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This article deals with importance of the survey of research and scientific activities and the existing mechanisms in this regard and at the same time, provides a framework for innovation survey at national level. The first part of the article is a review and survey of the literature of technological changes. In this part, theoretical principles of technological changes are discussed. Also we will deal with measurement of research and development as the oldest indicator of research and scientific activities and, then, considering the flows and defect in the measurement of research and development, as well as, non-linear realities of modern economics, innovation survey is introduced as the latest mechanism for technological activities. In addition, current approaches for the survey of innovations at national level are introduced and, at the end of the first part, we will discuss different approaches to classify technology policies in this regard. In the second part of the article, an appropriate framework for innovation survey at national level is proposed through the use of field research. First of all, considering the potentials and capabilities of each of the current innovation surveys at national level, the appropriate approach is adopted. Then through the direct approach of technology policy classification, the status of innovative activities in Iran is determined. In the next section, we identify current innovation survey indicators at national level, which are deemed appropriate based on national requirements and the status of innovation activities in Iran. At the same time, we discuss the possibility of evaluatiny current indicators of innovation survey based on the situation of Iran. Finally, considering the results of the measurement research, we offer appropriate and possible indicators for innovation survey at national level.

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On one hand, the skill-based technologies increase productivity and output, reduce inflation and raise income. On the other hand, human skills are essential for implementing, adopting, utilizing physically and practically of modern and imported technologies and serve a complementary role in this respect. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to evaluate the relationship between the domestic research and development capital stock and technology imports with skilled and unskilled workers in Iran from 1971 to 2006. To do this, a translog cost function was estimated with seemingly unrelated regression method. The results indicate that the technology and its spillover are complementary to the skilled labor and substitute for the unskilled worker. In addition, the results illustrate the existence of a complementary relationship between capital and skilled labor and a substitution one with capital and unskilled worker.

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The aim of this article is to review the quantitative targeting of research and development expenditure in the Fifth Plan Act and executive policies of the science and technology. This article models the explaining and affecting factors of the research and development regarding to the theoretical and experimental studies. The main determinants of R&D expenditure in each economy are as follows: the intellectual property rights system; degree of government efficiency in defining, ensuring and implementing property rights; industrial structure and economy technology-intensiveness; the degree of economic openness and competitiveness; the share of large-scale firms in research and development; methods of R & D expenditure financing and the R& D production structure. The comparative comparison of main influencing factors on the research and development Intensity (RDI) in Iran with OECD RDI shows that the effective national absorption capacity of R& D expenditure in Iran, on average, is less than 20% of OECD corresponding capacity. The evidence shows that the bulk of research and development in Iran is financed by the government research credits. Naturally, we expect that effectiveness of R&D expenditure would be negligible, since the provided expenditure is not proportional to the national absorption capacity of research and development. According to pathology results, three amendments are proposed to research and development policies of the Fifth Plan in order to increase the efficiency and the productivity of R&D expenditure. The first major amendment is that the targeting of effective research and development expenditure of gross national product reach to 1.5 % in the end of the plan. Also, a fundamental attitude change towards research credits with focus on firms and non-governmental sector is essential for efficacy of consumed resources. The second proposal emphasizes on the software research and development policies. The Iranian research system focuses on hardware components and quantitative indicators, for example, budget, organization and the first-level R&D hardware products i.e., scholar papers. It is recommended that the software components of R &D including the property rights system, the national innovation system, the national learning system, motivation and reward system, efficacy evaluation, the research market, and interactive relationship of the research and development with economic competitiveness components are included in development plans. The third proposal is to develop the statistics and information system of R & D in Iran.

