Spatial Analysis of Factors Affecting Iran's Exports of the Food and Beverage Industry

Nowadays, exports of food and beverages industries play an important role in providing the foreign-exchange gains for countries. Empirical studies related to exports show that the amount of firm`s exports not only depends on the size of the firm, human capital and labor productivity, but also it may be affected by the exports of neighboring provinces. So, the purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that affect the exports of food products and beverage industry using firm-level data of Iranian industrial firms and spatial Durbin Tobit model at 2007.The results of Spatial Durbin Model show that variables such as firm size, labor productivity and human capital have positive and significant effect on firm's exports. Also, significance of spatial lag coefficient of dependent variable (ρ) confirms the existence of spatial effects for studied provinces. The results of evaluating direct and indirect effects show those direct and indirect effects of human capital, labor productivity and firm size for each province and nearby provinces are positive and significant. These results indicate the existence of interstate spillovers.