Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 12 2 2007 7 1 A Survey of Support in Irans Agricultural Sector and its Comparison with Some Selected Countries 3 54 FA Ali askari Seyed Mahmood Hossini darvishani The support of agricultural sector is adopted in various countries of the globe through different means and mostly with the aims such as increasing farmers incomes, protecting domestic products, ending dependence (on foreign goods), augmenting employment and reducing poverty. This paper tries to survey the support policies in agricultural sector in different countries as far as their components and extent are concerned and they are, in turn, compared to those of the support policies in Irans agricultural sector. In order to do that, the researchers have made use of Support Measurement Indicators, used in OECD member countries . The results show rather high support in various countries though there are differences in the extent and types of policies adopted. A comparison detween the level of support in agricultural sectors of Iran and OECD countries reveal that Producer Support Estimate (PSE) in Iran is two-third of that in OECD countries. General Services Support Estimates (GSSE) out of total support in Iran is less than those of OECD countries. Regarding consumer support, despite the presence of taxes on consuming agricultural products in OECD countries, considerable amount of subsidies have been allotted to in Iran. Meanwhile, considering rather high share of agricultural sector in Irans economy, it should be noted that its Total Support Estimate (TSE) out of GDP is higher than of OECD countries.

Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 12 2 2007 7 1 Evaluation of Technical Efficiency of Iran Housing Bank using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Method 55 84 FA Reza Yossefi Hajiabadi Mahmoud Khataii The main purpose of this research paper is to calculate Irans Housing (Maskan) Bank through the use of Data Envelopment Analysis. In this research, the performance of 33 branches of the Housing Bank throughout Tehran (capital city of Iran) within 2002-2004 was analyzed and discussed. The results of the study shows that average technical efficiencies of Housing Bank branches in two hypotheses of constant return to scale were respectively 0.82, 0.91 in the first group and 0.7, 0.95 in the second. In other words, average technical inefficiencies were 0.09 and 0.05 respectively. As observed, the first group, which includes the big financial transaction branches, has less short-run efficiency (variable return to scale) than the second group. It was found out that the branches under survey did not enjoy an appropriate status regarding scale efficiency although their managerial efficiency was high. Most branches enjoy increasing return of scale.

Institute for Management and Planning studies 2251-9092 12 2 2007 7 1 85 153 FA Mahmoud Motavasseli Mahmoud Mashhadi Ahmad