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The Red Queen and the Hard Reds: Productivity Growth in American Wheat, 1800-1940

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Author Info
Alan L. Olmstead
Paul W. Rhode

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Abstract

The standard treatment of U.S. agriculture asserts that, before the 1930s, productivity growth was almost exclusively the result of mechanization rather than biological innovations. This paper shows that, to the contrary, U.S. wheat production witnessed a biological revolution during the 19th and early 20th centuries with wholesale changes in the varieties grown and cultural practices employed. Without these changes, vast expanses of the wheat belt could not have sustained commercial production and yields everywhere would have plummeted due to the increasing severity of insects, diseases, and weeds. Our revised estimates of Parker and Klein's productivity calculations indicate that biological innovations account for roughly one-half of labor productivity growth between 1839 and 1909.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 8863.

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Date of creation: Mar 2002
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8863

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N5 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries
Q1 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture

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  1. Pardey, Philip G. & Alston, Julian M. & Chan-Kang, Connie & Magalhaes, Eduardo C. & Vosti, Stephen A., 2002. "International And Institutional R&D Spillovers: Attribution Of Benefits Among Sources For Brazil'S New Crop Varieties," Working Papers 14422, University of Minnesota, Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Pardey, Philip G. & Koo, Bonwoo & Nottenburg, Carol, 2004. "Creating, Protecting, And Using Crop Biotechnologies Worldwide In An Era Of Intellectual Property," Staff Papers 13600, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics. [Downloadable!]
  3. Lichtenberg, Erik, 2004. "Some Hard Truths About Agriculture and the Environment," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 33(1), April. [Downloadable!]
  4. Pardey, Philip G. & Alston, Julian M. & Chan-Kang, Connie & Magalhães, Eduardo C. & Vosti, Stephen A., 2002. "Assessing and attributing the benefits from varietal improvement research: evidence from Embrapa, Brazil," EPTD discussion papers 95, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  5. Alan L. Olmstead & Paul W. Rhode, 2008. "Biological Innovation and Productivity Growth in the Antebellum Cotton Economy," NBER Working Papers 14142, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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