SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

Monitoring Poverty without Consumption Data: an Application Using the Albania Panel Survey

Stern, David I..

This study uses a stochastic production frontier to model energy efficiency trends, in 85 countries over a 37 year period. No structure is imposed on technological change over time, although differences in technology level across the countries are modelled as a stochastic function of explanatory variables. These variables are selected by a literature survey and a theoretical model of energy-efficient technology choice. An improvement in a country’s energy efficiency is measured as a reduction in energy intensity, while holding constant that economy’s mix of inputs and outputs. All other things remaining constant, the country using the least energy per unit output is on the global best-practice frontier. The model is used to derive decompositions of...

Tipo: Report

Palavras-chave: Energy; Efficiency; Carbon; Emissions; Technological change; Between estimator; Environmental Economics and Policy; Resource /Energy Economics and Policy; O13; O33; O47; Q43; Q54; Q55; Q56.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/94950

Azzarri, Carlo; Carletto, Calogero; Davis, Benjamin; Zezza, Alberto.

In developing countries poverty is generally measured with expenditure data. Such data are difficult and costly to obtain and it is generally recommended to collect them every 3-5 years. In between surveys, however, there is a clear need to provide policymakers with information for the monitoring of poverty trends. The paper reviews several such methods and compares the poverty estimates and trends resulting from their application to a panel dataset for Albania. The results are broadly consistent across methods and point to an overall improvement in welfare conditions over time, although the magnitude of the changes differs by locale, with urban areas showing a larger improvement than their rural counterparts. However, given the sensitivity of the...

Technology Capital: The Price of Admission to the Growth Club

Palavras-chave: Poverty; Welfare; Asset index; Poverty measurement; Poverty monitoring.; Food Security and Poverty; O12; O18; O47; R11.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/23809

Evenson, Robert E.; Fuglie, Keith O..

We assess long-run patterns of global agricultural productivity growth in developing countries between 1970 and 2005 and examine the relationship between investments in technology capital and productivity. To measure agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) we employ a Solow-type growth accounting method to decompose output growth into input and TFP growth. For technology capital we construct two indexes reflecting national capacities in agricultural research and education-extension for 87 developing countries. We then correlate technology capital levels with long-term growth rates in agricultural TFP. Our findings show that average agricultural TFP growth in developing countries accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s but fell marginally in the early...

Factor-Augmenting Technical Change: An Empirical Assessment

Palavras-chave: Agricultural development; Agricultural extension; Agricultural research; Land quality; Agricultural cost shares; Growth accounting; Total factor productivity (TFP); International Development; Productivity Analysis; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Q10; Q16; O13; O30; O47; O57.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51398

De Cian, Enrica.

Starting from a system of factor demands, an empirical model that allows estimating factor-augmenting technical change is derived. Factor-augmenting technical change is defined as the improvement in factor productivities that can occur either exogenously or endogenously, with changes in other macroeconomic variables. This paper provides additional estimates for the substitution possibilities among inputs and it offers new empirical evidence on the direction and sources of factor-augmenting technical change, an issue that has not yet been explored by the empirical literature on growth determinants. The empirical findings suggest that technical change is directed. Technical change tends to be more energy-saving than capital- and labour-saving. Both R&D...

Russia's Frangible Tendency to Rise: What Can Be Observed at Macro- and Meta-Level?

Palavras-chave: Factor-Augmenting Technical Change; Technology Spillovers; Panel Data; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; C3; O47; Q55; Q56.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50403

Voigt, Peter.

This paper is an extraction of some results achieved in a comprehensive study of Russia's transition in its regional as well as sectoral dimension. Thereby, the transition process between 1993 - 2000 has been approximated by aggregated developments of productivity, technical change, and technical efficiency which all have been calculated by a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA). The obtained results have been analyzed with respect to any institutional circumstances in a second analytical step. Based on that, in a third step, some political call for actions have been specified as well as addressed according to regional/federal responsibility. The study has shown a notable heterogeneity within the considered regional as well as sectoral transition paths....

Resource Abundance, Poverty and Development

Palavras-chave: Russia; Transition; Productivity; Efficiency; Regional development; Political Economy; O47.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24591

Bulte, Erwin H.; Damania, Richard; Deacon, Robert T..

