IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/agreko/54448.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Machinery and labour biases of technical change in South African agriculture: A cost function approach

Author

Listed:
  • Townsend, Rob F.
  • van Zyl, Johan
  • Thirtle, Colin G.

Abstract

This paper provides an empirical investigation into the long-standing notion of biases of technical change in South African agriculture. The second order cost function is used to derive relative bias measures between labour and machinery. The results suggest that large machinery-using biases in technology have been developed with minimal labour-using biases.

Suggested Citation

  • Townsend, Rob F. & van Zyl, Johan & Thirtle, Colin G., 1997. "Machinery and labour biases of technical change in South African agriculture: A cost function approach," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 36(4), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:54448
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.54448
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/54448/files/09_townsend%20-%20december%201997.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.54448?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Stephen Clark & Curtis E. Youngblood, 1992. "Estimating Duality Models with Biased Technical Change: A Time Series Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 74(2), pages 353-360.
    2. Archibald, Sandra O. & Brandt, Loren, 1991. "A flexible model of factor biased technological change An application to Japanese agriculture," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 127-145, January.
    3. Binswanger, Hans P, 1974. "A Microeconomic Approach to Induced Innovation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 84(336), pages 940-958, December.
    4. Toshiyuki Kako, 1978. "Decomposition Analysis of Derived Demand for Factor Inputs: The Case of Rice Production in Japan," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 60(4), pages 628-635.
    5. Stevenson, Rodney, 1980. "Measuring Technological Bias," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(1), pages 162-173, March.
    6. Fernando S. Machado, 1995. "Testing The Induced Innovation Hypothesis Using Cointegration Analysis," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 349-360, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wakeford, J. & Swilling, M., 2015. "Implications of increasing world oil scarcity for national food security in South Africa," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 53(4), March.
    2. repec:ags:ijag24:346825 is not listed on IDEAS

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fernando S. Machado, 1995. "Testing The Induced Innovation Hypothesis Using Cointegration Analysis," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 349-360, September.
    2. Ludo Peeters & Yves Surry, 2000. "Incorporating Price-Induced Innovation in a Symmetric Generalised McFadden Cost Function with Several Outputs," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 53-70, July.
    3. Luis Lanteri, 2005. "Crecimiento y la paradoja de la productividad: Una estimación en la forma de state-space con componentes no observables para el sector agropecuario argentino, 1955-2003," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 20(1), pages 53-78.
    4. Wong, Lawrence, 2001. "Measuring technological change in the U.S. motor carrier industry," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 25-54, January.
    5. Liu, Qinghua & Shumway, C. Richard, 2003. "Induced Innovation Tests On Western American Agriculture: A Cointegration Analysis," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 22237, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Kuroda, Yoshimi, 1995. "Labor productivity measurement in Japanese agriculture, 1956-1990," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 55-68, April.
    7. Jakeman, Guy & Hanslow, Kevin & Hinchy, Mike & Fisher, Brian S. & Woffenden, Kate, 2004. "Induced innovations and climate change policy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 937-960, November.
    8. Benson, Aaron & Shumway, C. Richard, 2005. "Induced Innovation or a Paradox of Environmental Regulation?," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19450, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    9. Li, Jianqiang & Shan, Yaowen & Tian, Gary & Hao, Xiangchao, 2020. "Labor cost, government intervention, and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    10. Orachos Napasintuwong Artachinda, 2011. "Modeling Directions of Technical Change in Agricultural Sector," Working Papers 201101, Kasetsart University, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    11. Thirtle, C. & Townsend, R. & van Zyl, J., 1998. "Testing the induced innovation hypothesis: an error correction model of South African agriculture," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 19(1-2), pages 145-157, September.
    12. Dong, Qi & Murakami, Tomoaki & Nakashima, Yasuhiro, 2021. "Induced Bias of Technological Change in Agriculture and Structural Transformation: A Translog Cost Function Analysis of Chinese Cereal Production," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315373, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Qingsong Tian & Lukas Cechura & J. Stephen Clark & Yan Yu, 2023. "Induced innovation and spillover effects of US and Canadian research expenditures in Canadian agriculture," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 71(2), pages 153-169, June.
    14. Thirtle, Colin & Townsend, Robert & van Zyl, Johan, 1995. "Testing the induced innovation hypothesis in South African agriculture (an error correction approach)," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1547, The World Bank.
    15. Mundlak, Yair, 2001. "Production and supply," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: B. L. Gardner & G. C. Rausser (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 3-85, Elsevier.
    16. Francesco Nicolli & Francesco Vona & Lionel Nesta, 2012. "Determinants of Renewable Energy Innovation: Environmental Policies vs. Market Regulation," Working Papers 201204, University of Ferrara, Department of Economics.
    17. Shoemaker, Robbin, 1986. "Effects of Changes in U.S. Agricultural Production on Demand for Farm Inputs," Technical Bulletins 157024, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    18. Milton Madison & James MacDonald & Michael Ollinger, 2000. "Technological Change and Economies of Scale in U.S. Poultry Slaughter," Working Papers 00-05, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    19. Sandrine Kablan & Ouidad Yousfi, 2015. "Performance of Islamic Banks across the World: An Empirical Analysis over the Period 2001-2008," International Journal of Empirical Finance, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 4(1), pages 27-46.
    20. O'Donnell, Christopher J., 2000. "Estimating The Characteristics Of Homogeneous Functionsusing Flexible Functional Forms," 2000 Conference (44th), January 23-25, 2000, Sydney, Australia 123713, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:54448. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeasaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.