The effect of an interest-free banking system on level and volatility of inflation: a GARCH model

Some Muslim researchers argue that a no-interest financial system better achieves the goal of price stability. Using a GARCH model, this article examines the effect of an interest-free banking system on level and volatility of inflation in a country with a full-fledged no-interest financial system. Iran is chosen for our case study because it has initiated the most far-reaching experiments with interest-free banking in the Muslim world. The results indicate that the new financial setting in Iran has reduced inflation uncertainty but has failed to lower the level of inflation.

Green Taxes in Energy and Final Goods Sectors in Iran: A Game-Theoretic Approach

Environmental tax and subsidy are two key instruments used in many countries to prevent environmental degradation and to achieve sustainable development. Using game theoretic approach, this paper develops and calibrates a model to determine optimum indirect environmental tax for Iran. More specifically, in the first stage the government sets green taxes and subsides, and in the second stage, the final goods and energy producing firms take these rates and choose their inputs. This dynamic game is solved by backward induction. Prior to our calibration, the production functions for fossil energy, renewable energy - as an intermediate goods - and final goods are estimated. The model is calibrated by using the Iranian data for the period 2015. The results indicate that the optimum green tax rate on fossil energy producing firm and final goods firm are 18 and 9 percent, respectively. These results have important policy implications for policymakers and social planners in Iran

A novel reactive-extractive distillation process for separation of water/methanol/tetrahydrofuran mixtures

Abstract The design of separation systems for the purification of azeotropic mixtures is of great importance in the chemical industries from economic and environmental points of view. Two novel reactive-extractive distillation (RED) processes, new design (I) and new design (II), were proposed for separating the azeotropic mixture of water/methanol/tetrahydrofuran (THF). These processes were compared to a conventional extractive distillation (ED) process. New design (I) employs dimethyl sulfoxide as a solvent, while new design (II) utilizes ethylene glycol. Ethylene oxide was introduced to the first column in both designs, enabling the in-situ production of ethylene glycol, a valuable byproduct. This is a novel solution to separate water from the azeotropic mixture by reaction between ethylene oxide and water. Aspen Plus software was used to simulate and design the processes. Both suggested designs were compared economically with the base design which is an ED process. According to the results, the new design (I) is more cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to the base design and the new design (II). It has a lower total capital cost and produces less carbon dioxide. Additionally, it generates a valuable by-product, ethylene glycol, which can be sold for substantial revenue. As a result, the new design (I) is the preferred choice for replacing the conventional extractive distillation method

Capital mobility, openness, and saving-investment relationship in Asia

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between openness to trade and saving-investment behaviour in Asia during the period 1990-2006. We use this relationship to examine whether those Asian countries that are more open to trade and enjoy less trade barriers have also higher degree of capital mobility. Cluster analysis is used to classify the countries into different groups according to the share of trade in their gross domestic products and their average tariff rates. The goal is to place the countries that are similar to each other in terms of their trade policy in one group. We apply the Generalized Least Square (GLS) technique to a set of balanced panel error correction models to estimate the short- and long-run relationship between saving and investment. The estimation results indicate that there exist long-run equilibrium relationships between domestic saving and investment in all groups regardless of their degree of trade openness. Moreover, contrary to Amirkhalkhali and Dar (2007) for the case of OECD, we find out that more openness in terms of trade policy is associated with higher degree of capital mobility for the case of Asian countries. One policy implication of this result for the Asian economies is that trade openness can be used as a strategy to attract capital from abroad. Our findings also confirm the prediction of new open economy macroeconomic models regarding the short- and long-run behaviour of current account.Saving-investment relationship Openness Capital mobility Asia, panel data

Pd-Catalyzed Cyclocarbonylation of Allylic Alcohol under Benign Conditions with Ionic Liquid as Stabilizer

Homogeneous palladium-catalyzed (Pd-catalyzed) cyclocarbonylation of unsaturated allylic alcohols and alkynols in the presence of hydrogen forms lactone products with important applications in the food, perfume, and polymer industry. In this work, the cyclocarbonylation of 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol was studied for the first time using a very active Pd-DPEphos (bis[(2-diphenylphosphino)phenyl]ether) catalyst in the presence of the ionic liquid (IL) [BMIM]Cl (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride) in dichloromethane to selectively produce 4,4-dimethyl--butyrolactone. The effect of different parameters such as temperature, gas partial pressures, time of reaction, substrate and ligand concentrations were investigated and found to provide optimal conditions for lactonization (95 \ub0C, 28 bar (CO/H2/N2: 20/5/3)), 18 h, 0.1 M substrate, and 16 mol% DPEphos), which were significantly milder than previously reported systems for cyclocarbonylation. Importantly, the study further showed that presence of the IL in the reaction mixture provided stabilization of the catalyst system and prevented formation of Pd-black, which allowed reuse of the catalytic system in consecutive reactions after intermediate extraction of the lactone product