The Study of Factors Affecting Income Inequality in Rural Areas of Iran (The Ahluwalia Approach)

According to the Ahluwalia hypothesis (1995), the growth of total factor of productivity (TFP) in agricultural sectors along with the other government infrastructural investment in rural areas are the reason of income inequality decrease in these areas.The main objective of this study is to investigate the effects of public investments such as agricultural, road and education(R&E) and Irrigation on income inequality in rural areas of Iran. This research also attempts to study the direction of causality between the income inequality and total factor productivity (TFP) in Iran. Using ARDL methods in the period at 1980 to 2008, empirical results showed that there is a negative relationship between income inequality and agricultural TFP in rural areas of Iran. Hence, additional investments in rural education and agricultural R&E have significant impacts on income inequality. Findings showed also that the Ahluwali hypothesis of the relationship between income inequality and agricultural TFP in Iran's rural areas is not ejected.