The negative correlation between resource endowments and GDP growth remains one of the most robust findings in the empirical growth literature, and has been coined the resource curse hypothesis. The policy consequences of this result are potentially far reaching. If natural resources are an inescapable curse, this may imply that countries richly endowed with natural resources can only develop by turning their backs on their comparative advantage and diversifying into other non-resource based activities. This paper analyzes whether the negative statistical relationship between natural resource abundance and economic growth spills over to other important economic and social indicators. The impact of resource wealth on several proxies of economic...

Total Factor Productivity Growth and the Environment: A Case for Green Growth Accounting

Palavras-chave: Resource abundance; Economic growth; Developing countries; Cross-country analysis.; Food Security and Poverty; Q2; Q3; O13; O47; O57.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/23803

Xepapadeas, Anastasios; Tzouvelekas, Vangelis; Vouvaki, Dimitra.

We examine whether the use of the environment, proxied by CO2 emissions, as a factor of production contributes, in addition to conventional factors of production to output growth, and thus it should be accounted for in total factor productivity growth (TFPG) measurement and deducted from the .residual. A theoretical framework of growth accounting methodology with environment as a factor of production which is unpaid in the absence of environmental policy is developed. Using data from a panel of 23 OECD countries, we show that emissions. growth have a statistically significant contribution to the growth of output, that emission augmenting technical change is present along with labor augmenting technical change, and that part of output growth which is...

Business Establishment Growth in the Appalachian Region, 2000-2007: An Application of Smooth Transition Spatial Process Models

Palavras-chave: Solow Residual; Total Factor Productivity Growth; Growth; Environment; Green Growth Accounting; Environmental Economics and Policy; O47; Q2.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9319

Xu, Wan; Lambert, Dayton M..

Business establishment growth in the Appalachian region (2000–2007) was regressed on industry sector composition controlling for demographic, physical, and economic determinants. We test the hypothesis that local response to growth determinants is geographically heterogeneous using Smooth Transition spatial process models. This class of models exhibiting endogenous regime switching behavior provides another tool for exploring the spatially heterogeneous effects of local determinants on economic growth.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Appalachia; Business establishment growth; Smooth transition models; Spatial processes; Community/Rural/Urban Development; C21; C51; O47; R11.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/113517

Links among Farm Productivity, Off-Farm Work, and Farm Size in the Southeast

Yee, Jet; Ahearn, Mary Clare; Huffman, Wallace E..

This paper examines the linkages among agricultural total factor productivity, farm size, and farm household participation in the off-farm labor market for the Southeastern states for the period 1960-1996. We find evidence of a simultaneous relationship between productivity and measures of farm structure. The results support the expected relationships between the endogenous variables, namely that productivity and farm size are positively related, farm size and off-farm work participation are negatively related, and off-farm work and productivity are negatively related. We find positive and significant impacts of government policies (investments in public research, extension, and highways) on productivity growth.

Tipo: Journal Article

Palavras-chave: Farm size; Off-farm work; Productivity; Southeast; Structural change; J22; O47; Q15; Q16; Q18.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/43450

MARKET REFORMS VERSUS STRUCTURAL REFORMS IN RURAL CHINA

Carter, Colin A.; Estrin, Andrew J..

This paper adds to the debate on the impact of market reforms versus structural reforms in explaining agricultural output growth in China. A multiple-output stochastic frontier and a technical inefficiency equation are estimated using provincial data on the rural economy from 1986 to 1995. Grain self-sufficiency policies and incomplete market reforms in the 1980s and 1990s led to allocative inefficiency. Agricultural disinvestment shrunk the production frontier and the fragmentation of land holdings reduced technical efficiency. China's rural economic reform is far from being complete.

Scarcity and Growth in the New Millennium: Summary

Palavras-chave: Agricultural and Food Policy; O47; Q12; Q15.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/11965

Simpson, R. David; Toman, Michael; Ayres, Robert U..

