Abstract
Since the late 1970s, there have been fourteen studies that have estimated multifactor productivity (MFP) growth rates for the U.S. agricultural sector. The estimates of average annual MFP growth rates have ranged from 1.15 to 1.94 percent per year for studies using the gross productivity approach. The purpose of this paper is to identify the reasons for these different estimates. We consider theoretical and empirical factors and do not find any single reason that satisfactory explains the variation. The alternative estimates appear to be most sensitive to the coverage of years.
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Trueblood, M.A., Ruttan, V.W. A comparison of multifactor productivity calculations of the U.S. agricultural sector. J Prod Anal 6, 321–331 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01073523
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01073523