Agricultural Growth and Inter‐Sectoral Linkages in a Developing Economy

Does growth in the manufacturing sector of an economy spillover to agriculture, or do sectors share similar growth rates only when they share some common exogenous stimuli? The limited number of investigations of this issue, for cross‐sections of countries, have found some evidence in favour of spillovers, though the methodologies used cannot readily separate correlation from causation. Adapting the Feder (1982) model of sectoral externalities to a time‐series context, we examine how far agricultural output in Malaysia has been affected by inter‐sectoral spillovers. Our results suggest that expansion of manufacturing output, though associated with reduced agricultural output in the short‐run, is associated with agricultural expansion over the long‐run. Service output growth on the other hand seems to have been inimical to agricultural growth in both the short‐ and long‐runs, while causality testing supports the case for spillovers rather than “common causes”. Evidence on sectoral productivity is consistent with neoclassical arguments suggesting that the benefits of higher productivity in manufacturing tend to spill over to agriculture, encouraging productivity convergence.     

Economic development and the role of agricultural technology

In earlier debates on economic development, the agricultural sector's role was somewhat controversial. While dualistic models highlighted the importance of agriculture, the mainstream literature placed a greater emphasis on the creation of a modern industrial sector. Soon agriculture disappeared from the mainstream development literature to re‐emerge recently with a variety of multiple‐sector growth models emphasizing the key role of agriculture and specifically technology in agriculture. This article is an empirical cross‐country analysis of agricultural technology's role in economic development. Specifically, the hypothesis being tested is whether improvements in agricultural technology have a significant impact on long‐run economic growth. The results indicate that agricultural modernization has a positive effect on both measures of economic growth and human development.     

Accounting for agricultural decline with economic growth in Taiwan

In this paper, we develop an empirical model to decompose the evolution of the agricultural share of GDP into three components: price changes, factor endowment changes and technological change. Our results suggest that relative prices have a positive but small influence on the share of agriculture in GDP in both the long‐run and the short‐run. An increase in capital per unit of labor, on the other hand, is associated with a smaller agricultural share. Technical change has been biased in favor of the agricultural sector but this effect has been swamped by the magnitude of the input effects, in particular, the changes in the capital‐labor ratio.     

Exploring the impact of R&D and climate change on agricultural productivity growth: the case of Western Australia*

This article empirically examines the impact of R&D and climate change on the Western Australian Agricultural sector using standard time series econometrics. Based on historical data for the period of 1977–2005, the empirical results show that both R&D and climate change matter for long‐run productivity growth. The long‐run elasticity of total factor productivity (TFP) with respect to R&D expenditure is 0.497, while that of climate change is 0.506. There is a unidirectional causality running from R&D expenditure to TFP growth in both the short run and long run. Further, the variance decomposition and impulse response function confirm that a significant portion of output and productivity growth beyond the sample period is explained by R&D expenditure. These results justify the increase in R&D investment in the deteriorating climatic condition in the agricultural sector to improve the long‐run prospects of productivity growth.     

农业周期性波动对农业长期增长趋势的影响——基于省际动态面板数据的研究

1949年以来,中国农业一直呈现较大幅度的周期性波动,长期来看,农业具有增长趋势,不同阶段的农业增长有起有落。以1952~2011年间(1952年为基期)的农业总产值定基指数为原始数据,采用农业的7年期中心化移动平均增长率来表示农业的长期增长,以农业增长率的7年期滚动标准差系数度量农业的周期性波动,建立基于1956~2008年期间省际动态面板数据,运用差分GMM估计方法,首次从一般意义上实证考察了中国农业周期性波动对农业长期增长趋势的影响,试图对农业周期性波动是否会影响农业长期增长趋势以及如何影响这一问题做出回答。结果表明,总体上,农业的周期性波动对农业的长期增长具有正面影响,不同区域不存在异质性。从分段样本考察结果看,不同阶段由于农业制度变迁导致二者关系发生了变化。1981~1990年和2001~2008年两段期间由于先后实行农村的经济制度从生产队体制向家庭联产承包责任制转变和农村税费制度改革,导致农业的周期性波动对农业的长期增长具有负面影响,其余期间表现为正面影响。     