In their 1963 classic Scarcity and Growth Howard Barnett and Chandler Morse argued that resource scarcity did not threaten economic growth. A second investigation in the late 1970s, Scarcity and Growth Reconsidered, reached largely the same conclusion. The 25 years since that work was published have witnessed many developments. The message of Scarcity and Growth that depletion of market resources was not a problem has given way to a concern that "new scarcities" of environmental quality, global climate, and biological diversity are emerging. Resources for the Future recently assembled a distinguished group of international scholars to again address scarcity and growth. This paper describes their charge and summarizes their findings. Technological progress...

THE IMPACT OF ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES ON GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION: SIMULATIONS WITH A DYNAMIC MODEL FOR EGYPT

Palavras-chave: History of economic thought; Technological change; Renewable resources and economy; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; B12; B20; N50; O13; O14; O33; O47; Q20; Q32.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/10835

El-Said, Moataz; Lofgren, Hans; Robinson, Sherman.

Addressing longer-term issues of economic development in Egypt, the paper employs a dynamically recursive computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to assess the outcomes associated with two types of development approaches over the period 1998-2012. One is a targeted sector development approach, and the second is a more broad-based development approach. Under the first development approach technological advancement is separately targeted to three sectors: agriculture, food processing, and textiles. Each sectoral choice is intended to represent alternative development strategies which we label (i) agricultural-demand- led industrialization (ADLI); (ii) food-processing-based (FOOD); and (iii) textile-based industrialization (TEXTILE). Under the second...

Total Factor Productivity Growth when Factors of Production Generate Environmental Externalities

Palavras-chave: Atkinson inequality index; CGE; Egypt; Growth; Income distribution; SAM; Theil index; International Development; C68; D31; D33; D58; O47; O53.

Ano: 2001

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/16311

Vouvaki, Dimitra; Xepapadeas, Anastasios.

Total factor productivity growth (TFPG) has been traditionally associated with technological change. We show that when a factor of production, such as energy, generates an environmental externality in the form of CO2 emissions which is not internalized because of lack of environmental policy, then TFPG estimates could be biased. This is because the contribution of environment as a factor of production is not accounted for in the growth accounting framework. Empirical estimates confirm this hypothesis and suggest that part of what is regarded as technology’s contribution to growth could be attributed to the use of environment in output production.

Tourism and Development: A Recent Phenomenon Built on Old (Institutional) Roots?

Palavras-chave: Total Factor Productivity; Sources of Growth; Environmental Externalities; Energy; Environmental Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; O47; Q20; Q43.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50405

Brau, Rinaldo; Di Liberto, Adriana; Pigliaru, Francesco.

Is tourism an opportunity for lagging countries in the elusive quest for growth (Easterly, 2002)? Recent empirical evidence suggests that the answer is a cautious yes. Aggregate cross-country data show that tourism specialization is likely to be associated with higher per capita GDP growth rates than those observed in industrialized countries. However, this evidence ignores the importance of institutional quality and results are likely to be biased by omitted variable problems. In this paper we frame our starting question within the general debate about the importance of good/bad institutions as fundamental determinants of economic growth (Acemoglu et al., 2001) and ask whether previous positive results of tourism on growth are in fact driven by the...

Village Inequality in Western China

Palavras-chave: Economic Development; Tourism Specialization; Institutions; Community/Rural/Urban Development; O11; O50; O47; F43; L83.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/59425

Xing, Li; Fan, Shenggen; Luo, Xiaopeng; Zhang, Xiaobo.

Increased regional inequality has been a major concern in many emerging economies like China, India, Vietnam and Thailand. However, even a large inequality is observed within the lagging regions. The objective of this paper is to look into what are the sources of within region inequality using the community surveys and a census type of households in Western China. This snapshot view of inequality within and between rural villages in western China is based on a census-type household survey in three administrative villages and a sampling survey of 286 natural villages in the poor province of Guizhou in 2004. In contrast to coastal regions, nonfarm income is distributed unevenly in this inland western region. This acco unts for the largest share of overall...

A Reappraisal of the Role of Agriculture in Economic Growth in Melanesian Countries

Palavras-chave: Rural Development; Poverty; Inequality; Public investment; H54; O47; O53; R11; Community/Rural/Urban Development.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25390

Fleming, Euan M.; Fleming, Pauline.

