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Agricultural productivity growth in the Mediterranean and tests of convergence among countries

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  • Galanopoulos, Konstantinos
  • Lindberg, Emma
  • Surry, Yves R.
  • Mattas, Konstadinos
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    Abstract

    This paper measures agricultural productivity among a set of thirteen Mediterranean countries which includes two EU- 15 countries (Greece and Spain), another two EU- 25 (Cyprus and Malta) one country under accession negotiations (Turkey) and eight Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia) from 1961 to 2002. The objective of the paper is twofold: Firstly, to analyse agricultural productivity growth in the Mediterranean countries by means of the sequential Malmquist Total Factor Productivity (TFP) index and secondly, to investigate whether this measure is converging among these countries. In terms of the first objective, TFP indices are decomposed into efficiency changes and technical changes, in an attempt to identify the best - practise countries and the overall effect of technological improvements. In terms of the second, both cross- section and time series tests of convergence are applied. The former include the conventional β- and σ- convergence tests, while for the latter, a new method proposed by Nahar and Inder (2002) that allows for country - specific estimates is used. Neither test finds evidence for unconditional convergence, but two distinctive periods, one prior and one after 1980 are recognized. The time series approach identifies four countries to be converging to the mean and another two to be diverging.

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    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by European Association of Agricultural Economists in its series 98th Seminar, June 29-July 2, 2006, Chania, Crete, Greece with number 10101.

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    Date of creation: 2006
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    Handle: RePEc:ags:eaae98:10101

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    Keywords: Productivity growth; sequential Malmquist TFP; convergence.; Productivity Analysis;

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    1. Nazrul Islam, 2003. "What have We Learnt from the Convergence Debate?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 309-362, 07.
    2. Freeman, Donald G. & Yerger, David B., 2001. "Interpreting cross-section and time-series tests of convergence: the case of labor productivity in manufacturing," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 593-607.
    3. Chen, Yao & Iqbal Ali, Agha, 2004. "DEA Malmquist productivity measure: New insights with an application to computer industry," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(1), pages 239-249, November.
    4. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "The Economic Theory of Index Numbers and the Measurement of Input, Output, and Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1393-1414, November.
    5. Fulginiti, Lilyan E. & Perrin, Richard K., 1997. "LDC agriculture: Nonparametric Malmquist productivity indexes," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 373-390, August.
    6. McErlean, Seamus & Wu, Ziping, 2003. "Regional agricultural labour productivity convergence in China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 237-252, June.
    7. Thirtle, Colin & Piesse, Jenifer & Lusigi, Angela & Suhariyanto, Kecuk, 2003. "Multi-factor agricultural productivity, efficiency and convergence in Botswana, 1981-1996," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 605-624, August.
    8. Rolf Fare & Shawna Grosskopf & Wen-Fu Lee, 2001. "Productivity and technical change: the case of Taiwan," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 33(15), pages 1911-1925.
    9. Mukherjee, Anit N. & Kuroda, Yoshimi, 2003. "Productivity growth in Indian agriculture: is there evidence of convergence across states?," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 43-53, July.
    10. Fulginiti, Lilyan E. & Perrin, Richard K., 1998. "Agricultural productivity in developing countries," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 19(1-2), pages 45-51, September.
    11. Nahar, S. & Inder, B., 1998. "Testing Convergence in Economic Growth for OECD Countries," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 14/98, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    12. Evans, Paul & Karras, Georgios, 1996. "Convergence revisited," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 249-265, April.
    13. Bernard, Andrew B & Durlauf, Steven N, 1995. "Convergence in International Output," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(2), pages 97-108, April-Jun.
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