میلاد امینی زاده

The analysis of export efficiency as the performance of the exporting country in achieving the market of a country according to its capabilities has been considered by researchers and policy makers in recent years. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the export efficiency of Iran's agricultural products with member countries of the economic cooperation organization (ECO) over three periods. For this purpose, the stochastic frontier gravity model has been used. Based on the results, the variables of economic difference, common border and economic sanctions have had significantly positive effect on Iran's agricultural exports to ECO member countries. The findings of export efficiency indicated that despite the increasing trend of Iran's export efficiency in the market of ECO countries, the amount is not equal to 100 and Iran has not used all its potential capacities. In 2013-2018, the lowest and highest efficiency are related to Kyrgyzstan (20.7) and Afghanistan (29.8), respectively. Accordingly, despite the increase in exports to ECO countries, Iran has encountered with highly unused capacities approximately 70%. Since the highest efficiency and export capacity of Iran is related to countries with common borders, it is suggested that regarding the uncertain political conditions for Iran and its impact on Iran's presence in world markets, exports to ECO countries especially those which have the same border should be considered more than before.

Entering the global markets leads to economic development in domestic and foreign dimensions, and along with the globalization of the economic structure, it creates a completely competitive environment in which powerful and efficient economic companies will have a chance to survive. In this regard, if trade is far from its real potential, it will be a very important obstacle on the way to achieving the goal of economic growth and its subcategory goals. Hence, taking advantage of the opportunities created through trade agreements requires market research to identify the potential of target markets. This article aimed at investigating the determinants of the bilateral agricultural exports between Iran and the other official members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and then analyzing the agricultural export potential of Iran in these target markets through the Stochastic Frontier Gravity model in the period 2001-2018 by STATA 16 software. It should be mentioned that the export efficiency in the target market is defined as the ratio of a country's actual exports to its maximum export potential. Based on the results, the variables of economic and physical size of trading partners had positive and significant effects, while geographical distance had a negative effect on Iran's agricultural exports; in addition, trade freedom and economic difference played an effective role in increasing Iran's agricultural exports to the trading partners of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In the period of 2016-2018, the efficiency of Iran's exports was found to be in the range of 11.9 to 86.4, indicating the lowest efficiency for Uzbekistan and the highest for Pakistan, which showed the significant difference in Iran's market performance in the member countries of this organization. As the signs of the model variables, it is suggested that exporters purpose the near target markets with higher per capita income and larger population. Also, considering the fluctuations in the trade efficiency of each of the target markets in different periods, it is suggested that maintaining trade stability and continuous presence in the target markets in order to brand Iranian products and build trust in business partners should be taken into account in regulating trade relationships and formulating export strategies through the capacity of Iran's membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Assessing the import market structure of importers is one of the approaches to determine exporting competitiveness degree in target markets. Despite the extensive background of studies in the field of market structure, but so far no study has looked at the role of the import market structure of partners on agricultural exports in Iran. So, given the importance of pistachio export for Iran, this paper aims to investigate the effect of import market structure of partners on Iran’s pistachio export.

To achieve the objectives of this research, the effect of import market structure of partners on Iran's exports of pistachios, which accounted for more than 90% of Iran's exports, was evaluated over the period 2001-2016 using the gravity model and balanced panel data. The sample studied in this research is 42 main importing countries: Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan , Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, England. The data is extracted from International Trade Center (ITC), The Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The Excel2013 software was used to calculate the import market structure of the importing countries, and then Stata14 software was used to estimate the gravity model.

According to the results of Chow and Hausman tests, the fixed effects method is the efficient method to estimate the gravity model. The results revealed that increase in concentration ratio of partners had a positive effect on Iran’s pistachio exports. This effect is statistically significant at 1 percent level. The results showed that partners’ GDP per capita had a positive and statistically significant effect on Iran’s pistachios exports.  According to the results, geographical distance had a significantly negative effect on pistachios exports from Iran to its trading partners. This means increase in geographical distance leads to decrease pistachios trade between Iran and importing countries. The findings indicated that pistachios production had a positively significant effect on Iran’s pistachios exports. The results showed that economic sanctions and global crisis had no significant effect on pistachios exports from Iran to importing countries.

The findings suggested that the reduction of competition in import market of destination countries leads to increase pistachio exports from Iran to its trading partners, while increasing competition in these markets has a negative effect on Iran’s pistachios exports. So, it is suggested that the factors influencing Iran's pistachios exports in destination markets with competitive structure should be explored and consumers of these countries should be categorized in order to provide appropriate marketing plans.

