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Production Function of the Mining Sector of Iran

The purpose of this study is to estimate the production function and examine the structure of production in the mining sector of Iran. Several studies have already been conducted in estimating production functions of various economic sectors; however, less attention has been paid to mining sectors. After examining the stationarity of variables using augmented Dickey-Fuller and Phillips-Perron tests, this study estimated the production function of the mining sector of Iran under different scenarios using the co-integration method and time-series data for 1976-2006. The unconstrained Cobb-Douglas production function in Tinbergen form provided better results in terms of theoretical foundations of economics, statistics, and econometrics. These results show that the structure of the mining sector of Iran is both capital-intensive and labour-intensive. Based on the findings of this study, the elasticity of production with respect to capital and labour have been 0.44 and 0.41, respectively. In addition, the coefficient of time variable, as an indicator of technological progress in the production process, is statistically significant representing a positive effect of technological changes on the output of Iran's mining sector.