World agricultural convergence

• DOI: 10.1007/s11123-021-00600-5
• Publication Date: 2021-03-26T21:02:36Z
• Authors: Lingran Yuan; Shurui Zhang; Shuo Wang; Zesen Qian; Binlei Gong
• Keywords: Empirical Research

The goal of this article is to answer two questions: Has world agricultural convergence occurred? If not, how can this goal be fulfilled? This article introduces a model averaging method to consider both a parametric and a semi-parametric SFA model to better estimate technical efficiency. Then, three types of convergence tests are employed to check if world agricultural catch-up occurs and to determine the degree of convergence across different groups of countries. The empirical results on a balanced panel of 126 countries from 1970-2014 show that world agricultural convergence has not occurred. This article then investigates the situations in different groups of countries and discusses how to use international trade, irrigation system, and structural transformation to improve agricultural efficiency and to diminish the efficiency gap among different countries in the future.