The Current State of the Russian Agricultural Sector

Russia's agriculture produces around 3.7 per cent of the country's GDP, employs 9.2 per cent of the national workforce and contributes around 6 per cent of the country's exports. The sector has shown remarkable resilience in the face of wider economic turbulence. Self‐sufficiency rates for the main agricultural commodities are relatively high. Agricultural exports have grown very significantly since 2000 especially for wheat and meslin (wheat and rye mixture). Meat production has been growing steadily, particularly in the poultry and pork sectors. Whilst the agri‐food sector has great potential to play an even more prominent role in Russia's economy, it suffers from relatively low productivity and an outdated technological base. The main drive for efficiency has come mainly from the relatively large‐scale agricultural firms, who generated more than half of the total value of agricultural output in 2016. Foreign policy instability, including economic sanctions, the devaluation of the national currency and declining economic growth have weakened the sector and caused an increase in the prices of imported goods and equipment. At the same time Russian products have replaced high value‐added imports and Russia's agricultural producers are expanding into new markets.     

Structural transformation away from agriculture in growing open economies

Understanding how and why economies structurally transform away from agriculture as they grow is crucial for developing sensible growth strategies and farm and food policies. Typically, analysts who study this and related structural change issues focus on sectoral shares of gross domestic product (GDP) and employment. This article draws on trade theory to focus as well on exports. It also notes that the trade costs of some products are too high at early stages of development to make international trade profitable, so a nontradables sector is recognized. The general equilibrium model presented in the theory section provides hypotheses about structural transformation in differently endowed open economies as they grow. Those hypotheses are tested econometrically with a new annual endowments dataset covering 1995–2018 for more than 130 countries. The results are consistent with long run de-agriculturalization in the course of national economic growth in terms not only of sectoral shares of GDP and employment but also of exports. We find those shares are not significantly affected by either differences across countries in relative factor endowments or relative rates of sectoral assistance from government; but the agricultural GDP and employment shares are higher the higher is the share of agriculture in national exports.     

Conditioning trends shaping the agricultural and rural landscape in Africa

African countries continue to face deepening food crises that have been accentuated by the global food, energy, and financial crises. This situation is part of a long‐term structural problem: decades of under‐investments in agricultural sector and poor policies of support for smallholder farmers who form the bulk of the farming population. The inability of these farmers to achieve a supply response when commodity prices were high and market access was less of a problem suggests that there are multiple sets of binding constraints that continue to limit the potential of agricultural growth to reduce food security and poverty on the continent. This article reviews some of the historical trends that have hampered the performance of the agriculture sector. In addition, it reviews the impacts of more positive trends that could stimulate agricultural growth in Africa that could change the African agricultural landscape. The article however warns that there are more recent global developments and some continental challenges that could prevent or slow agricultural growth. These include the global financial crisis, public sector investments, inequities in global agricultural development policies, rush for agricultural lands by foreign investors, domestic commercial financing markets, climate change, and emerging carbon markets. The article argues that while opportunities for accelerated growth exists for African agriculture, new sets of policy instruments will be needed to support smallholder farmers to access new agricultural technologies, finance, reduce impacts of climate change, and adopt sustainable land use practices that can allow them to benefit from emerging global carbon markets.     

The Determination of Agricultural Wage Rates in Bangladesh

The impact of the ‘green revolution’ on wages has been a contentious issue. This paper uses the cointegration and error correction approach to identify long and short-run relationships between prices, agricultural production and wages of agricultural labourers in Bangladesh, test for homogeneity, test for weak exogeneity with the Johansen-Juselius methodology, test for a structural break, and estimate the long and short-run elasticities of nominal wages with respect to rice prices. We find that agricultural wages have strong positive long run relationships with rice prices, manufacturing wages and agricultural productivity. The short run response of wages, estimated consistently with these longer run relationships, to rice prices is small, highlighting the vulnerability of the rural poor to sudden rises in rice prices, even though in the longer run nominal wages respond sufficiently to rice prices. Policy can promote growth of agriculture and manufacturing but should also mitigate the short run food insecurity of agricultural labourers.     

