IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/agecon/v35y2006i1p79-89.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is agriculture the engine of growth?

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Tiffin
  • Xavier Irz

Abstract

We seek to address formally the question raised by Gardner (2003) in his Elmhirst lecture as to the direction of causality between agricultural value added per worker and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Using the Granger causality test in the panel data analyzed by Gardner for 85 countries, we find overwhelming evidence that supports the conclusion that agricultural value added is the causal variable in developing countries, while the direction of causality in developed countries is unclear. We also examine further the use of the Granger causality test in integrated data and provide evidence that the performance of the test can be increased in small samples through the use of the bootstrap.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Tiffin & Xavier Irz, 2006. "Is agriculture the engine of growth?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 35(1), pages 79-89, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:35:y:2006:i:1:p:79-89
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-0862.2006.00141.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2006.00141.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2006.00141.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thirtle, Colin & Lin, Lin & Piesse, Jenifer, 2003. "The Impact of Research-Led Agricultural Productivity Growth on Poverty Reduction in Africa, Asia and Latin America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 1959-1975, December.
    2. Schiff, Maurice*Valdes, Alberto, 1998. "Agriculture and the macroeconomy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1967, The World Bank.
    3. Koo, Won W. & Jinding, Lin, 1992. "An Intersectoral Perspective on the Relationship between the Agricultural and Industrial Sectors in Chinese Economic Development," 1992 Occasional Paper Series No. 6 197870, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Kevin M. Murphy & Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 1989. "Income Distribution, Market Size, and Industrialization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 104(3), pages 537-564.
    5. Gardner, Bruce L., 2003. "Leonard K. Elmhirst Lecture: Causes of Rural Economic Development," 2003 Annual Meeting, August 16-22, 2003, Durban, South Africa: Plenary Sessions 245919, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Butzer, Rita & Larson, Donald F & Mundlak, Yair, 2002. "Intersectoral Migration in Venezuela," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(2), pages 227-248, January.
    7. Kanwar, Sunil, 2000. "Does the Dog Wag the Tail or the Tail the Dog? Cointegration of Indian Agriculture with Nonagriculture," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 533-556, September.
    8. Douglas Gollin & Stephen Parente & Richard Rogerson, 2002. "The Role of Agriculture in Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(2), pages 160-164, May.
    9. Johansen, Soren & Juselius, Katarina, 1990. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Inference on Cointegration--With Applications to the Demand for Money," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 52(2), pages 169-210, May.
    10. Breusch, T S, 1978. "Testing for Autocorrelation in Dynamic Linear Models," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(31), pages 334-355, December.
    11. repec:hoo:wpaper:e-92-3 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Kogel, Tomas & Prskawetz, Alexia, 2001. "Agricultural Productivity Growth and Escape from the Malthusian Trap," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 337-357, December.
    13. David N. Weil & Oded Galor, 1999. "From Malthusian Stagnation to Modern Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 150-154, May.
    14. Estudillo, Jonna P & Otsuka, Keijiro, 1999. "Green Revolution, Human Capital, and Off-Farm Employment: Changing," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(3), pages 497-523, April.
    15. Steger, Thomas M., 2000. "Economic growth with subsistence consumption," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 343-361, August.
    16. Irma Adelman, 1995. "Institutions and Development Strategies," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2.
    17. Mosconi, Rocco & Giannini, Carlo, 1992. "Non-causality in Cointegrated Systems: Representation Estimation and Testing," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 54(3), pages 399-417, August.
    18. Gary D. Hansen & Edward C. Prescott, 2002. "Malthus to Solow," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1205-1217, September.
    19. Matsuyama, Kiminori, 1992. "Agricultural productivity, comparative advantage, and economic growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 317-334, December.
    20. Bruce L. Gardner, 2000. "Economic Growth and Low Incomes in Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 82(5), pages 1059-1074.
    21. Peter Pedroni, 1999. "Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 653-670, November.
    22. Yair Mundlak & Donald Larson & Rita Butzer, 2004. "Agricultural dynamics in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 48(1), pages 95-126, March.
    23. Bruce L. Gardner, 2005. "Causes of rural economic development," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(s1), pages 21-41, January.
    24. Echevarria, Cristina, 1997. "Changes in Sectoral Composition Associated with Economic Growth," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 38(2), pages 431-452, May.
    25. Irz, Xavier T. & Roe, Terry L., 2000. "Can the world feed itself? Some insights from growth theory," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 39(4), pages 1-16, December.
    26. Hwa, Erh-Cheng, 1988. "The contribution of agriculture to economic growth: Some empirical evidence," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 16(11), pages 1329-1339, November.
    27. de Pineres, Sheila Amin Gutierrez, 1999. "Externalities in the agricultural export sector and economic growth: a developing country perspective," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 257-267, December.
