Paris School of Economics and CNRS); Wright, Austin L. (Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago) |
| Abstract: | How do foreign powers disengage from a conflict? We study the recent largescale security transition from international troops to local forces in the context of the ongoing civil conflict in Afghanistan. We construct a new dataset that combines information on this transition process with declassified conflict outcomes and previously unreleased quarterly survey data. Our empirical design leverages the staggered roll-out of the transition onset, together with a novel instrumental variables approach to estimate the impact of the two-phase security transition. We find that the initial security transfer to Afghan forces is marked by a significant, sharp and timely decline in insurgent violence. This effect reverses with the actual physical withdrawal of foreign troops. We argue that this pattern is consistent with a signaling model, in which the insurgents reduce violence strategically to facilitate the foreign military withdrawal. Our findings clarify the destabilizing consequences of withdrawal in one of the costliest conflicts in modern history and yield potentially actionable insights for designing future security transitions. |
| Keywords: | Counterinsurgency ; Civil Conflict ; Public Goods Provision |
| JEL: | D72 D74 L23 |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1171&r=cwa |