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Farm Size and Productivity: A Global Look

The relationship between agrarian structure and agricultural productivity in different parts of the world was the focus of a conference Feb. 2-3, 2017, in Washington, D.C.

The conference–Farm Size and Productivity: A Global Look–was a collaboration of USDA’s Economic Research Service and Farm Foundation, NFP.  Researchers and economists from Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and the United States discussed new research findings on agricultural development.

Several of the papers presented moved beyond comparisons of land productivity to total factor productivity (TFP). They explored newly available panels of farms to compare not only differences in productivity levels, but also productivity growth by farm size. Other studies examine how specific policies, institutions and behaviors may explain observed productivity differences across farms.

The  workshop program includes the agenda and speaker bios. Papers presented at the workshop are posted below. The papers are also available at ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/project/Farm-size-and-productivity-growth-An-international-comparative-assessment.

Workshop Session 1: The United States and Australia
Tracking Consolidation in U.S. Agriculture: James MacDonald, Robert Hoppe and Doris Newton, USDA Economic Research Service (ERS)
Farm Size and Productivity Growth in the United States Corn Belt: Nigel Key, ERS
Exploring the Relationship Between Farm Size and Productivity–Evidence from the Australian Grain Industry: Yu Sheng and WIll Chancellor, ABARES

Workshop Session 2: The European Union and Ukraine
Common Agricultural Policy Reforms and Productivity Growth of Crop Farms in the European Union: Raushan Bokusheva, OECD, and Lukas Cechura, Czech University of Life Sciences
Are Mega-Farms the Future of Global Agricutlure: Exploring the Farm-Size Productivity Relatinship for Large Commercial Farms in Ukraine: Klaus Deininger, World Bank

Workshop Session 3: Brazil and Mexico
Large and Small Farms Excel in Brazil:  Steven Helfand, University of California, Riverside; Nicholas Rada, ERS; and Marcelo Magalhaes, UNESP
Inverse Productivity or Inverse Efficiency? Evidence from Mexico: Justin Kagin, Kagin’s Consulting; J. Edward Taylor, University of California, Davis; and Antonio Yunex-Naude, El Colegio de Mexico

Workshop Session 4: China and Vietnam
Misallocation, Selection and Productivity: Quantitative Analysis with Panel Data from China: Tasso Adamopoulos, York Universitiy; Loren Brandt, Unviersity of Toronto; Jessica Leight, Williams College; and Diego Restuccia, Unviersity of Toronto and NBER.
Structural Transformation and Intertemporal Evolution of Real Wages, Machine Use and Farm Size Productuvity Relationships in Vietnam: Yanyan Lieu, IFPRI, William Violette, Brown University; and Chirstopher Barrett, Cornell University

Workshop Session 5: Sub-Saharan Africa
Agricultural Productivity and Farm Size in Selected East and Southern African Countries: Uganda–Tanzania and Malawi: Jacques Julien of the University of Connecticut, and Boris Bravo-Ureta of the Unviersity of Connecticut and the University of Talca, Chile
The Inverse Farm Size Productivity Relationship: New Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries: Pasquale Lucio Scandizzo, University of Rome, and Sara Savastano, World Bank
Is Small Still Beautiful: The Farm Size-Productivity Relationship Revisited in Sub-Saharan Africa: Thomas Jayne, Milu Muyanga, Godwin Debrah and Ayala Wineman, all of Michigan State Unviersity; Chewe Nkonde of the University of Zambia; and Jordan Chamberlin of CIMMYT

Workshop Session 6: India and Bangldesh
Too Small to be Beautiful: The Farm Size and Productivity Relationship in Bangladesh: Madhur Gautum and Mansur Ahmed, World Bank
Input Transaction Costs, Mechanization and the Misallocation of Land: The Irrelevance of the IR: Andrew Foster, Brown University, and Mark Rosenzweig, Yale University

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