Reginal disparity and grain productivity convergence in Iranian provinces

Productivity growth indicates significant differences between provinces that grow faster and whose lags behind others. The differences in the rates of productivity growth in various provinces may be the result of regional inequalities. Therefore, it is important to understand the long-run movement in the district level productivity differences and take effective measures (such as higher investment in infrastructure, research and development, etc). With regard to the importance of this topic, this study is finding out whether or not there has been a tendency towards convergence in grain productivity in the last two decades? Results indicate that on average during 1984 and 2003, some provinces had high productivity growth. In contrast, some provinces had experienced negative productivity growth in grain production. This conclusion is concerning the disparity between grain producer provinces in Iran. The convergence results show that some provinces with low initial levels of productivity have a potential to grow faster than provinces with high productivity and so are converging to the mean TFP. While the gap in productivity differences in some provinces is widening and productivity differences will not vanish in the long run.