    28. N. Gemmell & T. A. Lloyd & M. Mathew, 2000. "Agricultural Growth and Inter‐Sectoral Linkages in a Developing Economy," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 353-370, September.
    29. G. S. Maddala & Shaowen Wu, 1999. "A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(S1), pages 631-652, November.
    30. Martin, Will & Warr, Peter G, 1993. "Explaining the Relative Decline of Agriculture: A Supply-Side Analysis for Indonesia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 7(3), pages 381-401, September.
    31. Unknown, 1961. "The Role of Agriculture in Economic Development," International Journal of Agrarian Affairs, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 3(2), pages 1-1, April.
    32. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    33. Maddala, G S & Wu, Shaowen, 1999. "A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 61(0), pages 631-652, Special I.
    34. Godfrey, Leslie G, 1978. "Testing against General Autoregressive and Moving Average Error Models When the Regressors Include Lagged Dependent Variables," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(6), pages 1293-1301, November.
    35. Li, Hongyi & Maddala, G. S., 1997. "Bootstrapping cointegrating regressions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 297-318, October.
    36. Sims, Christopher A & Stock, James H & Watson, Mark W, 1990. "Inference in Linear Time Series Models with Some Unit Roots," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 113-144, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roberto ESPOSTI, 2007. "On the Decline of Agriculture. Evidence from Italian Regions in the Post-WWII Period," Working Papers 300, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    2. Herrendorf, Berthold & Rogerson, Richard & Valentinyi, Ákos, 2014. "Growth and Structural Transformation," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 855-941, Elsevier.
    3. Yang, Dennis Tao & Zhu, Xiaodong, 2013. "Modernization of agriculture and long-term growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 367-382.
    4. Shifa, Abdulaziz B., 2011. "Does agricultural growth have a causal effect on manufacturing growth?," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 116003, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Getahun, Tigabu & Baumüller, Heike & Nigussie, Yalemzewd, 2018. "From agricultural to economic growth: Targeting investments across Africa," Discussion Papers 271153, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    6. Ioanna Apostolidou & Achilleas Kontogeorgos & Anastasios Michailidis & Efstratios Loizou, 2014. "The Role of Agriculture in Economic Growth: A Comparison of Mediterranean and Northern Views in Europe," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 7(3), pages 81-102, December.
    7. Frauke Dobnik, 2013. "Long-run money demand in OECD countries: what role do common factors play?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 89-113, August.
    8. Fr餩ric Laurin, 2012. "Trade and regional growth in Spain: panel cointegration in a small sample," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 435-447, February.
    9. David Greasley & Les Oxley, 2010. "Cliometrics And Time Series Econometrics: Some Theory And Applications," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 970-1042, December.
    10. Pao, Hsiao-Tien & Tsai, Chung-Ming, 2011. "Multivariate Granger causality between CO2 emissions, energy consumption, FDI (foreign direct investment) and GDP (gross domestic product): Evidence from a panel of BRIC (Brazil, Russian Federation, I," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 685-693.
    11. Pilbeam, K. & Litsios, I., 2015. "An Empirical Analysis of the Nexus between Investment, Fiscal Balances and Current Account Balances in Greece, Portugal and Spain," Working Papers 15/18, Department of Economics, City University London.
    12. Pao, Hsiao-Tien & Tsai, Chung-Ming, 2010. "CO2 emissions, energy consumption and economic growth in BRIC countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7850-7860, December.
    13. Yoichi Matsubayashi & Shigeyuki Hamori, 2009. "Empirical analysis of import demand behavior of least developed countries," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(2), pages 1443-1458.
    14. Jun, Sangjoon, 2015. "The Nexus between FDI and Growth in the SAARC Member Countries," East Asian Economic Review, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, vol. 19(1), pages 39-70, March.
    15. Salah Eddine SARI HASSOUN & Abdelkader SAHED & Khayereddine Salim ADDA & Asma Hadjira SEBBANE, 2020. "Not a long ago, the agriculture sector was the main pillar of any economy in the world. It not only provides food production, but it participates to the expansion of the economic growth as well. In th," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(2(623), S), pages 301-324, Summer.
    16. Litsios, Ioannis & Pilbeam, Keith, 2017. "An empirical analysis of the nexus between investment, fiscal balances and current account balances in Greece, Portugal and Spain," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 143-152.
    17. Azam, Anam & Rafiq, Muhammad & Shafique, Muhammad & Zhang, Haonan & Yuan, Jiahai, 2021. "Analyzing the effect of natural gas, nuclear energy and renewable energy on GDP and carbon emissions: A multi-variate panel data analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    18. Restuccia, Diego & Yang, Dennis Tao & Zhu, Xiaodong, 2008. "Agriculture and aggregate productivity: A quantitative cross-country analysis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 234-250, March.
    19. María Santana-Gallego & Francisco Ledesma-Rodríguez & Jorge Pérez-Rodríguez, 2011. "Tourism and trade in OECD countries. A dynamic heterogeneous panel data analysis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 533-554, October.
    20. Gollin, Douglas & Parente, Stephen L. & Rogerson, Richard, 2007. "The food problem and the evolution of international income levels," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 1230-1255, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:35:y:2006:i:1:p:79-89. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.