Abstract

SOTELSEK-SALEM, Daniel F.  and  LABORDA-CASTILLO, Leopoldo. Agricultural development and productivity in Latin America: the problem of measurement. agric. soc. desarro [online]. 2019, vol.16, n.1, pp.61-83. ISSN 1870-5472.

The growth of agricultural productivity can have consequences that are not trivial at all at the time of improving subsistence consumption and increasing the income from this sector of the economy. For authors like Fulginiti and Perrin (1998) or Nin et al. (2003), it is possible that both the methods and the data used until now have interpreted erroneously the productivity of agriculture in some countries, biasing their measurements. This is precisely the aim of this study and to achieve it, the methodological development carried out by O’Donnell (2008) will be used, to attempt to solve the problems previously mentioned and to contrast them with the results from traditional non-parametric methodologies. Through Lowe transitive indices, the change in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) is estimated, in this case of agriculture in some countries of Latin America for the period of 1990-2006. The results obtained questioned the empirical evidence obtained in preceding studies. Finally, the hypothesis is confirmed about differences in results of productivity, when it is estimated through the contest of the Malmquist index and Lowe indices.

Keywords : technical change; economies of scale; technical efficiency; Lowe and Malmquist indices; Total Factor Productivity (TFP).

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