Agricultural Productivity Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study estimates two nonparametric nonstochastic §Malmquist indexes and a parametric stochastic §translog-Fourier production frontier to examine §agricultural productivity and its interactions with §sociopolitical institutions in 41 sub-Saharan §African, SSA, countries during the period of 1961-§1999. On average, agricultural productivity in SSA §was suffered a regression in productivity during and §1970s, but recovered in the mid-1980s to achieve a §reasonably sound productivity improvement through §the end of the century. This study contributes to §the robustness of research on SSA agriculture with a §broader geographical and time scope. §§Colonial heritage is found to be strongly correlated §with total factor productivity growth rate, after §controlling input quality. British colonies §exhibited the highest productivity growth rate, and §three ex-Belgian colonies the lowest. The difference §between former colonies was determined in §significant measure by the estimated effects of §difference in political and civil liberties. The §results indicate that institutional factors are §important determinants of agricultural productivity §growth.