'Urban Bias', Intersectoral Resource Flows and the Macroeconomic Implications of Agrarian Relations: The Historical Experience of Japan and Taiwan

It is argued that agrarian relations play a critical role in the pattern of intersectoral resource flows and the way in which the agricultural sector shapes the macroeconomy in developing countries. The notion of 'urban bias' used by GKI is defective in its abstracting from the pre-existing agrarian system and from the prevailing institutions and in focussing on one simple set of influences outside the agricultural sector itself, i.e. government policy bias. This is illustrated with reference to the historical experience of two countries regarded as exemplary by GKI: Japan and Taiwan. Their experience shows that high rates of taxation and surplus extraction from agriculture are not incompatible with maintaining profitability and production incentives in agriculture, as long as agrarian relations and other enabling conditions can ensure a fast enough rate of technological progress and productivity growth in the sector. The macroeconomic implications of different agrarian relations are much more complex than the urban bias story told by GKI would suggest.     

Is there a slowdown in agricultural productivity growth in South America?

This article estimates agricultural productivity growth in 10 South American countries in 1969–2009 with the objective of investigating if the slowdown being measured in other countries is present in the region. Results show that productivity growth accounts for half of the three‐fold increase in agricultural output during this period and that performance is sensitive to R&D investments in the sector. The slowdown found for the 1990s to 2000s in the U.S. and some European economies does not seem to be present yet in South America. The region's total factor productivity (TFP) growth rate increased steadily from 1.07% during the 1970s to 2.29% during the 2000s. Given lags in adoption and the adaptive nature of innovations in these economies, we have yet to see the potential effects in South American agriculture of decreases in R&D in advanced economies.     

黑龙江省农业碳排放、科技投入与经济增长关系研究

[目的]以黑龙江省为例,首先对其农业碳排放总量进行测度,再研究农业碳排放同经济增长、科技投入之间的关系。[方法]利用1996~2013年的统计数据,从4个方面估算了黑龙江省农业碳排放量,进而采用自回归滞后分布模型(ARDL模型)对农业碳排放量、经济增长以及科技投入之间的关系进行实证分析。[结果]农业碳排放量、GDP增长和科技投入存在长期稳定关系,但长期来讲农业碳排放量增长速率远大于GDP增长速率;GDP增长对农业碳排放总量存在显著的正向影响,且长期影响程度远大于短期;科技投入对农业碳排放具有抑制作用且存在滞后效应,其中长期的抑制作用为12.4%,短期为3.9%,当滞后期为两年时,抑制作用尤为显著。[结论]经济增长会促进黑龙江省农业碳排放的增加,而科技投入则能对农业碳排放产生有效地抑制作用,因而黑龙江省可以通过增加农业科技投入来降低农业碳排放。     

Role of communication technologies in broadacre agriculture in Australia: an empirical analysis using panel data

This paper examines the role of communication technologies (CTs) in Australian broadacre agricultural production using data over the period of 1990–2013. Allowing for cross‐sectional independence in the data, the pooled mean group and augmented mean group techniques are applied to estimate dynamic relationships among variables. The empirical results demonstrate that CTs affect agricultural output positively in the long run. The estimated elasticity is 0.237. This result suggests that government policies that lift investment in telecommunication facilities are shown to contribute to an increase of output in Australia's broadacre agriculture in the long run.     

