Role of agricultural productivity growth in economic development: the neglected impact on institutional quality in Africa

Growing agricultural productivity has often been seen as the key to rapid economic development. In this paper, it is argued that agricultural productivity growth plays an important role in institutional development. It is hypothesized that agricultural productivity growth leads to structural change...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary and institutional economics review 2022-09, Vol.19 (2), p.681-700
Main Authors: Grabowski, Richard, Self, Sharmistha
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural production
Agriculture
Developing countries
Economic development
Economic theory
Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods
Economics
Economics and Finance
Employment
Entrepreneurs
History of Economic Thought/Methodology
Human capital
Inequality
Labor force
LDCs
Manufacturing
Political Economy/Economic Systems
Political power
Productivity
Social Policy
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Summary:Growing agricultural productivity has often been seen as the key to rapid economic development. In this paper, it is argued that agricultural productivity growth plays an important role in institutional development. It is hypothesized that agricultural productivity growth leads to structural change both inside the rural agricultural sector and between this sector and modern manufacturing and services. This structural change creates opportunities for institutional entrepreneurs to extend institutional protection to these new activities (improving institutional quality). It is also hypothesized that increases in inequality tend to lead to institutional innovation which reduces institutional quality. These hypotheses were tested utilizing data for eighteen countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The main conclusion is that policies that promote agricultural productivity increases are found to be important in the improvement of institutional quality.
ISSN:1349-4961
2188-2096
DOI:10.1007/s40844-022-00232-w