Logo
Munich Personal RePEc Archive

Skill Investment, Farm Size Distribution and Agricultural Productivity

Cai, Wenbiao (2011): Skill Investment, Farm Size Distribution and Agricultural Productivity.

Warning
There is a more recent version of this item available.
[thumbnail of MPRA_paper_29605.pdf]
Preview
PDF
MPRA_paper_29605.pdf

Download (291kB) | Preview

Abstract

Low labor productivity and small scale are key features of agriculture in poor nations. This paper assesses quantitatively the role of self selection and skill investment of farmers in accounting for these observations. I construct a two-sector overlapping generation model featuring individual heterogeneity in skill. Individuals self-select into farmers and workers as in Lucas (1978). As a key ingredient, I allow skill growth in response to optimal investment. The model is calibrated to reproduce the farm size distribution and other macroeconomic statistics in the US. Quantitative results show that low aggregate TFP and suboptimal skill investment are the main drivers of unproductive, small-scale agriculture in poor countries.

Available Versions of this Item

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact us: mpra@ub.uni-muenchen.de

This repository has been built using EPrints software.

MPRA is a RePEc service hosted by Logo of the University Library LMU Munich.