Is agricultural productivity in developing countries really shrinking? New evidence using a modified nonparametric approach
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reestimate the Malmquist index for a group of developing countries using a different definition of technology and find that most developing countries in their sample are experiencing positive productivity growth with technical change being the main source of this growth.
About: This article is published in Journal of Development Economics.The article was published on 2003-08-01. It has received 142 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Malmquist index & Technical change.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined levels and trends in agricultural output and productivity in 93 developed and developing countries that account for a major portion of the world population and agricultural output over the period 1980-2000.
619 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the factors that influence farm households' modern agricultural production technology adoption decisions in Ghana and recommended that policies should be formulated to take advantage of the positive factors that positively influence farmers' adoption of agricultural production technologies and to mitigate the negative ones.
Abstract: Low adoption of modern agricultural production technologies amongst farmers in Ghana has been identified as one of the main reasons for the low agricultural productivity in the country. This paper examines the factors that influence farm households’ modern agricultural production technology adoption decisions in Ghana. Household questionnaires were administered to 300 farmers the Bawku West District of Ghana; and the logit model was estimated to ascertain the factors. The results showed that farm size, expected benefits from technology adoption, access to credit and extension services are the factors that significantly influence technology adoption decisions of farm households in the study area. It is concluded that farm households’ agricultural technology adoption decisions depends on their socio-economic circumstances and institutional effectiveness. We recommend that policies should be formulated to take advantage of the factors that positively influence farmers’ adoption of modern agricultural production technologies and to mitigate the negative ones. Key words: Agriculture, Farmers, Household, Logit Model, Ghana, Technology Adoption
280 citations
Cites background from "Is agricultural productivity in dev..."
...Technical change in the form of adoption of improved agricultural production technologies has been reported to have positive impacts on agricultural productivity growth in the developing world (Nin et al, 2003)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors used Free Disposable Hull (FDH) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques to estimate the distance between observed input-output combinations and an efficiency frontier.
Abstract: Government spending in developing countries typically account for between 15 and 30 percent of GDP. Hence, small changes in the efficiency of public spending could have a major impact on GDP and on the attainment of the government's objectives. The first challenge that stakeholders face is measuring efficiency. This paper attempts such quantification and has two major parts. The first part estimates efficiency as the distance between observed input-output combinations and an efficiency frontier (defined as the maximum attainable output for a given level of inputs). This frontier is estimated for several health and education output indicators by means of the Free Disposable Hull (FDH) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques. Both input-inefficiency (excess input consumption to achieve a level of output) and output-inefficiency (output shortfall for a given level of inputs) are scored in a sample of 140 countries using data from 1996 to 2002. The second part of the paper seeks to verify empirical regularities of the cross-country variation in efficiency. Results show that countries with higher expenditure levels register lower efficiency scores, as well as countries where the wage bill is a larger share of the government's budget. Similarly, countries with higher ratios of public to private financing of the service provision score lower efficiency, as do countries plagued by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and those with higher income inequality. Countries with higher aid-dependency ratios also tend to score lower in efficiency, probably due to the volatility of this type of funding that impedes medium term planning and budgeting. Though no causality may be inferred from this exercise, it points at different factors to understand why some countries might need more resources than others to achieve similar educational and health outcomes.
252 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a panel dataset of 29 provinces in China was used to analyze the productivity growth in China's agricultural sector over the period 1990-2003, and the output-oriented Malmquist productivity indexes and their decomposition using a sequential data envelopment analysis approach.
180 citations
01 Jan 2010
174 citations
References
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01 Jan 1994
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed productivity growth in seventeen OECD countries over the period 1979-88 and found that U.S. productivity growth is slightly higher than average, all of which is due to technical change.
Abstract: This paper analyzes productivity growth in seventeen OECD countries over the period 1979-88. A nonparametric programming method (activity analysis) is used to compute Malmquist productivity indexes. These are decomposed into two component measures, namely, technical change and efficiency change. The authors find that U.S. productivity growth is slightly higher than average, all of which is due to technical change. Japan's productivity growth is the highest in the sample with almost half due to efficiency change. Copyright 1994 by American Economic Association.
3,851 citations
3,500 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, a nonparametric programming method (activity analysis) is used to compute the Malmquist productivity indexes, which are decomposed into two component measures, namely, technical change and efficiency change.
Abstract: This paper analyzes productivity growth in 17 OECD countries over the period 1979-1988. A nonparametric programming method (activity analysis) is used to compute Malmquist productivity indexes. These are decomposed into two component measures, namely, technical change and efficiency change. We find that U.S. productivity growth is slightly higher than average, all of which is due to technical change. Japan's productivity growth is the highest in the sample, with almost half due to efficiency change. (JEL C43, D24) In this paper we apply recently developed
3,434 citations
737 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a static and dynamic production model for distance functions and productivity in the context of indirect production and inter-temporal budgeting, and compare the two models.
Abstract: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Static Production Structure. 3. Distance Functions and Productivity. 4. Biased and Embodied Technical Change. 5. Indirect Production and Intertemporal Budgeting. 6. Dynamic Production Models. References. Subject Index. Author Index.
547 citations