There is considerable interest in projections of future productivity growth in agriculture. Whether one is interested in the outlook for global commodity markets, future patterns of international trade, or the interactions between land use, deforestation and ecological diversity, the rate of...

This paper proposes a new method for ex ante analysis of the poverty impacts arising from policy reforms. Three innovations underlie this approach. The first is the estimation of a global demand system using a combination of micro-data from household surveys, and macro-data from the...

Since colonialism, Western development workers have tried to solve the "problem" of African pastoralism. Efforts to change the pastoralist situation have ranged from promotion of sedentary agriculture to importation of European dairy cows. But these well-intentioned programs gave little in the...

This dissertation studies agricultural productivity growth in developing countries and its implications for world trade. It begins by examining one of the most controversial aspects in the empirical literature: the evidence of negative agricultural productivity growth in developing countries. It...

This paper examines the role of livestock products as commodities of trade, responding to the demand and higher prices that many external markets offer, and at the same time providing important contributions to the development process in poorer countries. It highlights that this opportunity is...

The poverty effects and in particular the impact of trade liberalization on smallholder livestock producers in African and South East Asian developing countries (Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, Mozambique, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Philippines) is addressed by disaggregating income sources...

Limited data on the allocation of inputs to different activities has limited agricultural economists' attempts to measure sub-sector productivity growth in agriculture. However, recent developments have enabled us to estimate total factor productivity (TFP) growth for crops and livestock...

The Malmquist index has become extensively used in international comparisons of agricultural productivity since it does not require prices for its estimation, which are normally not available. However, the DEA approach used to estimate this index still uses implicit price information. This...

We analyze the evolution of Sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) over the past 45 years, looking for evidence of recent changes in growth patterns using an improved nonparametric Malmquist index. Our TFP estimates show a remarkable recovery in the performance of...

Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models have been widely used for quantitative analysis of global economic issues. However, CGE models are frequently criticized for resting on weak empirical foundations. This paper builds on recent work in macro-econometric estimation, developing an approach...