Estimation of Social Discount Rate in Iran

It is very important to pay attention to the evaluation of projects in the public or government sector, because sometimes the economic motivation for efficient use of resources in this sector is less than in the private sector, while the scope of the effects of projects in this sector is very wide.Using an up-to-date and correct social discount rate can maximize the level of welfare resulting from investment in this sector.During recent years and due to severe economic fluctuations, the previously estimated social discount rates were not applicable and it is necessary to update them based on economic conditions.Therefore, the study tried to estimate the social discount rate in the period of 1365-1400.The difference between this study and the previous domestic studies is in the use of two approaches of behavioral evidence and the approach of revealed values to extract this rate in Iran.The components of the social discount rate in this study include the growth rate of real per capita consumption, elasticity of marginal utility of consumption and death rate.According to the findings of this research, the social discount rate based on the two approaches of behavioral evidence and revealed values approach was obtained as 4.67 and 4.70%, respectively, and their average will be 4.685%.