Developing countries have been found to tax agriculture heavily, which might affect the productivity of resources allocated to agriculture, as well as their quantity. A variable-coefficient crosscountry agricultural production function is estimated, with past price expectations among the determinants of the production coefficients. Productivity is found to be responsive to those expectations, with the implication that had these developing economies eliminated their price interventions, agricultural productivity would have increased on average by about a third.

Agricultural productivity in 41 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries from 1960 to 1999 is examined by estimating a semi-nonparametric Fourier production frontier. Over the four decades the estimated rate of productivity change was 0.83% per year, although the average rate from 1985-99 was a strong 1.90% per year. Former UK colonies exhibited significantly higher productivity gains than others, while Liberia and countries that had been colonies of Portugal or Belgium exhibited net reductions in productivity. We measure a significant reduction in productivity during political conflicts and wars, and a significant increase in productivity among those countries with higher levels of political rights and civil liberties.

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This paper examines changes in agricultural productivity in 18 developing countries over the period 1961±1985. We use a nonparametric, output-based Malmquist index and a parametric variable coef®cients Cobb±Douglas production function to examine, whether our estimates con®rm results from other studies that have indicated declining agricultural productivity in LDCs. The results con®rm previous ®ndings, indicating that at least half of these countries have experienced productivity declines in agriculture. #

Tobin and Houthakker's work on consumer behavior under quantity rationing has been extended by many authors, especially through the use of duality theory. This paper uses duality theory to extend the work on demand theory under rationing to the case of producer behavior under quotas. These results permit estimation of otherwise unobservable market supply and demand structures. The structure of the farm economy operating under a tobacco quota system is estimated, and the theory is utilized to infer that the supply elasticity of tobacco would be about 7.0 if the quotas were removed. Estimates such as this are not normally attainable without the theory outlined here, even though they are essential for the evaluation of policy changes.