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The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of market structure on innovation and R&D in Iran’s manufacturing sector. To do this, first, statistical data for Iran’s manufacturing sector has been gathered in International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) format, then mutual effects of concentration, innovation and R&D, advertising and profitability in different industrial activities have been analyzed using simultaneous equations system and Error Component Tow Stage Least Squares (EC2SLS) during 1996-2007. The results show that industrial concentration has a significant and inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation and R&D. In addition, R&D expenditure declines with increases in profitability. The investigation of the factors affecting manufacturing structure indicates that although innovation and R&D has no effect on manufacturing structure, but profitability and performance of top firms affect their concentration. Our findings exhibit the ineffectiveness of concentration and innovational behavior on industries performance; whereas increasing market concentration results in advertising expenses and innovational behavior of firms raises advertising expenses. Similarly, the lagged and accumulated effects of R&D confirm the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between concentration and R&D

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This paper aims to investigate the interaction effects among market concentration, profitability, research and development (R&D), and advertising in Iran’s manufacturing sector. For this purpose, the quarterly data on Iran’s manufacturing sector was gathered in ISIC (International Standard Industrial Classification) codes, then the interaction effects of structure, conduct and performance was analyzed for industrial groups by Vector Error Correction Models (VECM) over the period 1996-2007. The results show that innovation and R&D are related to concentration, profitability and advertising within industries in the long-run. On the other hand, concentration and profitability explain 50% of variations in innovation and R&D; however, profitability, as a performance indicator, has the most effect on R&D activities in long run. Therefore, our finding is in line with Chicago-U.C.L.A theory. 

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This paper aims to estimate various production functions, with emphasis on energy and investment in R& D, in Iran over the period 1979-2010. Following estimation of different production functions including CES (Constant Elasticity of Substitution), GPF (Generalized Production Function), Cobb-Douglas, Transcendental, Translog, and GLPF (Generalized Linear Production Function), a proper production function is selected. The functions are mainly non-linear and their estimation requires large sample sizes. The conventional econometric techniques estimate regression parameters through minimizing residual sum of squares (RSS). However, this approach is less efficient than minimization the Least Absolute Deviation (LAD). Moreover, the conventional nonlinear techniques cannot minimize absolute deviation of errors from their expected values. In order to overcome this problem, we use Genetic Algorithm (GA) method with LAD to estimate six non-linear production functions. The results suggest that the Translog function is the most appropriate production function for the Iranian economy. According to our findings, a 10 percent increase in energy consumption, raises the output by 7.3 percent. However, a 10 percent increase in R&D expenditure only increases the output by 2.6 percent. Finally, the results show that the production function in Iran exhibits increasing return to scale after the end of Iran-Iraq war. Thus, it seems constructing growth models for Iran by assuming constant returns to scale production technology needs to be reexamined.

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Considering the significance of food security in the planning of developing nations, such as Iran, and the crucial role played by the private sector in food investment, this study explores the influence of technology spillovers on private sector investment in Iran's agricultural food industry over a 30-year period. Using the dynamic computable general equilibrium (DCGE) model and the 2010 social accounting matrix, the study evaluates the effects of technology spillovers in three scenarios: doubling foreign direct investment, enhancing research and development to improve production efficiency (with a technology deduction coefficient of 0.0062), and increasing capital and intermediary goods imports by 20%. The impact of these scenarios on private institutional investment in the agricultural food industry, encompassing agriculture and horticulture, livestock, fisheries, and food industries, is assessed. The results indicate that the first scenario leads to increased private sector investment in all four sectors mentioned. The second scenario does not increase private sector investment in these sectors, while the third scenario only affects investment in the fisheries sector, without impacting the other sectors of the agricultural food industry.
 

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Pistachios play a vital role in Iran’s agricultural export. Recently, however, Iran has lost considerable amount of its market share in international trade. This study aimed to address the price and non-price factors affecting the pistachio markets of Iran by estimating a structural system of equations. The domestic supply and demand for pistachios in Iran along with its export demand and supply to European Union, East Asia, and West Asia markets were estimated simultaneously, during 1988 to 2015. The results indicate that Research and Development (R&D) has had a positive effect on the pistachio supply and exports. Hence, it is proposed that the allocation of R&D funding in Iran be reconsidered. However, advertising has an insignificant effect on the Iranian’s export supply in international market. Hence, reviewing the type of advertisement is a vital issue for future research. European countries are less sensitive to the Iranian’s export price of pistachios, while they pay more attention to the quality and taste of the Iranian’s pistachio.