Nowadays, the membership of countries in trade agreements has opened a new space for the economic movement of different countries by facilitating trade through deregulation, dismantling tariff and support borders, increasing integration of national and regional markets, and access to different markets. But for all the benefits stated for agreements in facilitating trade conditions, the state of trade balance between countries in different economic sectors following membership in the agreements is not clear. Therefore, in this article, the effect of Iran's membership in the agreements, the Global System of Trade Preferences and the Organization of Economic Cooperation on her agricultural trade balance with 45 major trading partners using the Gravity model in the period 2001-2017 has been investigated. According to the results, Iran's membership in trade agreements has significantly diminished Iran's agricultural trade balance. Also, the variables of income and population of trading partners and common land border have positive and significant effect and variables of exchange rate, Iranian income, distance and global financial crisis have negative and significant effect on Iran's agricultural trade balance.

Iran’s agricultural exports have grown significantly in recent years. Cropland products (HS07) have become the second most important group in Iran’s agricultural exports over the last years. However, few studies have investigated the export potentials of cropland products. Therefore, this study aims to determine the main factors of Iran’s cropland products exports and calculate the export efficiency and potential in the trading partners. For this aim, the stochastic frontier gravity model is estimated based on balanced panel data covering 21 importing countries over the period of 2001 to 2021. The results indicated that economic and physical size of importing countries have positive and significant effect on the exports of Iran’s cropland products. In addition, common border between Iran and trading partners and economic sanctions have also positive and significant effect on the cropland products exports, while geographical distance between Iran and importing countries has negatively effects on the exports. The results of export efficiency showed that Iran does not have 100 percent efficiency in any destination market over the period of 2015 to 2021. Iran has an export efficiency of more than 50 percent only in Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Canada and Iraq. According to the results, Iran has the highest potential for exports of cropland products in Iraq. Hence, considering the high potentials in neighboring countries and significantly positive effect of common border partners, it is suggested that trading countries with common border like Iraq should be a top priority for the exports of cropland products.

The agricultural trade balance, on the one hand, shows the ability to earn foreign currency in this sector and, on the other hand, indicates the degree of dependence on food security from imports. Therefore, study of effective components can lead to more effective policy choices in the future. Regarding economic sanctions against Iran, this study aimed at assessing the impact of international economic sanctions on the bilateral trade balance of Iran's agricultural sector with 45 major trading partners during the period 2001-2017. For this purpose, gravity model was used. The results indicated that international and EU-US sanctions had a negative effect on Iran's agricultural trade balance with its trading partners; in addition, this impact was insignificant for international sanctions and was statistically significant for EU-US sanctions. Therefore, it is suggested that Iran's dependence on the EU as the US most important trading partner be reduced to prevent a sharp decline in trade in future probabilistic sanctions.

Sustainable production of organic food requires the attention to the demand side and the driving factors behind the intention to purchase organic food. Therefore, the present study attempts to evaluate the most important driving factors of intention to purchase organic food using the theory of planned behavior and structural equation modeling. The data for this study were obtained by collecting 160 questionnaires from consumers in Mashhad using convenience sampling method in 2019. The results revealed that the behavioral attitudes, perceived behavioral control, environmental concern and health consciousness have a positive and significant effect (0.26, 0.19, 0.22, and 0.18, respectively) on intention to purchase organic food. Also, the environmental concern and health consciousness indirectly influence the intention to purchase organic food by affecting the behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and perceived quality of the product. According to the results, it is suggested that information be provided on issues related to personal health and food safety, as well as the consequences of environmental degradation to consumers.

Vegetables are an important part of the food basket of Iranian households. The purpose of this study is to analyze the market power and identify the behavior of supply chain actors in selected vegetable products. For this purpose, the weekly data of selected vegetable products in Tehran in the period 1390-95 were analyzed. The experimental findings of the study include two main results. First, there is competition between the two levels of wholesale and retail, and the market power of wholesalers in the distribution chain of perishable products such as vegetables is greater than that of retailers. Second, the structure of the vegetable market is different and the reaction of supply chain actors to price changes in each loop is not the same in all products. Therefore, it is suggested that in leading policies, the market power of wholesalers in the vegetable distribution chain, as well as the differences in market structure and the role of each of the chain actors and the type of their reaction to changes in each product, should be considered.

