Premium
Technology catch‐up in agriculture among advanced economies
Author(s) -
Ball Virgil Eldon,
San Juan Mesonada Carlos,
Sunyer Manteiga Carlos,
Ericson Kennet,
Sheng Yu
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
australian journal of agricultural and resource economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.683
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-8489
pISSN - 1364-985X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8489.12494
Subject(s) - total factor productivity , convergence (economics) , economics , agriculture , panel data , human capital , productivity , conditional convergence , capital deepening , capital (architecture) , agricultural economics , monetary economics , labour economics , macroeconomics , capital formation , econometrics , financial capital , economic growth , archaeology , history , ecology , biology
We examine whether countries with low initial levels of agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) tend to ‘catch up’ with the technology leaders. We first compare relative levels of agricultural TFP, capital services and labour input levels in agriculture for 17 OECD countries between 1973 and 2011. Then we apply (conditional) convergence analysis to the panel data to examine the speed of convergence and test whether the convergence is transitory or permanent by analysing TFP changes over the business cycle. Capital intensities, quality improvement of capital, factors such as human capital spillovers, and certain agricultural policies are conditioning variables. We examine how differences in relative capital intensities affect agricultural productivity convergence over the business cycle. We find evidence that the speed of convergence increases during periods of contraction in economic activity.