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Global Agricultural Value Chains and Structural Transformation

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  • Sunghun Lim

Abstract

Since the mid-1900s, agricultural global value chains (AGVCs) have grown rapidly and transformed the nature of agri-food production around the world. Little is known, however, about how participation in AGVCs changes the structure of participating economies. Using a constructed panel dataset from 155 countries for the period 1991-2015, I find that, in response to high AGVC participation, both GDP and employment shares in the agricultural and services sectors increase, and that both factors decrease in the manufacturing sector. Counter to conventional wisdom about structural transformation, I uncover evidence that modern agrarian economies are leapfrogging the manufacturing sector to directly develop their agriculture and services sectors through their participation in AGVCs.

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  • Sunghun Lim, 2021. "Global Agricultural Value Chains and Structural Transformation," NBER Working Papers 29194, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:29194
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    1. Ahn, Soojung & Steinbach, Sandro, 2022. "COVID-19 Trade Actions and Their Impact on the Agricultural and Food Sector," 2022 Allied Social Sciences Association (ASSA) Annual Meeting (Virtual), January 7-9, 2022 316789, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Soojung Ahn & Sandro Steinbach, 2023. "The impact of COVID‐19 trade measures on agricultural and food trade," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(2), pages 911-927, June.
    3. Bangkit A. Wiryawan & Christian Otchia, 2022. "The legacy of the reformasi: the role of local government spending on industrial development in a decentralized Indonesia," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 11(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Bellemare, Marc F., 2022. "Agricultural value chains: towards a marriage of development economics and industrial organisation?," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 66(02), January.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F63 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Economic Development
    • O13 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
    • Q17 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agriculture in International Trade

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