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The Sahel's Silent Maize Revolution: Analyzing Maize Productivity in Mali at the Farm-level
Foltz, Jeremy D.; Aldana, Ursula T.; Laris, Paul - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012
Since independence a quiet revolution has taken place in maize production in the Sahel with Mali increasing production more than ten-fold and yields going up ~2% a year. This research work uses farm level panel data from southern Mali's maize growing regions to demonstrate this success in...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009652803
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Social Learning and Communication
BenYishay, Ariel; Mobarak, A. Mushfiq - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014
extension services counter information failures by deploying external agents to communicate with farmers. However, social … extension policy using a large-scale field experiment in which we communicate to farmers using different members of social … communicator influences learning and adoption. Farmers find communicators who face agricultural conditions and constraints most …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010774294
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What is driving the 'African Growth Miracle'?
McMillan, Margaret Mcmillan; Harttgen, Kenneth - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014
We show that much of Africa's recent growth and poverty reduction can be traced to a substantive decline in the share of the labor force engaged in agriculture. This decline has been accompanied by a systematic increase in the productivity of the labor force, as it has moved from low...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950650
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The Decline and Rise of Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa Since 1961
Block, Steven A. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2010
Agricultural productivity growth in sub-Saharan Africa has been a qualified success. Total factor productivity growth has increased rapidly since the early 1980s. By the early 2000s, average annual TFP growth was roughly four times faster than it had been 25 years earlier. This period of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10008684844
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Patent Laws and Innovation: Evidence from Economic History
Moser, Petra - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012
What is the optimal system of intellectual property rights to encourage innovation? Empirical evidence from economic history can help to inform important policy questions that have been difficult to answer with modern data: 1) Does the existence of strong patent laws encourage innovation? And 2)...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950825
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Subsidies and the Persistence of Technology Adoption: Field Experimental Evidence from Mozambique
Carter, Michael R.; Laajaj, Rachid; Yang, Dean - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014
improvements. Consistent with learning models of the adoption decision, we find positive treatment effects on farmers' estimated …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010950768
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Climatic Fluctuations and the Diffusion of Agriculture
Ashraf, Quamrul; Michalopoulos, Stelios - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013
This research examines the climatic origins of the diffusion of Neolithic agriculture across countries and archaeological sites. The theory suggests that a foraging society s history of climatic shocks shaped the timing of its adoption of farming. Specifically, as long as climatic disturbances...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010821960
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Biofuels, Binding Constraints and Agricultural Commodity Price Volatility
Abbott, Philip - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2013
The share of U.S. corn production used to produce ethanol increased from 12.4% in the 2004/05 crop year to over 38.5% in the 2010/11 crop year, and remained at that high level in 2011/12. Even after accounting for return of by-products to the feed market, this is a large and persistent new...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010969426
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Engines of Growth: Farm Tractors and Twentieth-Century U.S. Economic Welfare
Steckel, Richard H.; White, William J. - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2012
The role of twentieth-century agricultural mechanization in changing the productivity, employment opportunities, and appearance of rural America has long been appreciated. Less attention has been paid to the impact made by farm tractors, combines, and associated equipment on the standard of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10009652849
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Coal and the European Industrial Revolution
Fernihough, Alan; O'Rourke, Kevin Hjortshøj - National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) - 2014
We examine the importance of geographical proximity to coal as a factor underpinning comparative European economic development during the Industrial Revolution. Our analysis exploits geographical variation in city and coalfield locations, alongside temporal variation in the availability of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010969269