1Agriculture:Thee?ciencyoflanduse
?Shareofagricultureinemploymentiscloseto50%fortheworldasawhole(50%inChina,57%inIndia).
?Islandusede?ciently?
1.0.1
Farmsizeandproductivity:observedrela-tionship
?Farmsizeproductivitydi?erences:seetable.?Pro?t-Wealthrationandweathervariability(mon-soonoutsetisameasureoftheriskfacedbythefarmer):see?gure
—ThePro?t-Wealthratioisalwaysgreaterforsmallfarmers—Smallfarmers’pro?tsarehurtmuchmorebyuncertaintythanlargefarmers’
1.0.2Whyisthissurprising?
?Argumentsforincreasingreturns(theoppositere-lationship)—Technologywith?xedcosts(tractors,etc..)—Largerfarmershavebetteraccesstocapital—Largerfarmershavebetteraccesstopoliti-callyallocatedinputs(evidencefromAfricainabookbyBates“MarketandstatesintropicalAfrica”).—Thebestfarmerwillhavemoreland...?Mitigatingfactors:
—Rentalmarketsinfarmmachinery
—Technologicalchangeinnotveryrapid.Savi-nessnotthatimportant.
1.0.3
Whatcouldbegoingon:Argumentsforde-creasingreturns
?—Agencyproblems:largefarmsarecultivated
byhiredlabor,whichhasfewerincentivetoworkhard.Smallfarmsareownercultivated.?Redistributinglandwillcreatemoreownercultivatedlandwhichwillbemoreproductive.—Butwhycannottheownerofthelandnotgivetherightincentivetothefarmers?
1.0.4
Di?erentpotentialexplanationsfortheob-servedinverseproductivityrelationship:
?Di?erencesinlandquality
?Di?erencesinfarmercharacteristics?IncentiveProblems
Problemwiththeobservedrelationship:allofthiscouldbegoingon...Howcanweseparatethesedif-ferente?ects.
麻省理工--发展经济学讲义
