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Structural transformation in the 20th century: A new database on agricultural employment around the world

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  • Asger Moll Wingender

    (Department of Economics, Copenhagen University)

Abstract

Many empirical questions about economic growth and development are left open due to the lack of long time series of reliable GDP estimates. The share of the labor force employed in agriculture can fill this gap. Agricultural employment shares are highly correlated with GDP per capita, less prone to measurement errors, and data are available for longer periods than existing GDP estimates. This paper describes a new database on agricultural employment covering 169 countries for the period 1900-2010. Some of the many potential uses of the data are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Asger Moll Wingender, 2014. "Structural transformation in the 20th century: A new database on agricultural employment around the world," Discussion Papers 14-28, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:kud:kuiedp:1428
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    File URL: http://www.econ.ku.dk/english/research/publications/wp/dp_2014/1428.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Tyack, Nicholas, 2020. "Genetic resources and agricultural productivity in the developing world," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304277, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Harold James, 2017. "Britain and Europe: What Ways Forward?," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 2-14, February.
    4. Torben M. Andersen & Giuseppe Bertola & John Driffill & Clemens Fuest & Harold James & Jan-Egbert Sturm & Branko Uroševic, 2017. "Chapter 3: Britain and EUexit – The People Versus the EU," EEAG Report on the European Economy, CESifo, vol. 0, pages 67-81, March.
    5. Johannes C. Buggle & Steven Nafziger, 2021. "The Slow Road from Serfdom: Labor Coercion and Long-Run Development in the Former Russian Empire," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(1), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Jeanet Sinding Bentzen & Nicolai Kaarsen & Asger Moll Wingender, 2017. "Irrigation and Autocracy," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 1-53.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic growth; structural transformation; agricultural employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity

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