Mechanized Agriculture and Social Welfare: The Case of the Tomato Harvester
01 Nov 1970-American Journal of Agricultural Economics (Oxford University Press)-Vol. 52, Iss: 4, pp 569-577
TL;DR: In this article, an integrated public-private approach to mechanical harvesting of tomatoes for canning has sharply reduced producers' labor requirements, and gross social returns to aggregate research and development expenditures are in the vicinity of 1,000 percent.
Abstract: An integrated public-private approach to mechanical harvesting of tomatoes for canning has sharply reduced producers ' labor requirements. Gross social returns to aggregate research and development expenditures are in the vicinity of 1,000 percent. Even if displaced labor had been compensated for wage loss, net social returns are still highly favorable. Since tomato pickers were unorganized, no compensation was demanded or paid. The analysis indicates a need for policies designed to distribute the benefits and costs of technological change more equitably. Social scientists could properly be concerned with developing institutional means of achieving this goal.
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TL;DR: This article reviewed the empirical evidence for R&D spillovers and concluded that they are a major source of endogenous growth in various recent "New Growth Theory" models, and that they should be investigated further.
Abstract: R&D spillovers are, potentially, a major source of endogenous growth in various recent "New Growth Theory" models. This paper reviews the basic model of R&D spillovers and then focuses on the empirical evidence for their existence and magnitude. It reviews the older empirical literature with special attention to the econometric difficulties of actually coming up with convincing evidence on this topic. Taken individually,, many of the studies are flawed and subject to a variety of reservations, but the overall impression remains that R&D spillovers are both prevalent and important.
2,194 citations
TL;DR: The notion that technical things have political qualities has been a persistent and troubling presence in discussions about the meaning of technology, and they deserve explicit attention as mentioned in this paper, but they need explicit attention.
Abstract: In controversies about technology and society, there is no idea more pro vocative than the notion that technical things have political qualities. At issue is the claim that the machines, structures, and systems of modern material culture can be accurately judged not only for their contributions of efficiency and pro ductivity, not merely for their positive and negative environmental side effects, but also for the ways in which they can embody specific forms of power and authority. Since ideas of this kind have a persistent and troubling presence in discussions about the meaning of technology, they deserve explicit attention.1 Writing in Technology and Culture almost two decades ago, Lewis Mumford gave classic statement to one version of the theme, arguing that "from late neo lithic times in the Near East, right down to our own day, two technologies have recurrently existed side by side: one authoritarian, the other democratic, the first system-centered, immensely powerful, but inherently unstable, the other man-centered, relatively weak, but resourceful and durable."2 This thesis stands at the heart of Mumford's studies of the city, architecture, and the his tory of technics, and mirrors concerns voiced earlier in the works of Peter Kropotkin, William Morris, and other nineteenth century critics of industrial ism. More recently, antinuclear and prosolar energy movements in Europe and America have adopted a similar notion as a centerpiece in their arguments. Thus environmentalist Denis Hayes concludes, "The increased deployment of nuclear power facilities must lead society toward authoritarianism. Indeed, safe reliance upon nuclear power as the principal source of energy may be possible only in a totalitarian state." Echoing the views of many proponents of appropri ate technology and the soft energy path, Hayes contends that "dispersed solar sources are more compatible than centralized technologies with social equity, freedom and cultural pluralism."3 An eagerness to interpret technical artifacts in political language is by no means the exclusive property of critics of large-scale high-technology systems. A long lineage of boosters have insisted that the "biggest and best" that science and industry made available were the best guarantees of democracy, freedom, and social justice. The factory system, automobile, telephone, radio, television, the space program, and of course nuclear power itself have all at one time or another been described as democratizing, liberating forces. David Lilienthal, in T.V.A.: Democracy on the March, for example, found this promise in the phos 121
2,031 citations
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the basic model of R&D spillovers and then focused on the empirical evidence for their existence and magnitude, with special attention to the economic difficulties of actually coming up with convincing evidence on this topic.
Abstract: R&D spillovers are, potentially, a major source of endogenous growth in various recent "new growth theory" models. This paper reviews the basic model of R&D spillovers and then focuses on the empirical evidence for their existence and magnitude. It surveys the older empirical literature with special attention to the economic difficulties of actually coming up with convincing evidence on this topic. Taken individually, many of the studies are flawed and subject to a variety of reservations, but the overall impression remains that R&D spillovers are both prevalent and important. Copyright 1992 by The editors of the Scandinavian Journal of Economics.
