Productivity Changes of Food Processing Industries in Provinces of Iran; 1992-2001 a Non-Parametric Malmquist Approach

Man have always had to confront the crisis of shortage in resources in the history. Therefore civilizations and societies were searching for ways through which they could gain the utomost output. One of the determining factors in developing countries is the increase in efficiency and productivity in various social and economical aspects. In this study we try to investigate and measure the productivity changes in food industry via data envelopment analyses (DEA) and Malmquist index. We have used 27 provinces of Iran, during 1992 to 2001. The average productivity in the period is as following: 1.41, 1.01, 1.25, 0.81, 1.43, 1.21, 1.1, 1.1, and 1.37. Therefore except one year, the productinsty’s trend is up warding.