THE DEVELOPMENT CONVERGENCE IN THE AGRICULTURE – THE EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE.

In the globalized world the convergence of economic growth processes in various sectors world-wide is expected. The authors focused on convergence of development processes in agriculture on global and regional scale with special focus on Europe. The main aim of the paper is to examine whether there is such convergence. Using yearly data from more than 100 countries and years 1992-2016, it was proven that there is globally significant beta-convergence when technical effectiveness indicators and the share of agricultural employment are taken into account. It is especially true for Europe. When share of agricultural employment is analyzed strong beta- and sigma-convergence is observed for every analyzed region. Still there is strong sigma-divergence and no sign of beta-convergence in the case of agricultural value added per worker. Europe and Asia are the only exceptions. The results suggest strong relation between overall economic development and development in agriculture. One can also conclude that substantial differences in agricultural sectors among analyzed countries are caused by the differences in capital equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]