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The Role of Productivity, Transportation Costs, and Barriers to Intersectoral Mobility in Structural Transformation

Author

Listed:
  • Cem Karayalcin

    (Department of Economics, Florida International University)

  • Mihaela Pintea

    (Department of Economics, Florida International University)

Abstract

The process of economic development is characterized by substantial reallocations of resources across sectors. In this paper, we construct a multi-sector model in which there are barriers to the movement of labor from low-productivity traditional agriculture to modern sectors. With the barrier in place, we show that improvements in productivity in modern sectors (including agriculture) or reductions in transportation costs may lead to a rise in agricultural employment and through terms-of-trade effects may harm subsistence farmers if the traditional subsistence sector is larger than a critical level. This suggests that policy advice based on the earlier literature needs to be revised. Reducing barriers to mobility (through reductions in the cost of skill acquisition and institutional changes) and improving the productivity of subsistence farmers needs to precede policies designed to increase the productivity of modern sectors or decrease transportation costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Cem Karayalcin & Mihaela Pintea, 2014. "The Role of Productivity, Transportation Costs, and Barriers to Intersectoral Mobility in Structural Transformation," Working Papers 1413, Florida International University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:fiu:wpaper:1413
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    Cited by:

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    2. Han Zhang & Dongli Wu, 2022. "The Impact of Transport Infrastructure on Rural Industrial Integration: Spatial Spillover Effects and Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-18, July.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • Q10 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - General

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