Why is Measured Productivity so Low in Agriculture?

Todd Schoellman and Berthold Herrendorf

No 75, 2012 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: It is well known that poor countries are much less productive in agriculture than in the rest of the economy, and that it is hard to account for these productivity gaps. In this paper, we study US states during 1980–2009. We find that there are large productivity gaps between agriculture and non–agriculture. These productivity gaps are not at all accounted for by gaps in real wages per efficiency unit, which are similar in the two sectors. Instead, they are accounted for by two key factors: human capital is much higher in non–agriculture; and value added is seriously mis–measured in agriculture.

Date: 2012
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-eff
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Why is Measured Productivity so Low in Agriculture? (2015)
Working Paper: Why is Measured Productivity so Low in Agriculture? (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:sed012:75

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