Fortunes in the agricultural sectors of four of the largest South Pacific countries are traced in recent decades by estimating the single factoral terms of trade index. The single factoral terms of trade are measured for agriculture in four Melanesian countries-Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu-over the period, 1970 to 2002. This index provides a useful method to assess changes in returns to factors employed in agricultural production in these countries. Except in Solomon Islands, farmers experienced a deteriorating index, indicating that they have reaped progressively lower returns to their resources. In Solomon Islands, returns to resources are shown to have increased slightly. A sustained contribution by the agricultural sector to...

Productivity Growth and Convergence in Crop, Ruminant and Non-Ruminant Production: Measurement and Forecasts

Palavras-chave: Factoral terms of trade; Melanesia; Smallholders; Total factor productivity; International Development; D24; O12; O47; Q17.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25715

Ludena, Carlos E.; Hertel, Thomas W.; Preckel, Paul V.; Foster, Kenneth A.; Nin Pratt, Alejandro.

There is considerable interest in projections of future productivity growth in agriculture. Whether one is interested in the outlook for global commodity markets, future patterns of international trade, or the interactions between land use, deforestation and ecological diversity, the rate of productivity growth in agriculture is an essential input. Yet solid projections for this variable have proven elusive particularly on a global basis. This is due, in no small part, to the difficulty in measuring historical productivity growth. The purpose of this paper is to report the latest time series evidence on total factor productivity growth for crops, ruminants and non-ruminant livestock, on a global basis. We then follow with tests for convergence amongst...

SOURCES OF GROWTH AND SUPPLY RESPONSE: A CROSS-COMMODITY ANALYSIS OF CHINA'S GRAIN SECTOR

Palavras-chave: Malmquist index; Productivity; Convergence; Projections; Crops; Livestock; Productivity Analysis; D24; O13; O47; Q10.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25392

Colby, Hunter; Diao, Xinshen; Somwaru, Agapi.

A growth accounting method is used to analyze the sources of growth in China's rice, wheat, corn and soybeans, the four most important crops in China's grain sector, during 1978-97. A large TFP contribution to growth in grain production is found in the period immediately following China's rural economic reform (1978-85). In recent years the growth rate of TFP falls sharply, contributing less than 20 percent of growth in grain production, as increased use of inputs became the major engine of growth. If the current government policy environment remains unchanged, China's grain production will become increasingly costly and constrain future growth and competitiveness in world grain markets. The supply response of the four grains is estimated using a...

Disaggregate Productivity Growth in Livestock Production: A Directional Malmquist Index Approach

Palavras-chave: Supply response; Economic growth; Productivity; China; Crop Production/Industries; Productivity Analysis; Q11; O4; O47.

Ano: 1999

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/12985

Ludena, Carlos E.; Hertel, Thomas W.; Preckel, Paul V.; Foster, Kenneth A.; Nin Pratt, Alejandro.

Limited data on the allocation of inputs to different activities has limited agricultural economists' attempts to measure sub-sector productivity growth in agriculture. However, recent developments have enabled us to estimate total factor productivity (TFP) growth for crops and livestock accounting for input-output allocation. This paper extends previous work on TFP measurement for livestock into ruminants and non-ruminant productivity measurement, given the differences in productivity growth rates among these species. The results show that the non-ruminant sector is more dynamic than the ruminant sector, driving most of the productivity growth within the livestock sector. Given the rapid rates of productivity growth observed recently, non-ruminant...

RUSSIA'S AGRICULTURE: EIGHT YEARS IN TRANSITION - CONVERGENCE OR DIVERGENCE OF REGIONAL EFFICIENCY

Palavras-chave: Total factor productivity; Malmquist index; Livestock; Ruminants; Non-ruminants; Productivity Analysis; O47; O57; Q16.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/19395

Uvarovsky, Vladimir; Voigt, Peter.

In this paper, we consider how Russian Agriculture has developed since the constitution of the Russian Federation. The analysis is based on Oblast level data of 75 territorial units during the period from 1993 to 1998 and is focusing on technical efficiency (TE), technological change, and (both aggregated as overall index) on Total Factor Productivity (TFP). Given that the initial natural conditions were approximately constant the consistence of political programs, market reforms and restructuring were essential determinants of regional developments of TE and TFP above or below the common trend. If this assumption is widely true an investigation of responsible circumstances for these divergences seems to be an important task in the actual regional-economic...