Measures of Fixed Capital in Agriculture
Capital is a fundamental component of agricultural production, and the accumulation of capital is key to growth in agriculture and the process of development. Unfortunately, cross-country data sets on agricultural fixed capital are rare. Using a co...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?menuPK=64187510&pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000158349_20101109102000 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/3954 |
| Summary: | Capital is a fundamental component of
agricultural production, and the accumulation of capital is
key to growth in agriculture and the process of development.
Unfortunately, cross-country data sets on agricultural fixed
capital are rare. Using a common methodology that allows
comparisons across countries, as well as over time, this
paper introduces a data series on fixed capital in
agriculture, based on national accounts data. The fixed
capital measure differs remarkably from the Food and
Agriculture Organization's data series on tractors,
which has been widely utilized as a proxy for agricultural
fixed capital. The authors construct comparable measures of
capital in livestock and tree stock. They examine the
evolution of the capital stocks from 1970 to 2000, paying
particular attention to the changing composition of
agricultural capital, as well as differences in the
accumulation of capital for high-income and middle and
lower-income countries. Using the capital measures in
agricultural productivity analyses, the data yield estimated
input elasticities substantially different from those found
previously in the literature. The authors show explicitly
that this is due to the improved data set on agricultural
capital stocks, as well as the methodology used in the study. |
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