|
on Efficiency and Productivity |
|
Issue of 2020‒06‒29
nineteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Jean Pierre Huiban (ALISS - Alimentation et sciences sociales - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique); Antonio Musolesi (Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales Appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of pollution abatement effort on the economic performances by exploiting a rich panel data set composed of French food industry firms, observed over the 1993-2007 period. We test the Porter hypothesis, assuming that pollution abatement effort has a positive effect on the firm performance by triggering innovation. This is done by estimating a production function augmented with knowledge capital, such a capital being produced by both pollution abatement and R&D investments. Using different estimation methods, including structural semi-parametric ones, we first show than the so-called Porter assumption cannot be rejected when focusing on the full population of French food industry firms since the estimations indicate a positive and significant (though rather small) contribution of the pollution abatement capital to the firm productivity. Then, we consider a more restrictive sample of (potentially) innovative firms, actually engaging both RD and pollution abatement investments. Henceforth, the contribution of pollution abatement capital becomes not significant in regard to the R&D's one. These results do not support the sometimes invoked hypothesis according to which the positive effect of pollution abatements efforts on firms' performances is linked to the induced increased innovation. At the same time, the standard hypothesis, assuming that pollution abatement effort significantly decreases the firm performance is always rejected. |
| Keywords: | productivity, environmental investment, R&D, knowledge capital, food industry |
| Date: | 2020–06–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02804599&r=all |
| By: | del Río, Fernando; Lores, Francisco-Xavier |
| Abstract: | We apply the Chari et al. (2002, 2007) methodology to develop a growth accounting exercise for the U.S. economy during 1954--2017. Unlike them, we focus on perfect foresight models. We obtain three primary findings. First, the efficiency wedges in the entire period accurately account for the evolution of U.S. productivity and labor share. Second, the labor wedge was the main force driving the recovery of output and worked hours per capita in the eighties and nineties as well as after the Great Recession. Finally, if we replace the Cobb-Douglas assumption with a production function, which allows the factor shares to adjust competitively, the forces driving the U.S. Great Recession might not be very different from those in other OECD economies, and the forces driving the 1982 recession in the United States. |
| Keywords: | Growth Accounting, Capital-Efficiency Wedge, Labor-Efficiency Wedge, Labor Wedge, Investment Wedge, Resource Constraint Wedge, Productivity, Labor Share, Worked Hours. |
| JEL: | E1 E3 O4 |
| Date: | 2020–05–27 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:100716&r=all |
| By: | Adjin, K. Christophe; Henning, Christian H.C.A. |
| Abstract: | Using cross-sectional data from 835 rice-farming households in Senegal, we investigated the extent to which membership in farmers’ cooperatives affects farm technical efficiency. To do so, we combine the propensity score matching method with the sample selection stochastic frontier model (Greene, 2010) and the stochastic meta-frontier approach (Huang et al., 2014). The propensity score matching helps in mitigating biases from observable variables. The sample selection stochastic frontier framework was used to control for biases arising from unobserved characteristics in the production frontier. Using the meta-frontier approach, farmers’ technical efficiency were estimated and compared. Results show that cooperative membership contributes significantly in improving rice production. However, when considering group-specific frontiers (farmers operating in their own benchmark: members vs non-members), cooperatives members do not technically perform better than non-members. Furthermore, when considering the meta-frontier estimates, significant differences in technical efficiency between members and non-members can still be observed in favour of non-members. |
| Keywords: | Crop Production/Industries, Farm Management |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc20:303700&r=all |
| By: | Thanh Viet Nguyen (Vietnam National University); Michel Simioni (UMR MOISA - Marchés, Organisations, Institutions et Stratégies d'Acteurs - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - Montpellier SupAgro - Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques); Dao Le Van (University of Economics and Business) |
