Agricultural Productivity, Comparative Advantage, and Economic Growth

Kiminori Matsuyama

No 934, Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science

Abstract: The role of agricultural productivity in economic development is addressed in a two-sector model of endogenous growth in which a) preferences are non-homothetic and income elasticity of demand for the agricultural good is less than unitary, and b) the engine of growth is learning-by-doing in the manufacturing sector. For the closed economy case, the model predicts a positive link between agricultural productivity and economic growth, while, for the small open economy case, it predicts a negative link. This suggests that the openness of an economy should be an important factor when planning development strategy and predicting growth performance.

Keywords: Agricultural Revolution; Dutch Disease; Endogenous Growth; Engel's Law; Industrail Revolution; Learning-by-doing; Regional Divergence. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F43 O11 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1990-05
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (52)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/math/papers/934.pdf main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Agricultural productivity, comparative advantage, and economic growth (1992)
Working Paper: Agricultural Productivity, Comparative Advantage and Economic Growth (1991)
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:nwu:cmsems:934

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
fwalker@kellogg.northwestern.edu

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science, Northwestern University, 580 Jacobs Center, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2014. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Fran Walker (fwalker@kellogg.northwestern.edu this e-mail address is bad, please contact repec@repec.org).