The Agricultural Productivity Gap

S-Tier
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Economics
Year: 2014
Volume: 129
Issue: 2
Pages: 939-993

Score contribution per author:

2.681 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

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

Abstract

According to national accounts data, value added per worker is much higher in the nonagricultural sector than in agriculture in the typical country, particularly in developing countries. Taken at face value, this “agricultural productivity gap” suggests that labor is greatly misallocated across sectors. In this article, we draw on new micro evidence to ask to what extent the gap is still present when better measures of sector labor inputs and value added are taken into consideration. We find that even after considering sector differences in hours worked and human capital per worker, as well as alternative measures of sector output constructed from household survey data, a puzzlingly large gap remains.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:qjecon:v:129:y:2014:i:2:p:939-993
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-25