Why is Measured Productivity so Low in Agriculture?

Berthold Herrendorf and Todd Schoellman

Review of Economic Dynamics, 2015, vol. 18, issue 4, 1003-1022

Abstract: In poor countries, labor productivity in agriculture is considerably lower than in the rest of the economy. We assess whether this well known fact implies that labor is mis-allocated between the two sectors. We make several observations that suggest otherwise. First, the same fact holds for US states where severe mis-allocation is implausible. Second, the gaps between the marginal value products of agriculture and non-agriculture are considerably smaller when measured through wages than through labor productivities. Third, labor productivity in agriculture is severely mis-measured in the US. (Copyright: Elsevier)

Keywords: Mis-allocation of labor; Productivity gaps; Wage gaps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (76)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2014.10.006
Access to full texts is restricted to ScienceDirect subscribers and institutional members. See http://www.sciencedirect.com/ for details.

Related works:
Working Paper: Why is Measured Productivity so Low in Agriculture? (2015)
Software Item: Code and data files for "Why is Measured Productivity so Low in Agriculture?" (2014)
Working Paper: Why is Measured Productivity so Low in Agriculture? (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:issued:13-277

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.economic ... ription-information/

DOI: 10.1016/j.red.2014.10.006

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Economic Dynamics is currently edited by Loukas Karabarbounis

More articles in Review of Economic Dynamics from Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christian Zimmermann ().