Since the mid-2000s food prices have been on an upward trend. In the first months of 2011, agricultural commodity prices reached an all-time high, fuelling fears about the imminent outbreak of a new food crisis, similar to the 1973/74 and 2006/08 ones. Behind concerns about increased price...

This paper incorporates the interdisciplinary New Institutional Economics and suggests a holistic framework for analyzing, assessing and improving the system of environmental management in agriculture. First, the importance of issue is presented and a short review on the state of economic...

We study the determinants of differences in farm-size across countries and their impact on agricultural and aggregate productivity using a quantitative sectoral model featuring a distribution of farms. Measured aggregate factors (capital, land, economy-wide productivity) account for ? of the...

This paper presents the results of the first large-scale study on forms, factors, and efficiency of eco-management in Bulgarian agricultural farms of different juridical type, size, specialization, and location. First, a brief characterization of surveyed “eco-active” farms is made,...

This paper presents the results of the first large-scale study on forms, factors, and efficiency of eco-management in Bulgarian agricultural farms of different juridical type, size, specialization, and location. First, a brief characterization of surveyed “eco-active” farms is made,...

Resumen La producción de alimentos a nivel mundial constituye uno de los motores económicos más importantes, pero a la vez, más vulnerables del planeta. En los últimos años la hu- manidad ha sido testigo de avances nunca antes vistos en la búsqueda de eficiencia y productividad agrícola....

In the period from 1975 to 2010, the development model of Chilean agriculture has been a paradigm of growth based on a significant change of farming, which produces a shift towards non-traditional productions for export as the basis of economic growth. Economic restructuring in the mid-seventies...

The TseTse fly is unique to Africa and transmits a parasite harmful to humans and lethal to livestock. This paper tests the hypothesis that the TseTse reduced the ability of Africans to generate an agricultural surplus historically. Ethnic groups inhabiting TseTse-suitable areas were less likely...

Since the 1950s, agricultural growth in East Asia (China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan) has reduced rural poverty and created a strong base for economic development. To gain a better understanding of the nature of this growth, we examine the sources of change in agricultural...

In this chapter we compute measures of total factor productivity (TFP) growth for developing countries and then contrast TFP growth with technological capital indexes. In developing these indexes, we incorporate schooling capital to yield two new indexes: Invention-Innovation Capital and...