IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jpolmo/v42y2020i5p1146-1168.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of socio-economic infrastructure investments on income inequality in Iran

Author

Listed:
  • Zolfaghari, Mehdi
  • Kabiri, Mahbobe
  • Saadatmanesh, Hamideh

Abstract

One of the main subjects, governments have been facing is fair distribution of income, and making effort to improve it. In this study, we evaluated the effects of economic (energy, water, ICT) and social (health, education) infrastructure expenses on income inequality in the Iranian provinces for the period of 2007–2016 by the panel corrected standard errors (PCSE) model. The results show that social and economic infrastructures improvements reduce income inequality. However, the magnitude of these effects varies. Investment on education, healthcare, communication technology, energy, and water infrastructures has the greatest impact on income inequality reduction, respectively. Therefore, in order to reduce inequality in deprived areas, combination and optimal allocation of economic and social infrastructures should be considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Zolfaghari, Mehdi & Kabiri, Mahbobe & Saadatmanesh, Hamideh, 2020. "Impact of socio-economic infrastructure investments on income inequality in Iran," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(5), pages 1146-1168.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jpolmo:v:42:y:2020:i:5:p:1146-1168
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpolmod.2020.02.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0161893820300211
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jpolmod.2020.02.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric Hanushek & Ludger Woessmann, 2012. "Do better schools lead to more growth? Cognitive skills, economic outcomes, and causation," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 267-321, December.
    2. Lars-Hendrik Roller & Leonard Waverman, 2001. "Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Development: A Simultaneous Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 909-923, September.
    3. Andreas Stephan, 2003. "Assessing the contribution of public capital to private production: Evidence from the German manufacturing sector," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 399-417.
    4. John Strauss & Duncan Thomas, 1998. "Health, Nutrition, and Economic Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 766-817, June.
    5. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, 1992. "Public-Sector Capital and the Productivity Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 4122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Brock, Gregory & German-Soto, Vicente, 2013. "Regional industrial growth in Mexico: Do human capital and infrastructure matter?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 228-242.
    7. Mehmet Akif Kara & Seyhan Taş & Serkan Ada, 2016. "The Impact of Infrastructure Expenditure Types on Regional Income in Turkey," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(9), pages 1509-1519, September.
    8. Aschauer, David Alan, 1989. "Is public expenditure productive?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 177-200, March.
    9. Evans, Paul & Karras, Georgios, 1994. "Is government capital productive? Evidence from a panel of seven countries," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 271-279.
    10. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Yannis Psycharis & Vassilis Tselios, 2012. "Public investment and regional growth and convergence: Evidence from Greece," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(3), pages 543-568, August.
    11. Pinnoi, Nat, 1994. "Public infrastructure and private production measuring relative contributions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 127-148, March.
    12. Alicia H. Munnell, 1990. "Why has productivity growth declined? Productivity and public investment," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Jan, pages 3-22.
    13. Fan, Shenggen & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2004. "Infrastructure and regional economic development in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 203-214.
    14. Mitra, Arup & Sharma, Chandan & Véganzonès-Varoudakis, Marie-Ange, 2016. "Infrastructure, information & communication technology and firms’ productive performance of the Indian manufacturing," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 353-371.
    15. Currie, Janet & Madrian, Brigitte C., 1999. "Health, health insurance and the labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 50, pages 3309-3416, Elsevier.
    16. Mamatzakis, E.C., 2007. "EU infrastructure investment and productivity in Greek manufacturing," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 335-344.
    17. Christophe Kamps, 2006. "New Estimates of Government Net Capital Stocks for 22 OECD Countries, 1960-2001," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 53(1), pages 1-6.
    18. David Alan Aschauer, 1987. "Is the public capital stock too low?," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Oct.
    19. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    20. J. Derbyshire & B. Gardiner & S. Waights, 2013. "Estimating the capital stock for the NUTS2 regions of the EU27," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(9), pages 1133-1149, March.
    21. Cadot, Olivier & Roller, Lars-Hendrik & Stephan, Andreas, 2006. "Contribution to productivity or pork barrel? The two faces of infrastructure investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(6-7), pages 1133-1153, August.
    22. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    23. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 1995. "What To Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 89(3), pages 634-647, September.
    24. Sturm, Jan Egbert & de Haan, Jakob, 1995. "Is public expenditure really productive?: New evidence for the USA and The Netherlands," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 60-72, January.
    25. Ghali, Khalifa H. & El-Sakka, M. I. T., 2004. "Energy use and output growth in Canada: a multivariate cointegration analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 225-238, March.
    26. Becerril-Torres, Osvaldo U. & Álvarez-Ayuso, Inmaculada C. & Del moral-Barrera, Laura E., 2010. "Do infrastructures influence the convergence of efficiency in Mexico?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 120-137, January.
