Sources of Agricultural Productivity Gap Among Selected Countries

This study explores the causes of enormous agricultural productivity differences now existing among the developed and less developed countries. Factors are identified that determine the productivity gap, and their influences are gauged on the 1957–62 national aggregate data of 38 nations. Aggregate production functions are estimated on the cross‐country data; and, with the estimates of production elasticities, the productivity differences between India and United States and between India and Japan are accounted for by conventional inputs (labor, land, fertilizer and machinery) and nonconventional inputs (education and research). The measured contributions of respective factors to the productivity differences provide a guideline for allocating development efforts in the less developed countries.