Integrated Regional Endogenous Development Framework in Iran

Researches in exploring of driving forces of regional endogenous development, concentrate on subjects which have been so controversial. Regional endogenous development (RED), together with other core regional development concepts, is usually focused on the sub-national regional development process of the home country. This paper attempts to conceptualize and examine regional endogenous development model for Iran’s regions. The work presented here contributes to the design of a regional endogenous model which is tested in Iran by assessing the domestic forces and drivers of development based in 30 Iranian regions. The paper introduces a conceptual model for the study and then develops and tests the model with data for the primary regions of Iran. Large and positive correlation is found between measures of latent and explanatory independent and dependent variables in the regional endogenous model. Specifically it is found that such endogenous factors as institution, human capital, entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation and resource endowment are critical driving force for achieving increased regional productivity and thus tailoring of polices to support regional endogenous development and growth.