    27. Atashbar, Tohid & Arani, Abbas Assari & Antoun, Joseph & Bossert, Thomas, 2017. "Health reform policy-making: Fiscal sustainability matters (The case of Iran’s PresidentCare)," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 1086-1101.
    28. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pc:p:3309-3416 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. Kemmerling, Achim & Stephan, Andreas, 2002. "The Contribution of Local Public Infrastructure to Private Productivity and Its Political Economy: Evidence from a Panel of Large German Cities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 113(3-4), pages 403-424, December.
    30. Ratner, Jonathan B., 1983. "Government capital and the production function for U.S. private output," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 13(2-3), pages 213-217.
    31. Alicia H. Munnell, 1990. "How does public infrastructure affect regional economic performance?," Conference Series ; [Proceedings], Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, vol. 34, pages 69-112.
    32. Olivier Cadot & Lars-Hendrik Röller & Andreas Stephan, 1999. "A Political Economy Model of Infrastructure Allocation: An Empirical Assessment," CIG Working Papers FS IV 99-15, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB), Research Unit: Competition and Innovation (CIG).
    33. Aschauer, David Alan, 1988. "The Equilibrium Approach to Fiscal Policy," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 20(1), pages 41-62, February.
    34. Douglass C. North, 1955. "Location Theory and Regional Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 63(3), pages 243-243.
    35. Salmanzadeh-Meydani, N. & Fatemi Ghomi, S.M.T., 2019. "The causal relationship among electricity consumption, economic growth and capital stock in Iran," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1230-1256.
    36. Salinas-Jimenez, M. del Mar, 2004. "Public infrastructure and private productivity in the Spanish regions," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 47-64, January.
    37. Berndt, Ernst R & Wood, David O, 1975. "Technology, Prices, and the Derived Demand for Energy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 57(3), pages 259-268, August.
    38. Bristow, A. L. & Nellthorp, J., 2000. "Transport project appraisal in the European Union," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 51-60, January.
    39. Ernst R. Berndt & Bengt Hansson, 1991. "Measuring the Contribution of Public Infrastructure Capital in Sweden," NBER Working Papers 3842, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    40. Everaert, Gerdie & Heylen, Freddy, 2004. "Public capital and long-term labour market performance in Belgium," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 95-112, January.
    41. Yang, Hao-Yen, 2000. "A note on the causal relationship between energy and GDP in Taiwan," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 309-317, June.
    42. Garcia-Mila, Teresa & McGuire, Therese J., 1992. "The contribution of publicly provided inputs to states' economies," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 229-241, June.
    43. Ward Romp & Jakob De Haan, 2007. "Public Capital and Economic Growth: A Critical Survey," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(S1), pages 6-52, April.
    44. Charlot, Sylvie & Schmitt, Bertrand, 1999. "Public Infrastructure and Economic Growth in France's Regions," ERSA conference papers ersa99pa142, European Regional Science Association.
    45. Randall W. Eberts, 1990. "Public infrastructure and regional economic development," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 26(Q I), pages 15-27.
    46. Pereira, Alfred M. & Roca-Sagales, Oriol, 2001. "Infrastructures and private sector performance in Spain," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 371-384, May.
    47. Wang, Eric C., 2002. "Public infrastructure and economic growth: a new approach applied to East Asian economies," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 411-435, August.
    48. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Lovely, Mary E., 1996. "Scale economies, returns to variety, and the productivity of public infrastructure," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 105-123, April.
    49. Robyn C. Meeks, 2017. "Water Works: The Economic Impact of Water Infrastructure," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(4), pages 1119-1153.
    50. Baltagi, Badi H & Pinnoi, Nat, 1995. "Public Capital Stock and State Productivity Growth: Further Evidence from an Error Components Model," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 351-359.
    51. Antonis Rovolis & Nigel Spence, 2002. "Promoting Regional Economic Growth in Greece by Investing in Public Infrastructure," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 20(3), pages 393-419, June.
    52. Christophe Kamps, 2006. "New Estimates of Government Net Capital Stocks for 22 OECD Countries, 1960-2001," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 53(1), pages 1-6.
    53. Arup Mitra & Chandan Sharma & Marie-Ange Véganzonès-Varoudakis, 2016. "Infrastructure, Information and Communication Technology and Firms’ Productive Performance of the Indian Manufacturing," Post-Print halshs-01293608, HAL.
    54. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Finocchiaro Castro, Massimo & Guccio, Calogero & Rizzo, Ilde, 2023. "How "one-size-fits-all" public works contract does it better? An assessment of infrastructure provision in Italy," EconStor Preprints 270729, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    2. Davidmac O. Ekeocha & Jonathan E. Ogbuabor & Anthony Orji, 2022. "Public infrastructural development and economic performance in Africa: a new evidence from panel data analysis," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 931-950, May.
