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This article investigates the sources of profitability and productivity change at the farm level with an application to a group of 252 farms in Kansas over an 18 years period, from 1993 to 2010. The Lowe index method is used to compute changes in total factor productivity (TFP) and terms of trade (TT). Nonparametric data envelopment analysis is used to decompose TFP into technical change and different measures of output oriented efficiency change. Profitability change is mainly driven by TFP change. The main source of TFP change is technical progress. The upward shifting efficiency frontier results in declining technical efficiency. Both profitability and productivity vary by farm size and specialization. Results point for the need to support research and development without ignoring efforts to encourage uptake of existing technologies.

Using data on 48 contiguous U.S. states and a spatial econometric approach, this paper examines short‐ and long‐run effects of productive higher education and highway infrastructure spending financed by different revenue sources on state economic growth. Following the Lagrange Multiplier, Wald, and Likelihood Ratio tests, the data are found to be characterized by both spatial lag and spatial error processes, leading to the estimation of a dynamic spatial Durbin model. By decomposing results of the dynamic spatial Durbin model into short‐ and long‐run direct as well as indirect (spillover) effects, we show that accounting for spillover effects provides a more comprehensive approach to uncovering the effects of productive government spending on growth. We find that, regardless of the financing source, productive higher education and highway spending have statistically significant short‐ and long‐run direct as well as spillover effects on state income growth.

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This article uses recent advances in data envelopment analysis, bootstrap data envelopment analysis, to investigate whether technical efficiency in the agricultural sector of 33 African countries improved (catching up) for the period 1966-2001. We also investigate whether there is evidence of efficiency catching-up within the five regions of Central, Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern Africa. Overall, the results show no evidence for efficiency catching-up in the entire sample. However, efficiency differed across countries and regions with evidence of catching-up within the East African countries. Our analyses point to the need for policies that improve technological uptake in African agriculture.