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Nowadays, the energy intensity from the aspects of sustainable development and also energy security is a strategic indicator for countries. The main objective of this article is the investigation of energy intensity convergence among OPEC countries during 1971-2010. To this end, the pair-wise test of Pesaran (2007) and sigma convergence are used. The results of pair-wise test of Pesaran confirmed divergence of cross-country energy intensity. The necessary condition of pair-wise convergence was accepted with low probability, but, sufficient convergence condition was not met. Dynamics of cross-sectional standard deviation over time also suggests the occurrence of sigma divergence in energy intensity trend among OPEC countries. The results also indicate the divergence of energy intensity in Iran from the average energy intensity of OPEC countries. In conclusion, in the pursuit of international environmental targets and energy productivity policies among OPEC members should be regulated with respect to the non-convergence of energy intensity among them.

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Investigating the convergence hypothesis among the Iran’s provinces and employing economic policies in order to achieve regional balance is one of the most important macroeconomic issues in Iran. In this study, the hypothesis of per capita income convergence has been investigated in Iran’s provinces with using different methods such as unit root tests, convergence club, Tile -statistic and cluster analysis.  The result of unit root tests shows that the absolute and conditional convergences between the provinces of Iran are not confirmed. Furthermore, the results of club convergence and Tile- statistic do not confirm per capita income convergence. Also, Cluster analysis suggests non-convergence among the provinces of Iran. In general, the results of all methods indicate a strong divergence in terms of per capita income among Iran's provinces. Divergence in per capita may represent more unbalanced development in the near future. In fact, the results of the paper show different rates of economic growth among Iran’s provinces.

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In this study, in order to assess and evaluate the role of the budget in the regional disparity of the country, the absolute beta and beta convergence of per capita income of the provinces of the country with the presence of allocation of government funds to the provinces variable's during the period from 1389 to 1393, with using panel spatial econometrics method. Based on the results, the slope of the absolute beta regression line is negative, small and statistically meaningless, therefore, the absolute beta assumption of per capita income in the provinces is rejected. The results show that the trend of standard deviation of real per capita income of Iranian provinces with increasing volatility during the research period is indicative of divergence of sigma. The results of the calculations show that the spatial dependency of per capita production and spillover effects in the provinces of the country are accepted. However, the beta conditional convergence in the spatial regression model with the presence of the total government budget allocations is not accepted. The results show that the total allocation of funds leads to a divergence and increased income gap between the provinces.
 

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The economic components of a geographic region, such as its economic growth, are influenced by the spillover effect of other regions’ economic components. In addition to these spatial dependences, there are common factors, such as oil price, that induce a correlation among the economic variables of the geographic regions. Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between the dependence created by these factors and spatial dependence; otherwise the role of spatial effects will be biased upward, and creating other problems such as inconsistency of coefficients and violations of some common assumptions. In Spatial econometric models such as spatial auto regression and spatial error models, the common factors are not considered. In this paper, for the first time, the existence of spatial dependence on economic growth of Iranian provinces during 1394-79 is tested and evaluated, using a combination of spatial auto regression models and spatial error models, and a combination of maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) and Common correlated effects (CCE). The CCE method is able to consider the role for common correlated effects. The results show that ignoring Common correlated effects contributes to inaccurate results. Significance of proxy variables used for Common correlated effects and lack of significance of variables related to spatial dependence indicate that existing dependence is due to the influence of Common correlated effects and economic growth data of Iran's geographical regions do not show spatial dependency at least at province’s level.  

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Higher education is considered as the engine of development and growth because of its benefits for increasing research, knowledge and technological innovation in the country. Also, the cost of education is a representative of human capital and among the determining factors of regional inequalities. Improving the dynamics of growth in future and considering the role of education in this field, the issue of appropriate financing levels is more important than in the past. Convergence analysis is interpreted to mean that there is a tendency to reduce the inequality of spending per student over time across the country. Therefore, using panel data approach, this article examines the trend of expenses of each student in higher education institutions (public and private) in the provinces of Iran during the period of 2006-2018. The results showed that there is absolute beta convergence in the per capita education costs of Iran's provinces. The speed of convergence in public expenditures of higher education is higher than private expenditures, but in both cases the speed of convergence is very low. This means that the state of inconsistency between the provinces of Iran in terms of private and public spending on higher education, in a certain time and period, will decrease over time and all sample provinces will converge to a stable state, but the speed of reaching the poor to wealthy areas, the cost of education is very low. Also, the examination of the per capita educational costs of each province indicates the existence of sigma convergence in the government expenditures of education in the provinces of Iran, and this has been effective in the overall convergence of the per capita educational costs of each province. In the sense that the inequality in the public costs of higher education in the provinces of Iran is decreasing rapidly, but this inequality in the private costs of higher education is decreasing and improving very slowly.

 

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This study evaluates the effect of the approval of Maku Free Trade-Industrial Zone on the development of counties located in this region. For this purpose, the development index of the counties has been calculated based on 22 variables and the TOPSIS method for 2011 and 2016. The results indicated that the development convergence hypothesis between the counties is not confirmed. Also, the approval of Maku Free Trade-Industrial Zone has increased the difference (positive difference) in the level of development of Maku county from the average development of the counties of West Azerbaijan province. For Showt county, despite the improvement in the development rank, the difference (negative difference) has increased from the average development of the counties of West Azerbaijan province. For Poldasht county, while the rank deteriorates, difference (negative difference) from the average development of the counties of West Azerbaijan province has also increased. In summary of the results, it can be argued that the approval of Maku Free Trade-Industrial Zone has not made a significant change in this zone in terms of development.