Investigating the Effective Factors on the Extent of Barriers to Entry in Iranian Manufacturing Industries

One of the features of market structure is the extent of barriers to entry. According to economic theories, it is expected that when the barriers to entry increase, the degree of monopolistic power in industrial markets will consequently increase. Hence, in this paper we measure the intensity of barriers to entry and evaluate this structural variable in Iranian manufacturing sector. This study examines the factors that affect the extent of barriers to entry in industrial markets in the context of a dynamic panel data model with the technique of generalized method of moments (GMM). The findings show that the degree of concentration, intensity of advertising, research and development costs, rate of returns and economies of scale have significant and positive effect on the extent of barriers to entry in industrial markets of Iran.