1,181 citations
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11 Mar 2020
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01 Jun 2000TL;DR: Pinstrup et al. as mentioned in this paper presented the first attempt to take a comprehensive look at all the available evidence on rates of return to investments in agricultural R&D since 1953, and the only attempt to do so in a formal statistical fashion.
Abstract: IFPRI has long argued that spending on agricultural research constitutes a sound investment in poverty reduction and agricultural and economic growth, through improvements in productivity. This argument is based partly on the reported evidence of high rates of return to agricultural research, typically believed to be in the range of 40–60 percent per year. Yet there continues to be controversy over whether these figures are to be believed, and over what they actually indicate. This study represents the first attempt to take a comprehensive look at all the available evidence on rates of return to investments in agricultural R&D since 1953, and the only attempt to do so in a formal statistical fashion. This report has compiled and documented the literature in ways that make it more accessible and more useful to other researchers and policymakers, as well as others interested in the evidence. The analysis reveals some systematic patterns and some sources of biases that make it easier to interpret the evidence and draw meaningful conclusions. (Excerpted from Summary by Per Pinstrup-Andersen)
552 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of migration as an equilibrating mechanism in a changing economy has been examined and it is shown that the movements of migrants clearly are in the appropriate direction, but we do not know whether the numbers are sufficient to correct income disparities as they emerge.
Abstract: Migration research has dealt mainly with the forces which affect migration and how strongly they have affected it, but little has been done to determine the influence of migration as an equilibrating mechanism in a changing economy. The movements of migrants clearly are in the appropriate direction, but we do not know whether the numbers are sufficient to be efficient in correcting income disparities as they emerge. There is a strong presumption that they are not.
3,168 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors estimate the realized social rate of return on hybrid-corn research, one of the outstanding technological successes of the century, subject to a wide margin of error.
Abstract: BOTH private and public expenditures on \"research and development\" have grown very rapidly in the last decade. Quantitatively, however, we know very little about the results of these investments. We have some idea of how much we have spent but very little of what we got in return. We know almost nothing about the realized rate of return on these investments, though we feel intuitively that it must have been quite high. This article presents a first step toward answering some of these questions. However, all that is attempted here is to estimate the realized social rate of return, as of 1955, on public and private funds invested in hybrid-corn research, one of the outstanding technological successes of the century. The calculated rate of return is an estimate, subject to a wide margin of error, but it should provide us with an order of magnitude for the \"true\" social rate of return on expenditures on hybrid-corn research. Actually, I believe that my estimate is biased downward1 for, whenever I had to choose among alternative assumptions, I chose the assumption that led to the lowest estimate.
794 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1950
TL;DR: The New Welfare Economics (1): Welfare Criteria 7. The New Welfare economics (2): The Economic Welfare Function 8. The 'Optimum' Conditions of Production and Exchange (1) 9. The "optimum' conditions of production and exchange (2) 10. Indivisibilities and consumers' Surplus 11. Output and Price Policy in Public Enterprise 12. The Valuation of the National Income 13. Welfare Theory and International Trade 14.
Abstract: 1. Utilitarian Economics 2. The Analysis of Consumers' Behaviour 3. The Choice Criterion 4. The Distribution of Welfare 5. Value Judgements and Welfare Economics 6. The New Welfare Economics (1): Welfare Criteria 7. The New Welfare Economics (2): The Economic Welfare Function 8. The 'Optimum' Conditions of Production and Exchange (1) 9. The 'Optimum' Conditions of Production and Exchange (2) 10. Indivisibilities and Consumers' Surplus 11. Output and Price Policy in Public Enterprise 12. The Valuation of the National Income 13. Welfare Theory and International Trade 14. Welfare Theory and Politics 15. Conclusions
398 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, MacGregor and Macgregor discuss the tendency towards industrial combination in British Industry and the trust movement in British industry, and present the structure of the British Industrial Combination.
Abstract: Industrial Combination [1938] D H Macgregor 270pp The Tendency Towards Industrial Combination [1913] George R Carter 414pp The Trust Movement in British Industry [1907] Henry W Macrosty 414pp Trusts in British Industry [1922] J Morgan Rees 277pp The Dynamics of Industrial Combination [1931] H A Marquand 214pp American Business Enterprises [1907] Douglas Knoop 123pp International Combines in Modern Industry [1934] Alfred Plummer 200pp The Structure of Competititve Industry [1931] E A G Robinson 189pp
201 citations