Investigating the behavior of market players in pricing higher than the competitive level determines the bargaining power of the higher economic profits and leads to their market power. This is especially important for policymakers in terms of equity pricing in agricultural pricing policies. Fruit consumption plays an important role in diet variability and prevention of chronic diseases. Given the significant share of these products in horticultural production on the one hand and their unique role in providing household food security on the other, it is necessary to analyze the market power of supply chain actors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the behavior of fruit market players in each of the supply chains using weekly data during the period 2012-2017 in Tehran. The findings showed that the wholesale market power of all products except apple and watermelon was higher than the retailer and dominated the other levels throughout the entire marketing chain. The results also showed competitive behavior in the market for all fruits except oranges, and finally, market players reacted differently to relative price changes at different levels of the supply chain. Therefore, it is recommended that planners try to modify the behavior of market players against relative price changes at different levels of the supply chain.

Agriculture plays a pivotal role in Iran’s economy by increasing production, exports, and employment and supplying food needs. Therefore, according to the country’s strategic goals to develop non-oil exports, saffron has been paid attention as one of the most important agricultural products due to its high income and currency earnings. However, the exports of this product to target markets have been reduced in recent years. On the other hand, the complexities of the global trade network have led the countries operating in this network to increase their specialization. Import specialization improves the supply chain to provide the food needs of importing countries, which play a key role in trade. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the specialization pattern of saffron importing countries and analyse its impact on Iran’s exports using the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood method over 2001-2017. According to the results, the coefficient of the variable relative import advantage (RMA), as a proxy of import specialization, is positive and significant, thus having a significant effect on Iranian saffron exports. In addition, per capita GDP and population affect Iran’s saffron exports positively and significantly, while the coefficients of geographical distance and food crisis are negative and statistically significant. Therefore, due to the increasing specialization of saffron-importing countries and its significant effect on Iran’s exports, exporters are suggested to focus on close target markets with high per capita income and a high degree of specialization.

Export efficiency is the difference between actual exports and potential exports of exporting countries in destination markets, which nowadays measuring the efficiency has considerable importance in terms of export development and their competitiveness analysis. The export of saffron, as the most valuable agricultural product in the world, is of great importance to Iran, which has decreased in recent years. Therefore, its various dimensions need to be analyzed and evaluated. Due to the lack of a study on the efficiency of saffron exports, this study attempts to measure the export efficiency of Iran in 14 major saffron importers, which accounted for more than 90% of imports. To calculate the efficiency, the data of Iranian saffron exports to destination markets in the period of 2001-2017 have been estimated using a stochastic frontier gravity model. Efficiency results indicated that the efficiency of Iranian saffron exports in 2017 is equal to 0.45. The country analysis shows that Iran has the highest efficiency in Spain (0.93) and the United Arab Emirates (0.87), respectively, and has the lowest efficiency in Japan (0.07) and the United Kingdom (0.13), respectively. According to the results, the efficiency of exports in Asian markets has increased from 0.31 in 2001 to 0.41 in 2017. Considering the positive effect of the Asian regional variable and the negative role of geographical distance on Iranian saffron exports and also the change of the global network of saffron imports from Europe to Asia, it is suggested that Asian markets, which have higher competitive advantages for Iran, be considered by policymakers for saffron exports.

Carbon dioxide emission is one of important challenges facing humanity, which has attracted the attention of many researchers and policymakers in recent years. The purpose of this study is investigating the factors influencing carbon dioxide emission. For achieving the purpose of paper spatial econometrics model and panel data of MENA countries are used over the period of 2000-2015. The results indicate that carbon dioxide emission in the MENA region countries have significant effect on surrounding countries. Also, the variables of energy consumption (0.01), economic globalization (0.134), industrialization (0.405) and urbanization (0.042) have positive and significant effect on carbon dioxide emission in the MENA region. The interaction among energy consumption and globalization (0.361), energy consumption and, industrialization (0.234) and urbanization (0.085) have a positive and significant effect on carbon dioxide emission. According to the results of this study, it is necessary that policymakers should not only focus on the national economic benefits but also consider the national and regional environmental benefits in policy making.

