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The impact of agricultural productivity growth on the process of structural change, an increase in the share of labor employed in manufacturing, is a much debated topic. One perspective argues that agricultural productivity promotes structural change via its contribution of various resources to the manufacturing sector. Another hypothesis proposed is that agricultural productivity growth will draw resources away from agriculture. This paper hypothesizes that agricultural productivity growth plays a key role in the structural change process, but not necessarily through the mechanisms usually proposed. It is hypothesized here that agricultural productivity growth improves the quality of human labor (measured by the human development index, human capital accumulation, and reductions in infant mortality). In turn, improvements in the quality of human labor make it more profitable to employ labor in manufacturing and thus structural change, measured by the share of manufacturing employment in total employment, increases. These hypotheses are tested using dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) techniques utilizing data from seventeen countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings indicate that agricultural productivity growth has a significant positive impact human labor quality as measured by the human development index, human capital accumulation, and reductions in infant mortality. In addition, improvements in the quality of human labor in turn have a significant positive impact on the extent of structural change as measured by the share of manufacturing employment as a share of total employment. In addition, trade, as measured by exports plus imports divided by GDP, also has a significant positive impact on the extent of structural change. Finally, inflation appears to slow the structural change process. The policy implications are straightforward. Agricultural productivity does indeed seem to be important in the process of structural change. Thus development programs involving Sub-Saharan Africa should focus on investment in the development of agricultural technologies that will raise agricultural productivity. In a broader sense, governments should focus investment on improving the overall quality of labor. JEL Classifications: O1, O13, O14, O15 Keywords: agricultural productivity, structural change, human development, Africa, INTRODUCTION The primary objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of agricultural productivity on structural change (the shift of resources, in particular labor, out of agriculture and into [...]

Level of education has an effect on economic situation in many Asian countries. Whether gender has an effect on the economic situation depends on the country.

Agriculture has been considered a provider of inputs for industrial growth in an economy consisting of an industrial and agricultural sector. It has been observed to stimulate demand for industrial growth. It is demonstrated that the role of agriculture is distorted in the industrial process when considered under a dualistic model. A model containing non-agricultural production by rural dwellers as a third sector is proposed.

A nonparametric programming approach was used to estimate the increase in corporate efficiency resulting from impending takeovers. Data on 578 banks from different states were analyzed. Efficiency was measured by examining the inputs of labor, capital and loanable funds while the outputs were real estate loans, commercial loans, consumer loans, demand deposits and securities. It was concluded that the management of banks which are the target of takeovers improve their efficiency to lessen the possibility of takeovers.

Developing countries can implement policies that stimulate production for a domestic market as well as those that encourage production for export. Import substitution is necessary to create an environment for technological innovation that would consequently promote the growth of the domestic market. A healthy agricultural sector is seen as a necessary support for the growth of the domestic market by increasing the demand for domestic products.

In this paper it is taken for granted that the state has played an important role in the industrialization of East Asia. Accepting this, the purpose of the paper is to determine why government policy was so effective in these countries while failing, to a great extent, in much of the rest of the developing world. The key seems to reside in the ability of the state to discipline firms which in turn is dependent upon the credibility of government policy. The latter depends on a large number of variables. This paper argues that a crucial factor is the size of the domestic market for manufactured goods.

Deregulation has had no significant effect on the economic efficiency of the US banking industry. A nonparametric frontier methodology was used in measuring overall, allocative, technical, pure technical, and scale efficiency of 669 banks prior to and after deregulation. Results indicate that overall, scale, technical and pure technical efficiency have declined after deregulation. Minimal technical innovation was also evident among the sample banks during the period involved.

A 1988 paper on the relationship between trade and growth in early Japan (Grabowski, 1988) presented results of a simultaneous equation model and a simulation analysis (Tables 4 and 5). [...]

An analysis of the effects of agrarian class structures and relations on the levels of economic development in preindustrial Japan is presented. Models seeking to examine economic growth rates in preindustrial societies should consider the aspects of societal agrarian class structures. Studies were conducted to analyze Japanese agricultural development during the country's Tokugawa period.

Efficiency of the Railroad Industry: A Frontier Production Function Approach Abstract This paper uses a production frontier method to measure the revenue efficiency of the railroad industry in the U.S. [...]

This paper argues that one must be careful in drawing lessons from the development experience of East and Southeast Asia. The economic strategy followed by these countries was not one [...]

Robert Hefner, (Ed.), (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1998), 314 pp. Paperback. This book contains eleven papers concerning the development of capitalism in Southeast Asia. It represents the outcome of work [...]

This article will argue that the state must learn to pursue productivity enhancing rather than predatory policies if rapid long-run development is to occur in poor countries. These productivity enhancing [...]

Over the past decade, the proliferation of election surveys has worked to undergird the electoral system in Mexico and to make electoral fraud more difficult. In the presidential elections of [...]

Effective development states such as Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are characterized by market entanglement and autonomy. Autonomy refers to the ability of the state to formulate overall development policies independent of powerful pressure groups which it can use to pursue predatory policies. However, the pursuit of such policies will be limited if the state is entangled in market relations which stems from the dense network of social relationships that underlie market exchange. The denser such relations, the greater the likelihood that the state's goals will be developmental rather than predatory.