The purpose of this study is to show which factors have been able to describe changes in total factor productivity of the economy by considering the designed efficiency horizon of the economy of Iran according to the Twenty years Perspective Document and Fourth Development Plan and the performance during Third Development Plan during the years under study. In order to study the factors affecting the efficiency of total factor productivity in Iran during 1981-2007، Self Descriptive econometric method with Autoregressive Distributed Lag vectors (ARDL) has been used. The efficiency model estimate of efficiency shows that factors such as institutional quality، accumulation of internal and external R&D، human capital، openness of the economy، physical capital accumulation، investment in information and communication technology، exchange and inflation rate have been able to describe efficiency growth trend during the years of the study.

JEL Classification: E61, E20, E02, F18, F41, H11