1 option
Why Liberalization Alone Has Not Improved Agricultural Productivity in Zambia : The Role of Asset Ownership and Working Capital Constraints / Deininger, Klaus
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository (formerly "World Bank E-Library Publications") Available online
View online- Format:
- Book
- Government document
- Author/Creator:
- Deininger, Klaus
- Series:
- Policy research working papers.
- World Bank e-Library.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Cred Demand.
- Economic Theory and Research.
- Exports.
- Finance and Financial Sector Development.
- Financial Literacy.
- Fiscal Policies.
- GDP.
- Goods.
- Inputs.
- Labor Policies.
- Macro-Economic Policies.
- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth.
- Markets.
- Markets and Market Access.
- Overvalued Exchange Rates.
- Ownership.
- Prices.
- Production.
- Production Function.
- Productive Assets.
- Productivity.
- Risk Aversion.
- Social Protections and Labor.
- Subsidies.
- Total Factor Productivity.
- Welfare.
- Local Subjects:
- Cred Demand.
- Economic Theory and Research.
- Exports.
- Finance and Financial Sector Development.
- Financial Literacy.
- Fiscal Policies.
- GDP.
- Goods.
- Inputs.
- Labor Policies.
- Macro-Economic Policies.
- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth.
- Markets.
- Markets and Market Access.
- Overvalued Exchange Rates.
- Ownership.
- Prices.
- Production.
- Production Function.
- Productive Assets.
- Productivity.
- Risk Aversion.
- Social Protections and Labor.
- Subsidies.
- Total Factor Productivity.
- Welfare.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (28 pages)
- Place of Publication:
- Washington, D.C., The World Bank, 2000
- System Details:
- data file
- Summary:
- March 2000 - Policies to foster accumulation of the assets needed for agricultural production (including draft animals and implements) and to provide complementary public goods (education, credit, and good agricultural extension services) could greatly help reduce poverty and improve productivity in Zambia. Deininger and Olinto use a large panel data set from Zambia to examine factors that could explain the relatively lackluster performance of the country's agricultural sector after liberalization. Zambia's liberalization significantly opened the economy but failed to alter the structure of production or help realize efficiency gains. They reach two main conclusions. First, not owning productive assets (in Zambia, draft animals and implements) limits improvements in agricultural productivity and household welfare. Owning oxen increases income directly, allows farmers to till their fields efficiently when rain is delayed, increases the area cultivated, and improves access to credit and fertilizer markets. Second, the authors reject the hypothesis that the application of fertilizer is unprofitable because of high input prices. Rather, fertilizer use appears to have declined because of constraints on supplies, which government intervention exacerbated instead of alleviating. (Extending the use of fertilizer to the many producers not currently using it would be profitable, but increasing the amount applied by the few producers who now have access to it would not be.) Policies to foster accumulation of the assets needed for agricultural production (including draft animals and implements) and to provide complementary public goods (education, credit, and good agricultural extension services) could greatly help reduce poverty and improve productivity. This paper - a product of Rural Development, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to analyze determinants of rural growth and market participation. The authors may be contacted at kdeininger@worldbank.org or polinto@worldbank.org.
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.