Productivity, transport costs and subsistence agriculture

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Development Economics
Year: 2014
Volume: 107
Issue: C
Pages: 38-48

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

A defining feature of many poor economies is the large fraction of workers engaged in subsistence agriculture. We develop a multi-sector multi-region model of a poor economy in which it is costly to transport goods across regions in order to study this outcome. A key finding is that higher transport costs drive up the size of the agricultural workforce and the fraction in subsistence. In a calibrated version of our model we show that the effect of transport productivity is quantitatively important in terms of both allocations and welfare.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:deveco:v:107:y:2014:i:c:p:38-48
Journal Field
Development
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25