This paper uses non-parametric approach to measure technical innovation and productivity growth at the smallholder farm-level in dry-land sub-Saharan Africa during the initial years of the structural adjustment programmes for agriculture. Data from Kenya for two production years, 1991/2 and...

Transition from the planned to the market economy involved profound changes in Ukrainian economy. Before the liberalization of prices in 1992, milk processing in Ukraine was concentrated in regionally distributed large state milk processing factories. In the meantime, the dairy sector has been...

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the cost structures and resource productivities involved in production of four major U.S. field crops and to estimate the distribution among producers of benefits from production related technology. These field crops include corn, soybeans, wheat and...

Livestock is the most important source of cash for small-scale farmers in the semi-arid tropics of southern Africa. However, with limited access to markets, farmers do not have the incentive to invest in improved livestock management. Livestock production and off-takes remain low and farmers are...

Due to the size of the European Union’s agricultural production and its market, the impact of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reaches far beyond Europe and has major implications for trade in agricultural goods all over the world including the ESA region. Since the 1950s, the CAP...

This project addresses several issues related to efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness in Alberta's agriculture and food sector, in both its primary agricultural sector and its secondary processing industry related to food and beverages. A major underlying theme of this work is that the...

Economic analysis of the process of technical change has often involved macro-level studies of its causes and consequences. Relatively little attention has been given to the, more fundamental knowledge generation process itself. This stems in large part from the real difficulties of obtaining...

Given recent concerns expressed about the structural transformation of agriculture and the health of the family farm this study provides a measure of the economic health of small and large farms at the state level. We use nonparametric frontier methods to measure and explain changes in the...

In this paper we revisit the issue on the impact of public R&D expenditure on US agricultural productivity growth. We estimate a dual cost function using a state-by-year panel data set. We construct the potential R&D “spillins” based on both geographical location and production mix. We also...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) estimates that nanotechnology will become a trillion-dollar industry by 2015 and that 800,000 workers will be needed in this field in the United States. Nanobiotechnology ― the interface of nanotechnology and the life sciences ― is one of the most active...