Growth of labor productivity in agricultural sector of Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

  Regarding the importance of labor input in production, there were investigated the factors responsible in the growth rate of labor productivity in the agricultural sector of Iran during the years 1970- 2000. In this investigation the growth rate of labor productivity is decomposed into two parts. First, there stands the total substitution effect which consists of the effects due to factor price changes and biased technological change and second, there is the TFP effect composed of the effects due to scale economies and technological progress. Based on empirical estimation, it was found that the TFP effect contributed to the growth of labor productivity much more than the total substitution effect for the period under the question. Based on findings, the effect of total substitution of production factors after Islamic Revaluation period has conceded a rapid growth path compared to the total factor productivity. Therefore the increased labor productivity over the period can be attributed to both of increased total factor productivity and increased total substitution effect of production factors.   JEL Classification: D24,Q1