| Abstract: | Vietnam has become a lower middle-income country in less than 30 years, and is now facing the middle-income trap risk. Knowledge of changes in total factor productivity (TFP) is an essential element in assessing this risk. An in-depth analysis of the evolution of TFP and its determinants in Vietnam is presented in this paper. TFP evaluation uses a recently proposed multiplicative-complete economically ideal index, namely the Färe–Primont index, to evaluate TFP and to decompose it into its different components: technical change, pure technical, mix and scale efficiencies. TFP is computed at the provincial level over the 2010–2017 period. The results shows that estimated provincial TFP values are, on average, small whatever the considered year, but they have increased with an annual compound growth rate of 3.46%. Technical progress as measured by TFP* appears to be the main driver of TFP growth over the period, with an annual compound growth rate of 3.34%. The expansion of the production set under constant returns-to-scale, from which TFP* is measured, is guided by movements of Ho Chi Minh city. Accordingly, on average, overall productive efficiency stagnated, with an annual compound growth rate of 0.12%. Technical efficiency has also stagnated over the period with its annual compound growth rate -0.62%. The results imply that there has been an increasing gap between provinces in terms of the resource allocation efficiency. This evolution may have negative consequences on sustainable economic development and lead the country into the risk of middle income trap in the future. |
| Keywords: | total factor productivity,technical change,technical efficiency,färe-primont index,vietnam,mix and scale efficiencies |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02622869&r=all |
| By: | Amat Adarov (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw); Robert Stehrer (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | The study analyses the relationships between capital dynamics, productivity, global value chains and foreign direct investment using panel data techniques. Among other results, we confirm the high importance of tangible and intangible ICT capital for productivity and GVC integration. We examine the extent of underinvestment in ICT in the EU relative to other major economies and identify bottlenecks for efficient capital allocation. The sluggish economic performance of the EU in the post-crisis period has been further challenged by the COVID-19 outbreak. Consolidating policy efforts to facilitate ICT investment, tackling the barriers to ICT adoption and broad-based digitalisation are critical for the EU in order to maintain a competitive edge and unlock new growth opportunities in the new normal. |
| Keywords: | Productivity, digitalisation, ICT capital, FDI, global value chains, barriers to ICT investments, intangible capital |
| JEL: | F14 F15 F21 E22 O47 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:rpaper:rr:446&r=all |
| By: | Lilas Demmou; Guido Franco |
| Abstract: | Measuring the quality of governance and regulation in various ways and focusing on energy, transport and telecommunications, this paper shows that both sound governance of infrastructure investment and pro-competitive regulation in network industries are associated with stronger productivity growth in firms operating downstream. |
| Keywords: | governance, infrastructure, investment, regulation, total factor productivity |
| JEL: | D24 H54 K23 L50 |
| Date: | 2020–06–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1609-en&r=all |
| By: | Afridi, Farzana; Dhillon, Amrita; Sharma, Swati |
| Abstract: | We use high frequency worker level productivity data from garment manufacturing units in India to study the effects of caste-based social networks on individual and group productivity when workers are complements in the production function but wages are paid at the individual level. Using exogenous variation in production line composition for almost 35,000 worker-days, we find that a 1 percentage point increase in the share of own caste workers in the line increases daily individual productivity by about 10 percentage points. The lowest performing worker increases her effort by more than 15 percentage points when the production line has a more homogeneous caste composition. Production externalities that impose financial costs due to worker's poor performance on co-workers within her social network can explain our findings. Our results suggest that even in the absence of explicit group-based financial incentives, social networks can be leveraged to improve both worker and group productivity. |
| Keywords: | assembly lines; caste; India; labor productivity; Social Networks |
| JEL: | J15 J24 Y40 Z13 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14687&r=all |
| By: | P. Veysset (UMRH - Unité Mixte de Recherches sur les Herbivores - UMR 1213 - VAS - VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique); M. Lherm; P. Boussemart (LEM - Lille économie management - LEM - UMR 9221 - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); P. Natier |
| Abstract: | Surplus accounting is a method for evaluating trends in how a firm's productivity factors (intermediate inputs, capital, land, labour) are performing and how the productivity gains are redistributed between agents in the economy. Here the surplus accounting method was applied on a database of 164 Charolais-area suckler cattle farms running from 1980 to 2015. Over this 36-year period – with differences per sub-period – the cumulative productivity surplus (PS) increased at a low rate of +0.17%/year (i.e. cumulative volume of outputs produced increased slightly more than cumulative volume of inputs used). This timid increase in PS is linked to the constant expansion in labour productivity whereas other factor productivities have shrunk. The observable period-wide macrotrends are that commercial farm businesses struggle to protect their revenues, we also observe a slight fall in input prices, land rent and financing costs, and a huge climb in direct support-policy payments. The bulk of the cumulative economic surplus has been captured downstream – 64% downstream of the cattle value chain as a drop in prices, and 22% downstream of other value chains (chiefly cereals). It emerges that the productivity gains in beef cattle farming mostly benefit the downstream value chain (packers–processors, distributors and consumers), whereas it is mainly government money backing this drop in prices of agricultural output. Here we see the principal of the 1992 ‘MacSharry' reform at work, with a transfer from the taxpayer through direct support-policy payments through to the consumer via lower prices. The simple fact that farmers' incomes are stagnating is a clear indication that they are net losers in this distribution of productivity gains, despite the improvement in labour factor productivity. |