Saffron is one of the most important export products of Iran. Due to the importance of climate in its cultivation, few countries have mass-produced saffron, making Iran the biggest producer and exporter of saffron in the world. However, it is necessary to examine the virtual land trade for purposeful policies and intelligent farm management. Therefore, the export of virtual land of this product has been studied in 2002-2007, and the factors affecting it have been determined using the gravity model. The results show that the average export of virtual land in Iran in the mentioned time period was about 41.5 thousand hectares. The highest amount of virtual land exports with 116.6 thousand hectares was obtained in 2008, and the lowest export of virtual land With 19.2 thousand hectares was obtained in 2007, probably because of the high yield of saffron production and low saffron exports. European and Asian countries are the most important destinations of Iran's virtual land, respectively, based on the results of the gravity model, countries that have relatively less agricultural land compared to Iran, and also countries with higher incomes and populations have more demand for saffron imports, which results in more exports of virtual land. Based on the results, it is suggested that policies be undertaken in order to improve productivity of saffron production and reduce the export of virtual land to importing countries with emphasis on maintaining the quality of saffron and paying attention to regional production capacities.

The CO2 emission is one of the components of global warming which has been more attention paid. Globalization as a phenomenon in the world has been affected the economic and social aspects of people. Therefore, given that globalization and the growing share of countries in the global trade network require extensive economic and productive activities, there is doubt about the impact of globalization on CO2 emissions. Considering the lack of consensus, the present study seeks to answer the question of whether globalization will increase or reduce CO2 emissions. To achieve the aim spatial panel data is used. The results of this study showed that globalization has a positive and significant effect on CO2 emissions in the MENA region. In other words, the growing trend of globalization has led to increasing CO2 emissions. Also, due to the spatial relationship between the MENA countries, it is suggested that countries begin to more cooperation and common policies in order to reduce the negative effects of economic activities on the environment.

Raisin is one of the most important agricultural export products of Iran, which has always been an export advantage. However, Iran's raisin export to the EU as the largest raisin importer in the world is very low. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effective factors with emphasis on the role of import market structure on Iran’s raisin exports to EU during period of 2001-2016. To achieve the objective of this study, gravity model was carried out based on unbalanced panel data. Findings indicate that per-capita income of the EU countries has a positive and significant effect on Iran's exports while the effect of economic difference between Iran and its partners and the economic crisis turned out to be negative and significant. Also, import market structure of trading partners has no significant effect on Iran’s raisin export. As a result import market structure is not a serious limiting factor. Accordingly, it is recommended that raisin exporters penetrate into the EU market as one of the most important and profitable destination markets in future export programs.

Trade agreements play an important role in reducing trade barriers and increasing trade flows among countries. Empirical researches indicate that the presence in trade agreements is not guarantee for increasing exports in all countries and products. Therefore, considering the importance of fishery exports in recent years and lack of study in this area, the aim of this paper is investigating the effect of Iran’s membership in trade agreements on fishery exports. To achieve the purpose, the gravity model and information of Iran’s fishery exports to 25 Asian countries with 88% share is used during the period of 2001-2016. Based on the results, Iran’s membership in the trade agreements has had a positive and significant effect on Iran’s fishery exports to trading partners. The results of the interaction between trade agreements and trade barriers showed that trade agreements reduced the effect of trade barriers such as geographical distance. So, it is suggested that exporters take advantage of the capacity created through the presence of trade agreements to identify new markets and develop appropriate long-term marketing programs to export to these markets.

Theories of international trade have emphasized specialization of countries and have considered this as a prerequisite to gain profit from trade. Iran has experienced a variety of forms of export of saffron as one of its important and valuable products to destination markets, which has made specialization in these markets doubtful. Therefore, this research study seeks to find out whether export of Iranian saffron in the world market and destination markets is moving towards specialization or not? In order to achieve this objective, the revealed comparative advantage index and the specialization pattern were investigated in the period of 2001-2018. The research findings have three main results. First, Iran's saffron exports have been associated with a de-specialization in the world market, and Spain, as Iran's most important export competitor, is on the paths to export specialization. Second, Iran has been specialized in saffron exports for the period 2001-2009 and has experienced a de-specialization in the 2010-2018 period. Third, Iran has been on the path of increasing specialization in only 15 percent of the destination markets (China, India, Hong Kong and Germany), and has a de-specialization in other markets. Because specialization in the destination market goes beyond identifying the demographic components of that market, it is suggested that long-term contracts be concluded with customers to adopt and implement production and marketing policies by further adapting the production and export of Iranian saffron to the culture of consumer markets.

