The Effect of Privatization on Economic Growth in Iran, Using the Fully Modified Least Squares (FMOLS) (1991-2017)

From the point of view of scholars in economics, privatization is not only considered as a tool for restructuring the economy and increasing competition, but also an essential base for economic growth and development. According to that, the first and most important goal of privatization program in the General Policies of Principle (44) of the constitution, is to increase the economic growth. However, most studies have assessed the effects of privatization just on micro variables in economy, and only a few of them are focused on macro objectives such as economic growth. In this regard and due to uncertainties in the rate of achievement of this goal, as the result of the implementation of the mentioned program, this study is focused on evaluation of the privatization effect on economic growth of the country for the period 1991-2017. For this purpose, the human capital model and also the fully modified least squares (FMOLS) has been used. This method does not have the limitations of the ARDL method, such as the synchronization and exogenous variables and the resulting errors in estimation, which has been used in previous studies. In this study, privatization variable is considered as income from the transferring. Estimating the model and performing statistical tests, findings show that the impact of privatization on economic growth is positive and significant during the mentioned period.