scholarly journals Capital Obsolescence and Agricultural Productivity*

2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 505-561
Author(s):  
Julieta Caunedo ◽  
Elisa Keller
Keyword(s):  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Agricultural Labor ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Agricultural Labor Productivity ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
Price Differences ◽  
Do So

Abstract This article argues that accounting for capital-embodied technology greatly increases the importance of capital in explaining cross-country differences in agricultural labor productivity. To do so, we draw on a novel data set of agricultural capital prices. We document that new capital is more expensive in richer countries, both in absolute terms and relative to old capital. A model of endogenous adoption of capital of different quality links these price differences to the path of capital-embodied technology. In particular, our model recovers the level of embodied technology from the price of new capital and the growth rate of embodied technology from the price of new capital relative to old capital. We then measure the stocks of quality-adjusted capital in agriculture for a sample of 16 countries at different stages of development. We find that adjusting for differences in quality almost doubles the importance of capital in accounting for cross-country differences in agricultural labor productivity: from 21% to 37%. In addition, improvements in capital quality have been an important source of agricultural labor productivity growth over the past 25 years, accounting for 21% and 35% of the productivity growth in poor and rich countries, respectively.

scholarly journals AGRICULTURAL CREDITS AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY: CROSS-COUNTRY EVIDENCE

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (supp01) ◽  
pp. 161-183
Author(s):  
UNAL SEVEN ◽  
SEMIH TUMEN
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Agricultural Productivity ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Agricultural Labor ◽  
Agricultural Finance ◽  
Development Path ◽  
Agricultural Labor Productivity ◽  
Cross Country

We present cross-country evidence suggesting that agricultural credits have a positive impact on agricultural productivity. In particular, we find that doubling agricultural credits generates around 4–5% increase in agricultural productivity. We use two different agricultural production measures: (i) the agricultural component of GDP and (ii) agricultural labor productivity. Employing a combination of panel-data and instrumental-variable methods, we show that agricultural credits operate mostly on the agricultural component of GDP in developing countries and agricultural labor productivity in developed countries. This suggests that the nature of the relationship between agricultural finance and agricultural output changes along the development path. We conjecture that the development of the agricultural finance system generates entry into the agricultural labor market, which pushes up the agricultural component of GDP and keeps down agricultural labor productivity in developing countries; while, in developed countries, it leads to labor-augmenting increase in agricultural production. We argue that replacement of the informal credit channel with formal and advanced agricultural credit markets along the development path is the main force driving the labor market response.

The Impact of Heat Waves on Agricultural Labor Productivity and Output

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Federico Castillo ◽  
Armando Sánchez Vargas ◽  
J. K. Gilless ◽  
Michael Wehner
Keyword(s):  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Heat Waves ◽  
Agricultural Labor ◽  
Agricultural Labor Productivity ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Agricultural labor productivity in the Lower South, 1720–1800

2002 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 390-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter C Mancall ◽  
Joshua L Rosenbloom ◽  
Thomas Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Agricultural Labor ◽  
Agricultural Labor Productivity ◽  
Lower South

scholarly journals What's the big deal?: the effect of corporate reforms on manufacturing productivity in Korea

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hojong Kang
Keyword(s):  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Plant Size ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Interaction Term ◽  
Manufacturing Productivity ◽  
Plant Level ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Do So

Although Korea has achieved striking economic success during last four decades, following the 1997-98 foreign exchange crisis, Korea's economy was in urgent need of restructuring amid a series of corporate bankruptcies and a paralyzing credit crunch. In this paper using an unpublished plant-level panel data set, I explore changes in total factor productivity and its growth before and after the crisis. In order to do so, I sort out eight industries that were most likely affected by the "Big Deal Program". The results suggest the Big Deal had a positive and significant effect on TFP levels. Bigger plants in Big Deal industries had differentially higher TFP levels However, these results are not robust to the bigger plants classified as being in the top 5% in terms of K/L ratio. Unlike the results for TFP levels, coefficient for the three variable interaction term ( DiTt[arrow][tau] Spt ) are all positive and significant with the plant-size specification. It means the bigger plants in eight Big Deal industries have more productivity growth even though they have lower TFP levels than the smaller plants after the reform. Depending on the plant-size specifications, the Big Deal program had a positive effect on the bigger plants in the Big Deal industries of 0.1 to 1.39 percents.

scholarly journals The Relative Efficiency of Skilled Labor across Countries: Measurement and Interpretation

2022 ◽  
Vol 112 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-266
Author(s):  
Federico Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Relative Efficiency ◽  
Skilled Labor ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Skill Bias ◽  
Development Accounting ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Rich Countries ◽  
High Skill

I study how the relative efficiency of high- and low-skill labor varies across countries. Using microdata for countries at different stages of development, I document that differences in relative quantities and wages are consistent with high-skill workers being relatively more productive in rich countries. I exploit variation in the skill premia of foreign-educated migrants to discriminate between two possible drivers of this pattern: cross-country differences in the skill bias of technology and in the relative human capital of skilled labor. I find that the former is quantitatively more important, and discuss the implications of this result for development accounting. (JEL I26, J24, J31, J61, L16, O15)

scholarly journals Inventory Management, Product Quality, and Cross‑Country Income Differences

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 338-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo S. Blum ◽  
Sebastian Claro ◽  
Kunal Dasgupta ◽  
Ignatius J. Horstmann
Keyword(s):  
Product Quality ◽  
Inventory Management ◽  
Reduced Form ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Quality Upgrading ◽  
Country Differences ◽  
Cross Country ◽  
Export Destination ◽  
The One ◽  
Rich Countries

Previous research has documented that export shipments are “lumpy”— exporters make infrequent and relatively large shipments to any given export destination. This fact has been interpreted as implying that fixed, per shipment cost and inventory management decisions play a key role in international trade. We document here that exports from poor countries are considerably more lumpy—have higher fixed per shipment cost— than those from rich countries. Using a model of trade with inventory management, we estimate that the country at the ninetieth percentile of the distribution of per shipment costs has almost three times higher costs than the one at the tenth percentile. We show that these per shipment cost differences have a reduced-form representation given by an ad  valorem trade cost that varies with export country income (as in Waugh 2010 ). A calibrated version of the model that incorporates these estimates and allows for endogenous product quality reveals that cross-country differences in per shipment costs explain almost 40 percent of the observed cross-country differences in income. It also shows that policies that lower per shipment costs can lead to significant welfare gains, mainly due to induced quality upgrading. (JEL F12, F14, F43, G31, O16, O19)

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