    3. Khan, Muhammad Atif & Gu, Lulu & Khan, Muhammad Asif & Bhatti, Muhammad Ishaq, 2022. "Institutional perspective of financial sector development: A multidimensional assessment," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(4).
    4. Çetin, Murat & Sarıgül, Sevgi Sümerli & Işık, Cem & Avcı, Pınar & Ahmad, Munir & Alvarado, Rafael, 2023. "The impact of natural resources, economic growth, savings, and current account balance on financial sector development: Theory and empirical evidence," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    5. Zolfaghari, Mehdi & Jariani, Farzaneh, 2021. "Food Security in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)," MPRA Paper 105078, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Adams, Samuel & Akobeng, Eric, 2021. "ICT, governance and inequality in Africa," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10).
    7. Goel, Raj Kumar & Vishnoi, Shweta, 2022. "Urbanization and sustainable development for inclusiveness using ICTs," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pedro R.D. Bom & Jenny E. Ligthart, 2009. "How Productive is Public Capital? A Meta-Regression Analysis," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0912, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    2. Ward Romp & Jakob De Haan, 2007. "Public Capital and Economic Growth: A Critical Survey," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 8(S1), pages 6-52, April.
    3. Holmgren, Johan & Merkel, Axel, 2017. "Much ado about nothing? – A meta-analysis of the relationship between infrastructure and economic growth," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 13-26.
    4. Pedro R.D. Bom & Jenny E. Ligthart, 2014. "What Have We Learned From Three Decades Of Research On The Productivity Of Public Capital?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 889-916, December.
    5. Alfredo M. Pereira & Jorge M. Andraz, 2013. "On The Economic Effects Of Public Infrastructure Investment: A Survey Of The International Evidence," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 38(4), pages 1-37, December.
    6. Valter Di Giacinto & Giacinto Micucci & Pasqualino Montanaro, 2012. "The Macroeconomic Impact of Infrastructures: A Literature Review and Empirical Analysis on the Case of Italy," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 1, March.
    7. Pellervo Hamalainen, 2009. "Review of literature on the productivity of public capital," Discussion Papers 55, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    8. Pedro R. D. Bom & Jenny Ligthart, 2008. "How Productive is Public Capital? A Meta-Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 2206, CESifo.
    9. Federici, Andrea, 2018. "Il rapporto tra capitale pubblico e altre variabili macroeconomiche: analisi della letteratura [The relationship between public capital and other macroeconomic variable: a literature review]," MPRA Paper 88515, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Silvia Bertarelli, 2006. "Public capital and growth," Politica economica, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 3, pages 361-398.
    11. Sayed Mansoor Khalili Araghi & Mahboobeh Kabiri Renani & Elham Nobahar, 2018. "The Effects of Infrastructure on the Economic Growth of the Main Sectors of the Economy of Iran’s Provinces," Iranian Economic Review (IER), Faculty of Economics,University of Tehran.Tehran,Iran, vol. 22(2), pages 347-374, Spring.
    12. Joanna Mackiewicz-Łyziak, 2010. "Wpływ infrastruktury na produktywność w gospodarce Polski," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 41-61.
    13. Nikos Benos & Nikolaos Mylonidis & Stefania Zotou, 2017. "Estimating production functions for the US states: the role of public and human capital," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 691-721, March.
    14. Sturm, Jan Egbert & de Haan, Jakob, 1995. "Is public expenditure really productive?: New evidence for the USA and The Netherlands," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 60-72, January.
    15. Nigel Spence & Antonis Rovolis, 2002. "Duality theory and cost function analysis in a regional context: the impact of public infrastructure capital in the Greek regions," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 36(1), pages 55-78.
    16. Sahoo, Pravakar & Dash, Ranjan Kumar & Nataraj, Geethanjali, 2010. "Infrastructure development and economic growth in China," IDE Discussion Papers 261, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    17. Alexander Eck & Joachim Ragnitz & Simone Scharfe & Christian Thater & Bernhard Wieland, 2015. "Public Investments in Infrastructure: Development, Causal Factors and Growth Effects," ifo Dresden Studien, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 72.
    18. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Yannis Psycharis & Vassilis Tselios, 2012. "Public investment and regional growth and convergence: Evidence from Greece," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(3), pages 543-568, August.
    19. Melvin Ayogu, 0. "Infrastructure and Economic Development in Africa: A Review-super- †," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 16(suppl_1), pages -126.
    20. Angel De la Fuente, 2010. "Infrastructures and productivity: an updated survey," Working Papers 1018, BBVA Bank, Economic Research Department.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic and social infrastructure; Income inequality; Panel corrected standard errors;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C5 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling
    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies
    • I0 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - General
    • O2 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jpolmo:v:42:y:2020:i:5:p:1146-1168. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505735 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.