Asian Agricultural Productivity and Convergence

This paper measures agricultural total factor productivity (TFP), for eighteen Asian countries, from 1965 to 1996. TFP is measured by calculating the Malmquist index with respect to the sequential frontier, which is appropriate when the cross section is relatively small. The results show that half the countries have experienced negative productivity growth, due to losses in technical efficiency combined with stagnation in technological progress. Both cross-section and time series tests show that there is no evidence of convergence in agricultural productivity for these countries. The less productive countries are falling further behind, rather than catching up. Finally, comparisons with Africa show that although Asia has had faster TFP growth than Africa, three of the five African regions (East, Central and Southern) have grown faster than any of the Asian regions.

[1]  J. Piesse,et al.  Convergence of per capita incomes and agricultural productivity in Africa , 1998 .

[2]  Viverita,et al.  On productivity performance gains of Indonesian firms , 2008 .

[3]  R. Perrin,et al.  Agricultural productivity in developing countries , 1998 .

[4]  C. I. Jones,et al.  Productivity across industries and countries : time series theory and evidence , 1996 .

[5]  Bingxin Yu,et al.  An Updated Look at the Recovery of Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa , 2009 .

[6]  Colin Thirtle,et al.  THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY: PATENTS, R&D SPILLOVERS, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON PRODUCTIVITY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND UNITED STATES , 1999 .

[7]  K. Mattas,et al.  Agricultural productivity growth in the Mediterranean and tests of convergence among countries , 2006 .

[8]  S. Durlauf,et al.  Interpreting Tests of the Convergence Hypothesis , 1994 .

[9]  R. Perrin,et al.  LDC agriculture: Nonparametric Malmquist productivity indexes , 1997 .

[10]  Peter Smith,et al.  Model misspecification in Data Envelopment Analysis , 1997, Ann. Oper. Res..

[11]  H. Leibenstein,et al.  Empirical Estimation and Partitioning of X-Inefficiency: A Data-Envelopment Approach , 1992 .

[12]  Danny Quah,et al.  Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs , 1997 .

[13]  M. Candemir,et al.  Production Efficiency and Total Factor Productivity Growth in Turkish State Agricultural Enterprises , 2009 .

[14]  Y. Kuroda.  Research and extension expenditures and productivity in Japanese agriculture, 1960-1990 , 1997 .

[15]  REGIONAL PRODUCTIVITY DIFFERENCES AND PROSPECT FOR CONVERGENCE IN BANGLADESH AGRICULTURE, 1964-1992 , 2004 .

[16]  T. Coelli.  RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FRONTIER MODELLING AND EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT , 1995 .

[17]  C. Arnade.  Using a Programming Approach to Measure International Agricultural Efficiency and Productivity , 1998 .

[18]  D. Byerlee.  Maintaining the Momentum in Post-Green Revolution Agriculture: A Micro-Level Perspective from Asia , 1987 .

[19]  Colin Thirtle,et al.  Policy-Induced Innovation in Sub-Saharan African Agriculture: A Multilateral Malmquist Productivity Index Approach , 1995 .

[20]  Joaquín A. Millán,et al.  A Comparison of Agricultural Productivity in the European Union Regions , 2003 .

[21]  M. Abramovitz.  Catching Up, Forging Ahead, and Falling Behind , 1986, The Journal of Economic History.

[22]  S. W. Omamo,et al.  Does the structure of agricultural science and technology policy system matter in developing country agricultural productivity growth trends? Evidence from Kenya and Uganda , 2009 .

[23]  T. Coelli,et al.  Total Factor Productivity Growth in Agriculture: A Malmquist Index Analysis of 93 Countries, 1980-2000 * , 2003 .

[24]  J. Fernandez-Cornejo.  Nonradial Technical Efficiency and Chemical Input Use in Agriculture , 1994, Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.

[25]  Philippe Vanden Eeckaut,et al.  Non-parametric efficiency, progress and regress measures for panel data: Methodological aspects☆ , 1995 .

[26]  Raffaele Paci.  More similar and less equal: Economic growth in the European regions , 1997 .