Effect of Sector Productivity on Iran's Real Effective Exchange Rate (A Test on Balassa-Samuelson Effect)

This study has investigated the long-run and short-run effects of relative productivity on real exchange rate using annual time series data of Iran and its major trade partners over the period 1980-2005. To analyze such effect which refers to the Balassa-Samuelson effect, this research uses Auto-Regressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) method, to deal with dynamics of the relationship between productivity and real effective exchange rate. The empirical results indicate a positive and significant effect of relative productivity to the tradable sector on the real effective exchange rate, whereas this effect is significantly negative with respect to the non-tradable sector in Iran. These findings are consistent with the Balassa-Samuelson effect. JEL Classification: C32; D24; F31