| Keywords: | efficiency,farm economics,livestock farms,beef sector,surplus account |
| Date: | 2019–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02107423&r=all |
| By: | Andreas Irmen (Department of Economics and Management, Université du Luxembourg) |
| Abstract: | This paper develops a static model of endogenous task-based technical progress to study how factor scarcity induces technological progress and changes in factor prices. The equilibrium technology is multi-dimensional and not strongly factor-saving in the sense of Acemoglu (2010). Nevertheless, labor scarcity induces labor productivity growth. There is a weak but no strong absolute equilibrium bias. This model provides a plausible interpretation of the famous contention of Hicks (1932) about the role of factor prices and factor endowments for induced innovations. It may serve as a micro-foundation for canonical macro-economic models. Moreover, it accommodates features like endogenous factor supplies and a binding minimum wage |
| Keywords: | "Economic Growth, Endogenous Technical Change, Direction of Technical Change, Biased Technology " |
| JEL: | O31 D92 O33 O41 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:20-11&r=all |
| By: | Burke, Marshall; Emerick, Kyle; Maue, Casey |
| Abstract: | A vast firm productivity literature finds that otherwise similar firms differ widely in their productivity and that these differences persist through time, with important implications for the broader macroeconomy. These stylized facts derive largely from studies of manufacturing firms in wealthy countries, and thus have unknown relevance for the world's most common firm type, the smallholder farm. We use detailed micro data from over 12,000 smallholder farms and nearly 100,000 agricultural plots across four countries in Africa to study the size, source, and persistence of productivity dispersion among smallholder farmers. Applying standard regression-based approaches to measuring productivity residuals, we find much larger dispersion but less persistence than benchmark estimates from manufacturing. We then show, using a novel framework that combines physical output measurement, estimates from satellites, and machine learning, that about half of this discrepancy can be accounted for by measurement error in output. After correcting for measurement error, productivity differences across firms and over time in our smallholder agricultural setting closely match benchmark estimates for non-agricultural firms. These results question some common implications of observed dispersion, such as the importance of misallocation of factors of production. |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14553&r=all |
| By: | Apoorv Gupta; Jacopo Ponticelli; Andrea Tesei |
| Abstract: | We study the effect of information on technology adoption and productivity in agriculture. Our empirical strategy exploits the expansion of the mobile phone network in previously uncovered areas of rural India coupled with the availability of call centers for agricultural advice. We measure information on agricultural practices by analyzing the content of 2.5 million phone calls made by farmers to one of India's leading call centers for agricultural advice. We find that areas receiving coverage from new towers and with no language barriers between farmers and advisers answering their calls experience higher adoption of high yielding varieties of seeds and other complementary inputs, as well as higher increase in agricultural productivity. Our estimates indicate that information frictions can explain around 25 percent of the agricultural productivity gap between the most productive and the least productive areas in our sample. |
| JEL: | O33 O4 Q16 Q55 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27192&r=all |
| By: | Uehleke, Reinhard; Seifert, Stefan; Hüttel, Silke |
| Abstract: | Triggered by growing societal demand, various labels and program target at improving animal welfare in intense livestock farming. Based on the assumption of a trade-off between farms’ economic performance and animal welfare, these program typically compensate farmers for potential losses from adjusted husbandry conditions such as additional space. Yet the complexity of animal welfare challenges its unique measurement and consequently the evaluation of such measures, casting doubt on the effectiveness of these program. Therefore, we first target at improving the understanding of the relation between animal health, as a core dimension of animal welfare, and farm performance from an empirical perspective, and second to evaluate the German program “Initiative Tierwohl” (ITW). We rely on bookkeeping data for 483 pig fattening farms including detailed animal health indicators collected at the abattoir. To test for the potential trade-off, we use relative farm performance measures identified from non-parametric data envelopment analysis. Our results do not support a trade-off between animal health and farm performance, but rather indicate the possibility for high productivity at comparatively high levels of animal health. Further, we find participants to perform slightly better in both dimensions, supporting the label’s claim of improved animal welfare. |
