The role of fiscal policy in strengthen the Total productivity of Iraqi economy, a case study

A thesis submitted to the Council of the College of Administration and Economics – University of Karbala, which is part of the requirements for the degree of master in economic sciences

by

Zain Al-Abidin Hussein Abdullah Al-Aboudi

Supervised by

Prof. Dr.

Safaa Abdul-Jabbar Ali Al-Musawi

Abstract

The index of the total productivity factor is one of the most important measures that express the efficiency of resource use, and an important indicator of technological development among the countries of the world. His great contribution to economic growth reveals to us his ability to lead economic growth. The strong negative changes taking place in the country’s total productivity factor confirm a series of successive events such as the decline in economic growth (negative growth), for example the decline in total productivity during the Great Depression of 1929, and the slowdown in total productivity in the United States of America in the seventies. On the other hand, the realization of distinguished real economic growth means an improvement in efficiency and performance, and a clear rise in the efficiency of resource exploitation, accompanied by a distinguished technological development for the country concerned, as is the case in China for the past two decades. It was revealed to us by measuring the growth in the factor of total productivity of Iraq in the long term, and after the use of five various productive functions through which the (economic growth calculation) was applied, and by using three methods (formulas) for each of the five countries and they are; (Solo rest, regression, and the Ferguson method with a dummy variable of instability), so we have fifteen time series of growth in TPF. It turned out that the calculation of the total productivity factor suffers from (technological illusion), and there is no technological development in Iraq for the period (1979-2003) at the very least, as “we found that there is a clear weakness in the contribution of the total productivity factor to economic growth,” and it became clear that Efficient exploitation of resources did not rise to the level of ambition, and the reason is mainly due to political instability, accompanied by misuse and distribution of resources, which contributed to the deterioration of the economic and social conditions of Iraq in particular during the period (1980-2017). It was also found that the imaginary variable of political instability has taken many forms and continues to influence, reflected on the fluctuation of growth values in the total productivity factor calculated by methods and formulas, which total fifteen practices of the total production function. The successive political events, with their diversity, were a concomitant characteristic and negatively affecting the Iraqi economic growth during the aforementioned period.

Keywords: total productivity / enhancing total productivity

The role of fiscal policy in strengthen the Total productivity of Iraqi economy, a case study

A thesis submitted to the Council of the College of Administration and Economics – University of Karbala, which is part of the requirements for the degree of master in economic sciences

by

Zain Al-Abidin Hussein Abdullah Al-Aboudi

Supervised by

Prof. Dr.

Safaa Abdul-Jabbar Ali Al-Musawi

Abstract

The index of the total productivity factor is one of the most important measures that express the efficiency of resource use, and an important indicator of technological development among the countries of the world. His great contribution to economic growth reveals to us his ability to lead economic growth. The strong negative changes taking place in the country’s total productivity factor confirm a series of successive events such as the decline in economic growth (negative growth), for example the decline in total productivity during the Great Depression of 1929, and the slowdown in total productivity in the United States of America in the seventies. On the other hand, the realization of distinguished real economic growth means an improvement in efficiency and performance, and a clear rise in the efficiency of resource exploitation, accompanied by a distinguished technological development for the country concerned, as is the case in China for the past two decades. It was revealed to us by measuring the growth in the factor of total productivity of Iraq in the long term, and after the use of five various productive functions through which the (economic growth calculation) was applied, and by using three methods (formulas) for each of the five countries and they are; (Solo rest, regression, and the Ferguson method with a dummy variable of instability), so we have fifteen time series of growth in TPF. It turned out that the calculation of the total productivity factor suffers from (technological illusion), and there is no technological development in Iraq for the period (1979-2003) at the very least, as “we found that there is a clear weakness in the contribution of the total productivity factor to economic growth,” and it became clear that Efficient exploitation of resources did not rise to the level of ambition, and the reason is mainly due to political instability, accompanied by misuse and distribution of resources, which contributed to the deterioration of the economic and social conditions of Iraq in particular during the period (1980-2017). It was also found that the imaginary variable of political instability has taken many forms and continues to influence, reflected on the fluctuation of growth values in the total productivity factor calculated by methods and formulas, which total fifteen practices of the total production function. The successive political events, with their diversity, were a concomitant characteristic and negatively affecting the Iraqi economic growth during the aforementioned period.

Keywords: total productivity / enhancing total productivity