Agricultural sector is the most influential sector in developing countries like Iran. Regarding climatic conditions and natural resources of Iran, there are High productive capability and therefore the export of many agricultural products that it requires extensive trade relations with other countries. Dates is one of the most important agricultural export product in Iran, which with the advent of export powers in recent years, its position has lost in the Europe Union market as one of the high-income markets. So, the aim of study is assessing effective factors on Iran’s Dates to Europe Union. In order to achieve this aim is used gravity model by PPML and LSDV methods. For estimating model, data is used in period of 2004-13. Our analysis establishes four important results. First, PPML estimator had more consistent results in comparison with LSDV estimator in assessing effective factors on export of Iran’s Dates to EU. Second, Traditional variables such as GDP per capita, credit, openness and access to high seas respectively with coefficient 0.980, 0.489, 0.331 and 2.880 have a significantly positive impact and Distance (-1.609) has a significantly negative impact on export of Iran’s Dates. Third, global crisis has a significantly negative impact on export of Iran to EU. Fourth, EU’s re-exporter also has a significantly positive impact on export of Iran’s Dates, which they will become a serious threat to Iran in global market in the long term.

Considering increasing competition in global markets, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of target markets for market planning. One of the factors influencing international marketing strategies selection is assessment of the market structure in importing countries. Therefore, this study has pursued two main goals of determining the market structure of important saffron importing countries and investigating the effect of this variable on Iranian saffron to further the research literature on saffron export as one of the most important export products of the Iranian agricultural sector. To achieve these objectives, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index has been used to calculate the market structure and the gravity model has been applied to determine this variable’s impact on Iran's exports over the period of 2001-2017. Market structure results showed that out of the 16 main countries importing saffron, no country had a fully competitive structure and there was a degree of monopoly in all markets. Also, the results of changes in the market structure of saffron importing countries during the period of 2001-2010 and 2011-2017 showed that the market structure of 7 countries Argentina, China, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates have become more monopolistic and 9 other countries have got more competitive structures. According to the results of the gravity model, the market structure of the importing countries has had a significant effect on Iranian saffron exports and the more competitive target markets have caused reduction of Iranian saffron exports. Hence, as saffron target markets become more competitive, it is suggested that exporters pay more attention to improving their competitive components in the markets, especially packaging. In accordance with world standards, packaging should be based on the quality of the product and provide complete information for customers.

Trade agreements are generally effective in reducing barriers to trade by reducing trade costs and increasing the contracts safety. Iran is in two trade agreements of the world, Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP) and Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO). Despite the general belief that the presence in trade agreements generally has a positive effect on the trading flow of the countries, there is no guarantee about this effect in all countries and goods. Therefore, considering the importance of pistachio exports to Iran, this study aims to answer the question whether Iran’s presence in trade agreements has increased exports of Iranian pistachio? To achieve the purpose, the gravity model and pistachios export data have been used during the period 2001 to 2016. Based on the results, Iran’s membership in the trade agreements has had a positive and statistically significant impact (0.380) on Iranian pistachio exports. Therefore, it is suggested that pistachio exports companies benefit from the opportunities provided by participating in these trade agreements to adopt appropriate marketing policies and strategies to increase Iran’s pistachio exports to its trading partners.

International trade leads to financial and economic development by improving domestic productivity. Given the importance of trade, various trade topics such as intra-industry trade, trade survival, trade balance and trade liberalization have been examined in the research literature. One of the most important trade concepts received less attention is export efficiency. The export efficiency is defined as the ratio of actual exports to the maximum export potential in the destination markets. Pistachio is one of the important products in Iran’s agricultural exports. The share of Iran’s pistachio exports has dramatically decreased from 58 percent in 2000 to 24 percent in 2016. Despite the importance of investigating the exports efficiency in planning and policymaking, there is no empirical study about the measuring pistachio exports efficiency. So, this paper aims to assess the main determinants of pistachio exports of Iran and evaluate the export efficiency in the main destination countries

 In this study, the stochastic frontier gravity model is employed for investigating the Iran’s pistachio export efficiency in its importing countries. The gravity model is a well-known tool by international trade economists which explains trade flows between two trading countries based on economic size and geographical distance. The analysis is based on panel data covering 42 trading countries during 2001-2016. The selected countries are Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.

