Environmental and social capital contribution to Iranian economic growth

Empirical works attention to economic growth sources resulted in introduction of different types of capital. Recently, social and environmental capital has been considered. Regarding the issue the objective of this study is to analysis contribution of different types of capital to the Iranian economy growth. To get the objective, neoclassical growth model as well as data for 1974-2010 was applied. Capital includes physical, human, social and environmental capital. Environmental capital is considered as damage cost of CO2 emissions. Internet access and phone access were used as proxies for social capital. Also, literacy rate, primary school enrolment rate and university student were applied as proxies for human capital. It was also assumed that technology is embodied in physical stock in addition to its accompaniment with labor. The results showed that physical capital accounts for the highest contribution to Iranian economy growth with return of 0.3-0.4. However an insignificant role was left for human and environmental capital. Social capital contribution was found, to some extent, acceptable and positive as it its contribution is as one-third to one-forth as that of physical capital.