The Driving Forces of Agricultural Decline:A Panel‐Data Approach to the Italian Regional Growth

This paper investigates the causes of the long‐run decline of agriculture during economic growth. Within a two‐sector model, agricultural decline is explained by three basic driving forces (relative price change, Rybczynski effect, and technological gap). In a dynamic (vector autoregression) specification the share of agriculture on gross domestic product the agricultural relative price and the capital intensity are simultaneously determined. The model allows for short‐run adjustments with respect to long‐run equilibrium and for cross‐sectional dependence taking into account interregional linkages. The approach is applied to the panel data set of 20 Italian regions over the period 1951–2002 of intense economic development but still persistent regional disparities. Regularities and differences of decline patterns across regions are investigated. Le présent article examine les causes du déclin à long terme de l’agriculture en période de croissance économique. Dans un modèle à deux secteurs, trois éléments fondamentaux (le changement dans les prix relatifs, l’effet de Rybczynski et l’écart technologique) expliquent le déclin de l’agriculture. Dans une spécification dynamique (VAR), la part de l’agriculture dans le PIB, le prix relatif agricole et l’intensité du capital sont simultanément déterminés. Le modèle permet des ajustements à court terme par rapport à l’équilibre à long terme et permet une dépendance transversale qui tient compte des liens interrégionaux. Ce modèle a été appliquéà un ensemble de données de panel regroupant 20 régions de l’Italie, durant la période de développement économique intense de 1951 à 2002, qui présentait des disparités régionales persistantes. Nous avons examiné les similitudes et les différences des déclins observés à l’échelle des régions.     

基于生产要素视角的重庆市农业供给效率与发展潜力分析

目的 重庆市作为我国西部大开发重要的综合产业基地,探究该地区农业供给效率和农业发展潜力对促进农业可持续发展和农业政策制定具有积极意义。方法 文章以2001—2017年为研究时段,采用C-D生产函数模型对农业供给效率进行动态分析,采用熵权法构建农业发展潜力指数评价模型,并根据各地区农业发展潜力指数构建农业发展潜力竞争模型。结果 生产要素弹性分析结果表明2001—2017年农业劳动力弹性、农业土地弹性和化肥使用量弹性呈现负增长趋势,在农业供给侧结构中的贡献程度在逐渐减弱。农业资本弹性、农业机械总动力弹性和农业技术进步随着时间呈现增长的趋势,应该加大农业资本的投入,提高农业机械化程度,最大程度地提高农业生产效率。综合分析生产要素弹性和规模报酬指数,2001—2017年重庆市农业供给效率在不断提高。农业发展潜力指数分析结果表明2001—2017年全市农业发展潜力指数从47.15增长到60.13,各区县农业发展潜力指数也都呈明显的增长趋势。结论 重庆市农业经济增长方式已经由外延式增长方式逐渐转化为内涵式增长方式,农业经营方式从粗放型向密集型转化,农业供给效率在明显上升,各地区农业发展潜力指数在逐渐增加,经济发展程度对农业发展潜力具有明显的促进作用。     

Geographic disparities in rural land appreciation in a transforming economy: Chile, 1980 to 2007

This paper reports on a research effort to gather and analyze rural land value data during a period of unprecedented growth in Chilean agriculture. This information is important to understand the geographical distribution of gains associated with the transformation of the rural sector during a period of rapid development, trade liberalization and transition toward a predominant emphasis on export earnings in agriculture. A large set of data of rural land transactions for 1980, 1990, 1997 and 2007 were collected from a sample of land registry offices. Results show notable declines in the physical size of transactions, significant average annual rates of increase in real per-hectare values, and a small-parcel premium for rural land associated with non-farm land use. Overall real land values have increased faster than the average annual growth rates in the agricultural sector’s value added, suggesting that land owners have gained proportionately more than other claimants to sectoral income. Tests show significant geographic disparities in annual rates of land appreciation across regions and municipalities. Consistent with differential net gains due to integration into world markets and the geographic heterogeneity of suitability for different land uses, northern areas, with greater emphasis on export-oriented crops, have experienced the highest average rates of annual real per-hectare value growth, in the order of 7 percent, while southern areas, emphasizing traditional crops and pastures/livestock, have experienced growth rates of half that. Geographic disparities are also explained by proximity to urban population and income centers.     

GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL PERFORMANCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: AN EMPIRICAL EVALUTION

In recent years, new prominence has been assigned to the effects of non-price measures on the performance of the agricultural sector in developing countries. Nevertheless, the contribution of government expenditure to agricultural output growth has not received its due attention. This paper endeavours to estimate the impact of government expenditure (on agriculture) on the performance of the agricultural sector. An inter-country production function is estimated for a sample of thirty-five developing countries, pooling cross-section and time-series data over the 1974-84 period. The influence of instability in government expenditure on agriculture and on agricultural growth is also assessed. The results show that government expenditure policies are of vital importance in influencing the performance of the agricultural sector. It was also found that instability in government expenditure is a deterrent to agricultural output growth.     

Structure of Public Support for National Agricultural Research Systems: A Political Economy Perspective

This paper initiates development of a set of stylized facts concerning the structure of public support for national agricultural research systems (NARS) within a neoclassical political economy framework. The aim is to place public funding of NARS in the broader context of the overall level of direct government assistance to agriculture. Using a newly constructed data set on NARS expenditures over the 1970-85 period, we observe a growing disparity in agricultural research intensity ratios, which measure the level of public support for NARS in relation to agricultural gross domestic production (Aggdp ) between low and high-income countries. This growing disparity appears to be driven by much larger increases in support for agricultural research by high-income countries, coupled with a significantly slower growth in the size of their agricultural sector, despite the propensity of low and middle-income countries to increase real support to agricultural research. As per-capita incomes rise the public agricultural expenditure ratio, which measures public expenditures on agriculture relative to the size of the agricultural sector, Aggdp , increases substantially. Public expenditures on agriculture were indexed on agricultural and non-agricultural populations to give a rough indication of the increasing incentives for rural 'distributional coalitions' to seek a redistribution of public expenditures in their favor. A relative research expenditure (rre ) ratio is developed, which measures the proportion of total public expenditure on agriculture spent on agricultural research. It provides an indication of the relative importance given to research on agriculture within the constraints imposed by overall public spending on agriculture. In contrast to the agricultural research intensity ratios, the rre ratios suggest that agricultural research appears to command as large a share of the public purse devoted to agriculture in low and middle-income countries as it does in high-income countries. Expectations derived from the neoclassical political economy literature that research may have fared relatively better in high compared with low-income countries were not supported by the data.     

Medium-term EU integration impacts on Norwegian agriculture: A partial equilibrium analysis

The paper analyses and discusses possible impacts on Norwegian agriculture of an EU membership based on the regionalized agricultural sector model CAPRI. Norwegian agriculture is characterized by a small-scale farming structure and high levels of support. Previous analyses have shown that Norwegian agriculture is expected to undergo dramatic changes because of EU membership in terms of farm income, production and structural change. Our study indicates that a substantial share of the agricultural production can be maintained at the national level. Milk and crop production may remain largely unaffected, while meat production decreases in the range of 10-20% compared to a reference run without membership. However, a reduction in total farm income by about 40% indicates that structural adjustments will follow EU accession. The results are discussed in view of the pattern of adjustments observed in Finland and Austria after EU accession in 1995. The need for the dairy industry to take advantage of the improved market access is stressed. Attention is also called to some strengths and limitations of the CAPRI model to analyse large-scale policy changes and to identify model improvements as an area of future research.     

Water and growth in an agricultural economy

We present a model of economic growth of an agricultural household that is faced with an exogenous water availability constraint. We examine the long‐run investment and consumption choices under two scenarios: (i) when the water availability constraint is binding and (ii) when it is not binding. We then compare the two scenarios to derive conditional convergence hypotheses regarding the impact of water availability on long‐run agricultural growth. Panel data from Wyoming are used to test these conditional convergence hypotheses. We find that Wyoming counties exhibit strong conditional convergence in agricultural growth. Our theoretical and empirical results demonstrate that water availability is not a determinant but can be a constraint on long‐run agricultural growth. Higher water use leads to higher growth in agricultural yield per capita but when water rights constrain water use in a county, as we found in southeastern Wyoming, there are significant losses in agricultural growth.