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Agricultural productivity and institutions in sub -Saharan Africa

Bingxin Yu, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

This study estimates two nonparametric non-stochastic Malmquist indexes and a parametric stochastic translog-Fourier production frontier to examine agricultural productivity and its interactions with socio-political institutions in 41 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries during the period of 1961-1999. On average, agricultural productivity in SSA was suffered a regression in productivity during and 1970's, but after mid-1980 recovered to achieve a reasonably robust rate of productivity improvement through the end of the century. This study contributes to the robustness of research on SSA agriculture with a broader geographical scope and years to date. Colonial heritage is found to be strongly correlated with total factor productivity growth rate, after controlling input quality. British colonies exhibited the highest productivity growth rate, and three ex-Belgian colonies the lowest. The difference between former colonies was determined in significant measure by the estimated effects of difference in political and civil liberties. The results indicate that institutional factors are important determinants of agricultural productivity growth.

Subject Area

Agricultural economics|Agriculture

Recommended Citation

Yu, Bingxin, "Agricultural productivity and institutions in sub -Saharan Africa" (2005). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3190013.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3190013

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