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Modernization of Agriculture and Long-Term Growth

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  • Dennis Tao Yang
  • Xiaodong Zhu

Abstract

This paper develops a two-sector model that illuminates the role played by agricultural modernization in the transition from stagnation to growth. When agriculture relies on traditional technology, industrial development reduces the relative price of industrial products, but has a limited effect on per capita income because most labor has to remain in farming. Growth is not sustainable until this relative price drops below a certain threshold, thus inducing farmers to adopt modern technology that employs industry-supplied inputs. Once agricultural modernization begins, per capita income emerges from stasis and accelerates toward modern growth. Our calibrated model is largely consistent with the set of historical data we have compiled on the English economy, accounting well for the growth experience of England encompassing the Industrial Revolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Dennis Tao Yang & Xiaodong Zhu, 2009. "Modernization of Agriculture and Long-Term Growth," Working Papers tecipa-376, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tor:tecipa:tecipa-376
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    long-term growth; transition mechanisms; relative price; agricultural modernization; structural transformation; the Industrial Revolution; England.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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