The Impact of Market Penetration Costs and Rival Countries' Exports on Iran’s Cement Export Profits in an Oligopoly Framework

This research is devoted to iran's cement export market, one of iran's primary and strategic industries, considering the significance of non-oil export developments. this study aims to determine the effect of market penetration costs and rival countries' exports on the profits of iran's cement export heterogeneous firms. thus, using the models by melitz and chaney, panel data, and dynamic panel econometrics, the impacts of the investigated factors on the export markets of iranian cement were studied from 2003 to 2020. the results showed that the effect of market penetration costs on the export profits of firms was negative, and around 45%. the results of estimating the model under oligopoly conditions using stackelberg’s method showed that competitors' exports had a negative impact on iran’s annual cement exports at almost 4%. moreover, it was found that the share of penetration costs increased to 58% showing the significance of this effect on the country's export profits.