This paper reports the results of a major study of the impact of international agricultural research, covering eleven crops in all major regions of the developing world, over the period 1960-2000. Although much of the "common wisdom" concerning the Green Revolution suggests that gains from...

Many developing countries pursue policies that treat large and small firms differently. For example, large firms may be subject to a value added tax while small firms are explicitly exempted. Moreover, governments often find it impractical to collect taxes from the smallest enterprises; this may...

This paper develops a theoretical model for analyzing gene bank management decisions regarding the search for traits of economic value in ex situ collections of wheat. The model is applied to data on the probability of finding useful sources of resistance to Russian wheat aphid (Diuraphis noxia)...

This study asks whether the diffusion of modern varieties has affected the yield stability of wheat and maize production in developing countries between 1960 and 2004. The data suggest strongly that, over the past forty-plus years, there has been a striking decline in the relative variability of...

This chapter describes the impact of national agricultural research systems on the unfolding of the Green Revolution in four regions: Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Although international institutions contributed much of the research that led to...

Agriculture is the largest sector in most sub-Saharan economies in terms of employment, and it plays an important role in supplying food and export earnings.  Rural poverty rates remain high, and labor productivity is strikingly low.  This paper asks how these factors shape the role of...

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...

According to national accounts data for developing countries, value added per worker is on average four times higher in the non-agriculture sector than in agriculture. Taken at face value this "agricultural productivity gap" suggests that labor is greatly misallocated across sectors in the...

Most developing countries are far less productive in agriculture than in the non-agriculture sector compared to the rest of the world. Standard Ricardian trade theory predicts that developing countries should be large importers of food and should have few workers in agriculture. The data is in...