Total Factor Productivity Growth in Agriculture: The Role of Technological Capital

Antonio Flavio Dias Avila and Robert E. Evenson

Chapter 72 in Handbook of Agricultural Economics, 2010, vol. 4, pp 3769-3822 from Elsevier

Abstract: In this chapter we compute measures of total factor productivity (TFP) growth for developing countries and then contrast TFP growth with technological capital indexes. In developing these indexes, we incorporate schooling capital to yield two new indexes: Invention-Innovation Capital and Technology Mastery. We find that TFP performance is strongly related to technological capital and that technological capital is required for TFP and cost reduction growth. Investments in technological capital require long-term (20- to 40-year) investments, which are typically made by governments and aid agencies and are the only viable escape route from mass poverty.

Keywords: total factor productivity; technological capital; crop production; livestock production; aggregate production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O47 Q11 Q16 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
ISBN: 978-0-444-51874-3
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (41)

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