The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the extension of globalization and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) case fatality rate (CFR) calculated on 28 July 2020 in more than 150 countries. Our regression analyses show that countries with higher levels of socio-economic globalization are exposed to higher levels of CFR. The positive association between the level of globalization of countries and their COVID-19 fatality rate remains robust, controlling for cross-country differences in economic development and demographics, health care costs, health care capacity, quality of governance and continental dummies.

This study examines the effect of drought on housing and residential land prices in Iran. Using panel data covering the 2006–2015 period for 31 provinces of Iran and applying a dynamic system and the difference Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) methods, we find that an increase in the balance of water (reducing the severity of drought) within provinces has a positive effect on property prices. Our results are robust, controlling for province fixed effects, time trend, and a set of control variables that may affect property prices.

The kidney market in Iran is the only legal market of this sort globally. Yet, it has not been empirically studied based on real data. For the first time, we obtained data on donors and recipients from the Kidney Foundation in Mashhad, April 2011 up to March 2018, and assessed which individualistic characteristics contribute to a kidney’s price. Our findings indicate that each year of education for both donors and recipients increases the kidney price. Moreover, old patients are willing to make a higher payment to young vendors. We have also provided some policy implications to improve the efficiency of kidney allocations.

Water crisis and, particularly, drop in rainfall in Iran are not only an environmental matter but also a security issue. This paper tries to draw attention to the substantial social consequences of climate change in Iran and particularly addresses whether precipitation scarcity from 2007 to 2014 has a conflict-making effect in the province of Iran using the system GMM model. We show that rainfall shortage and the SPEI, as an index of drought, could stimulate the propensity for individuals to engage in disruptive activities in provinces of Iran.