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Geography and Agricultural Productivity: Cross-Country Evidence from Micro Plot-Level Data

Author

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  • Tasso Adamopoulos
  • Diego Restuccia
Abstract
We quantify the role of geography and land quality for agricultural productivity differences across countries using high-resolution micro-geography data and a spatial accounting framework. The rich spatial data provide for each cell of land covering the entire globe, the potential yield for 18 crops, which measures the maximum attainable crop output given soil quality, climate conditions, terrain topography, and a given level of cultivation inputs. While there is considerable heterogeneity in land quality across space, even within narrow geographic regions, we find that low agricultural land productivity is not due to unfavourable geographic endowments. If countries produced current crops in each cell according to potential yields, the rich-poor agricultural yield gap would virtually disappear, from 214 percent to 5 percent. We also find evidence of additional aggregate productivity gains attainable through spatial reallocation and changes in crop production.

Suggested Citation

  • Tasso Adamopoulos & Diego Restuccia, 2018. "Geography and Agricultural Productivity: Cross-Country Evidence from Micro Plot-Level Data," NBER Working Papers 24532, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24532
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

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