Comparison of Public Investment Approaches on Social Welfare Function: A Case Study of Iran

Abstract

The use of natural resource revenues for achievement of development has been a challenging issue for resource abundant countries. These challenges stem from the fact that incomes from natural resources are non-durable, unpredictable and uncertain. Different countries have pursued various approaches and tools for managing these revenues to avoid economic fluctuations. The international organizations and economic experts propose a diversification in the use of resource revenues through different approaches of public investment. Maximizing the social welfare function has become a common guideline for resource revenue management in resource-rich countries. This article investigates the effect of public investment approaches and their impacts on intergenerational social welfare function of Iran. To this end, the impact of two public investment approaches, namely Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH) and Bird In Hand (BIH), was examined and compared on a certainty equivalent of social welfare function. Results of the simulation with Iran's economic data indicated substantial positive loss in welfare if switching to the BIH approach. Calculations show that the certainty equivalent of social welfare function for PIH and BIH is 786.3 and 444.3, respectively. PIH provides a higher welfare level for the Iranian economy.