| Keywords: | Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc20:303695&r=all |
| By: | Isabelle Piot-Lepetit (UMR MOISA - Marchés, Organisations, Institutions et Stratégies d'Acteurs - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - Montpellier SupAgro - Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques); Joseph Nzongang |
| Abstract: | The objective of this paper is an assessment of the financial and social performance of a network of village banks in Cameroon and the provision of data-driven guidance to managers helping them in their decision making process. An analysis framework in three stages is developed. First, a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) analysis is implemented for measuring efficiency, identifying best-practices, and setting goals to less efficient MFIs. Then, a DEA operating frontiers (DEA-OF) model is designed to identify improvement paths setting short-term goals towards their long-term DEA objective and providing effective and time dependent guidance to managers in their efficiency improvement process. Finally, DEA and DEA-OF results are translated into financial and non-financial indicators daily used by managers through three different and interrelated scorecards. Besides, results of this third stage are used for identifying village banks ready for the new phase of development of the network aiming to funding community projects. |
| Keywords: | financial performance,social performance,data envelopment analysis,community growth mutual funds,DEA operating frontiers,benchmarking,financial and social efficiency,performance indicator,improvement path,financial sustainability,outreach to the poor,microfinance,mission drift |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02619461&r=all |
| By: | Gilbert Cette (Centre de recherche de la Banque de France - Banque de France, AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Jimmy Lopez (DGEI-DEMS - Banque de France - Direction Générale des Etudes et des relations Internationales, Direction des Etudes Microéconomique et Structurelles); Jacques Mairesse (CREST - Centre de Recherche en Économie et Statistique - ENSAI - Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information [Bruz] - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE ParisTech - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique) |
| Abstract: | This analysis proposes new measures of rent creation and rent sharing and assesses their impact on productivity on cross-country-industry panel data. We find first that: (1) anticompetitive product market regulations positively affect rent creation and (2) employment protection legislation boosts hourly wages, particularly for low-skill workers. However, we find no significant impact of this employment legislation on rent sharing, as the hourly wage increases are offset by a negative impact on hours worked. Second, using regulation indicators as instruments, we find that rent creation and rent sharing both have a substantial negative impact on total factor productivity. (JEL E22, E24, O30, L50, O43, O47, C23) |
| Keywords: | product market regulations,labor market regulations,mark-up,rent-sharing,TFP |
| Date: | 2019–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02279411&r=all |
| By: | Rey Dang (UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg); l'Hocine Houanti (La Rochelle Business School); Krishna Reddy (Institute of Technology); Michel Simioni (UMR MOISA - Marchés, Organisations, Institutions et Stratégies d'Acteurs - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - Montpellier SupAgro - Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the relation between board gender diversity and firm profitability using the control function (CF) approach recently suggested by Wooldridge (2015). The CF method takes account of the problem of endogenous explanatory variables that have potential to bias the results. Using a sample of firms that made up the S&P 500 over the period 2004-2015, we find that the presence of women on corporate boards (measured either by the percentage of female directors on corporate boards or the Blau index of heterogeneity) has a positive and significant (at the 1% level) effect on firm profitability (measured by the return on assets). We compare our results to more traditional approaches (such as pooled OLS or the fixed-effects model). Through this study, we shed light on the effect of women on corporate boards on firm performance, as it is still a controversial issue (Post and Byron, 2015). |
| Keywords: | women,board of directors,control function,firm performance,econometrie |
| Date: | 2020–06–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02791182&r=all |
| By: | Nicholas Crafts (University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | I examine the implications of technological change for productivity, real wages and factor shares during the industrial revolution using recently available data. This shows that real GDP per worker grew faster than real consumption earnings but labour’s share of national income changed little as real product wages grew at a similar rate to labour productivity in the medium term. The period saw modest TFP growth which limited the growth both of real wages and of labour productivity. Economists looking for an historical example of rapid labour-saving technological progress having a seriously adverse impact on labour’s share must look elsewhere. |
