American Economic Review Vol. 106 No. 6 2016

Agricultural Productivity and Structural Transformation: Evidence from Brazil

Paula Bustos¹; Bruno Caprettini²; Jacopo Ponticelli³

¹ CEMFI, Casado del Alisal 5, 28014 Madrid (e-mail: ) · ² University of Zurich, Schönberggasse 1, CH-8001 Zurich (e-mail: ) · ³ University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 5807 South Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (e-mail: )

Abstract

We study the effects of the adoption of new agricultural technologies on structural transformation. To guide empirical work, we present a simple model where the effect of agricultural productivity on industrial development depends on the factor-bias of technical change. We test the predictions of the model by studying the introduction of genetically engineered soybean seeds in Brazil, which had heterogeneous effects on agricultural productivity across areas with different soil and weather characteristics. We find that technical change in soy production was strongly labor-saving and led to industrial growth, as predicted by the model.

DOI

10.1257/aer.20131061

Volume

106

Issue

6

Pages

1320-1365

Language

en

Sources

bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite

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