Determining Iran s Status Regarding knowledge-based Economy among the Selected Countries

The present article studies and evaluates the status of Iran and forty selected countries in the field of knowledge-based economy. The research method is to calculate their efficiency through the use of data envelopment analysis. Data envelopment analysis is one of the methods to calculate the efficiency of decision-making units by using linear mathematical programming with multiple inputs and outputs. Accordingly, the efficiency of the selected countries was evaluated based on the input-oriented CCR model and by using the 13 Components of knowledge-based economy, with total labor force, GDP, gross capital formation, total expenditure spent on ICT, and value added services in GDP as the inputs, and high-tech exports, number of researchers in research and development, number of Internet users, fixed line and mobile telephones, labor productivity, and international relations as the outputs. According to the results of the present article, Iran is placed 29 among the selected countries. It seems that by following the policies of the USA and China, Iran can be promoted in this regard.