Evalution the Structure of Iran’s Food and Beverage Industry: Parametric and Nonparametric Approaches

The main aim of this article is to evaluate market structure dominant in food and beverage industry by using the non-structural Panzar-Rosse approach and non-parametric Herfindahl indicators and concentration ratio of four superior firms. For this purpose, the data of 22 active idustries ofthe four-digit ISICcode were used in Iranian food and beverage production over the years 1995-2007.Also in this research,according to the panel data, income and return equations based on Panzar-Rosse  approachhas been estimated using least square dummy variables (LSDV)method. The results obtained from thePanzar-Rosseapproachindicated that Iranian food and beverage industry had a competitive structure and it is far from monopolystructure. In addition, results obtained from theHerfindahl indicators and concentration ratio of four superior firms showed that theconcentration ratio of food and beverage industry was reduced during the mentioned years and more than half of the active classes of this industrywere working in a competitive environment.The most competitive of food and beverage industry’s classes are: “slaughtering of livestock and poultry”(code 1515), “bakery”(code 1545), while the most concentrated of its classes are: “manufacture of Malta and [non-alcoholic] beer”(code 1553), “tea maker”(code 1547).