| Keywords: | Engels’ pause; factor shares; industrial revolution; labour productivity; real wages. JEL Classification: N13; O33; O47 |
| Date: | 2020 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cge:wacage:474&r=all |
| By: | Philippe Aghion (Harvard University [Cambridge]); Antonin Bergeaud (PSE - Paris School of Economics); Gilbert Cette (Centre de recherche de la Banque de France - Banque de France, AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Rémy Lecat (Centre de recherche de la Banque de France - Banque de France); Hélène Maghin |
| Abstract: | We identify two counteracting effects of credit access on productivity growth: on the one hand, better access to credit makes it easier for entrepreneurs to innovate; on the other hand, better credit access allows less efficient incumbent firms to remain longer on the market, thereby discouraging entry of new and potentially more efficient innovators. We first develop a simple model of firm dynamics and innovation‐based growth with credit constraints, where the above two counteracting effects generate an inverted‐U relationship between credit access and productivity growth. Then we test our theory on a comprehensive French manufacturing firm‐level dataset. We first show evidence of an inverted‐U relationship between credit constraints and productivity growth when we aggregate our data at the sectoral level. We then move to firm‐level analysis, and show that incumbent firms with easier access to credit experience higher productivity growth, but that they also experience lower exit rates, particularly the least productive firms among them. To support these findings, we exploit the 2012 Eurosystem's Additional Credit Claims programme as a quasi‐experiment that generated an exogenous extra supply of credits for a subset of incumbent firms. |
| Keywords: | credit constraint,firms,growth,interest rate,productivity |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01976402&r=all |
| By: | Stéphane Lemarié (GAEL - Laboratoire d'Economie Appliquée de Grenoble - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique); Valerie Orozco (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UT1 - Université Toulouse 1 Capitole); Jean-Pierre Butault (ECO-PUB - Economie Publique - AgroParisTech - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique); Antonio Musolesi (Department of Economics and Management - University of Ferrara); Michel Simioni (UMR MOISA - Marchés, Organisations, Institutions et Stratégies d'Acteurs - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier - Montpellier SupAgro - Centre international d'études supérieures en sciences agronomiques); Bertrand Schmitt (CESAER - Centre d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales Appliquées à l'Agriculture et aux Espaces Ruraux - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - AgroSup Dijon - Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the economic impact of agricultural research on productivity in France over the period 1959-2012. Adopting a dynamic time series model, we provide evidence that the impact of French agri- cultural research is in the range of values estimated for other countries, with the estimated long-run elasticity being 0.16, which corresponds to an internal rate of return of 22%. The estimated elasticity decreases at the beginning of the 1970s. Complementary analyses are developed to take into account the evolution of the priorities of public agricultural research (reorientation towards more fundamental objectives and focus on broader objective than productivity enhancement). |
| Keywords: | research lags,economic impact of agricultural research,knowledge stocks,france,agricultural R&D |
| Date: | 2020–06–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-02791517&r=all |
| By: | Julian M. Alston; Philip G. Pardey |
| Abstract: | U.S. agriculture was transformed during the 20th century by waves of innovation with mechanical, biological, chemical, and information technologies. Compared with a few decades ago, today’s agriculture is much less labor intensive and farms are much larger and more specialized, supplying a much-evolved market for farm products. Over recent decades, the global landscape for agricultural R&D has shifted away from farms, away from the public sector toward the private sector, and away from the United States towards agriculturally important middle-income countries, especially China, India and Brazil. U.S. investments in agricultural R&D are stalling even though meta-evidence shows that past U.S. investments in agricultural R&D have yielded very favorable returns: median reported benefit-cost ratios in the range of 12:1. Sustained U.S. investment and innovation will be required to preserve past productivity gains in the face of climate change, coevolving pests and diseases, and changing technological regulations—let alone increase productivity. Great potential exists for innovation in crop and livestock genetics and digital farming technologies to generate new products and production processes, but innovators are facing increasingly strong headwinds from social and political forces that seek to dictate technology choices. |
| JEL: | O13 O3 O4 O51 Q16 Q28 Q52 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:27206&r=all |