Argentine Agricultural Policy in a Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output Framework

This study shows that government interventions in Argentine agriculture substantially reduced the growth rate of output 1940-80. A multiple product, multiple input, aggregate translog profit function is estimated. Supply elasticity estimates range from zero for linseed to 1.6 for sorghum. Estimates of intervention wedges together with the estimated structure imply that export taxes, import restrictions, and domestic taxes each in isolation could have reduced aggregate output by as much as 25%-30%. These and other interventions increased beef as a share of outputs and increased the cost shares of purchased inputs and labor at the expense of capital inputs.