The Human Side of Structural Transformation / Tommaso Porzio, Federico Rossi, Gabriella V. Santangelo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Porzio, Tommaso.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Rossi, Federico.

Santangelo, Gabriella V.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w29390.

NBER working paper series no. w29390

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2021.

Summary:

We document that nearly half of the global decline in agricultural employment during the 20th-century was driven by new cohorts entering the labor market. A newly compiled dataset of policy reforms supports an interpretation of these cohort effects as human capital. Through the lens of a model of frictional labor reallocation, we conclude that human capital growth, both as a mediating factor and as an independent driver, led to a sharp decline in the agricultural labor supply. This decline accounts, at fixed prices, for 40% of the decrease in agricultural employment. This aggregate effect is roughly halved in general equilibrium.

Notes:

Print version record

October 2021.