The results of Fisher and IPS (Im, Pesaran and Shin) panel unit root tests clearly show that all the variables are stationary. The results of Chaw and Hausman tests indicated that fixed effect model is the best model. The coefficient of Iran’s GDP carries a positive sign on its coefficient and is consistent to expectations. The coefficient of importers’ GDP carries the expected positive sign on its coefficient and is highly statistically significant at 1 percent level, indicating that higher GDP has translated into higher demand and so higher imports. The coefficient of the variable geographical distance is as expected negative and statistically significant at 10 percent level. This means that distance play an impeding role in pistachio exports from Iran to its importers. The coefficient of the variable per capita GDP difference as a proxy of economic difference is positive and significantly statistically at 10 percent level. This shows that pistachio export from Iran to its importing countries with different economic structure is higher compared to importing countries with similar economic structure.According to the results, the coefficient of the dummy variable for regional trade agreement is positive and statistically significant at 5 percent level. This indicates that membership of Iran and its partner in same agreements has significantly affected Iran’s pistachio exports to its importing countries. The coefficient of the dummy variable for common border is positive and highly statistically significant at 1 percent level indicating that common border between Iran and its partner led to same food-style and lower transaction cost which have increasing effect on Iran’s pistachio exports. The coefficient of dummy variable for high income is positive and significant at 10 percent level, suggesting that Iran’s pistachio exports to high income countries is higher compared to other countries. The coefficient of dummy variable for global economic crisis is negative and highly statistically significant at 1 percent level. This means that economic crisis led to decrease demand for unnecessary food. The coefficient of dummy variable for economic sanctions is negative and highly statistically significant at 1 percent level, showing that economic sanction led to decreasing supply from Iran to its importing countries particularly EU countries.Based on the efficiency results, none of the country showed100% technical efficiency. Also, the average of Iran’s export efficiency has decreased in all destination markets over the period 2001-2016. In the panels of Asia and Europe as important destination regions, Iran’s export efficiency has increased and decreased respectively.

According to the empirical findings, there is a lot of potential in order to increase Iranian pistachio exports to destination countries. Therefore, due to the positive and significant effect of common border, it is suggested that trading countries with same border (land or sea border) should be a top priority for pistachio exports. Also, based on the positive effect of regional trade agreement, it is recommended that exporters be granted through access to larger and safer destination markets by joining larger trade agreements.

Nowadays, institutions and institutional quality of countries have become one of the most important issues in the international trade literature which based on the empirical findings of various studies have been considered as one of the main trade barriers in countries and have led to a change in the country's trade model. Therefore, the purpose of this article is evaluation of the effect of Iran’s institutional quality and her major trading partners on Iranian agricultural products exports. To achieve this goal, Iran's agricultural exports to 45 major trading partners’ data were analyzed using the gravity model over the period of 2002-2014. The results showed variables of trade partners GDP, trade agreements and common border have had positive and significant effects and distance and economic similarity have had negative and significant effect on Iranian agricultural exports. Also, the institutional quality of Iran and her trading partners have had negative and positive effects on agricultural exports of Iran, respectively. In other words, the low institutional quality of Iran has been recognized as one of the barriers of Iran’s agricultural exports. Therefore, since improving the quality of domestic institutions through reducing risk and transaction costs can play a decisive role in increasing agricultural exports, it is suggested that more investment be made in improving the domestic institutions infrastructures in order to be benefited by the global trade environment.

Increasing factor productivity in the agricultural sector is essential, and with the growing population, the need to invent more productive systems is highlighted. However, agronomic activities have always been accompanied by environmental impacts. Therefore, the two categories of productivity and agricultural sustainability should be considered simultaneously. The present study aimed at identifying factors affecting the total factor productivity of saffron farms in Gonabad County with an emphasis on the role of attitude towards sustainable agriculture. In order to achieve the research objectives, 110 questionnaires were completed and after calculating the total factor productivity using the Tornqvist-Theil index, an Ordered-logit model was used to identify factors affecting productivity. The results indicate that attitudes toward sustainable agriculture and income have positive and significant effects on farmers' access to higher levels of productivity, while variable of participation in training courses significantly reduces the probability of achieving higher levels of productivity. Variables of sown area, agricultural insurance and main job do not have significant effects on the probability of achieving different levels of productivity. Undertaking policies which improve attitude of saffron producers towards sustainable agricultural activities and informing them about the effects of unsustainable farming, a fundamental revision of the content of training courses, financial support of farmers for provision of agricultural inputs and reforming the structure of the agricultural insurance system are effective ways to improve productivity of saffron production.