The agricultural convergence across the EU regions remains a key process. The numerous empirical studies on the topic face several constraints among which the length of the time series the official sources provide. The availability of Argefit allows to overcome the issue. It concerns the revenue, cost and factor productivity of the Italian agricultural sector at the regional level from 1951-2002. The paper compare the character of the process of agricultural convergence based on this data set with that pointed out considering the official data, only available from 1980-2002. In order to overcome the neoclassical assumptions, three specific issues are also analysed: the role of the technology, total factor productivity and spatial interactions. The approach adopted is both parametric and non parametric. The results suggest important differences between what the analysis based on Agrefit and on the official data shows. In the former case the process is more accentuated and a probability of mobility towards a double path of convergence prevails. Persistence in disparities characterises the latter case. Contrary to technology, total factor productivity is an important variable for the explanation of agricultural convergence while spatial interaction affect the labour productivity rate of growth but without any improvement in the speed of convergence.
Il processo di convergenza agricola tra le regioni italiane attraverso i dati Agrefit
PECCI, Francesco;
2007-01-01
Abstract
The agricultural convergence across the EU regions remains a key process. The numerous empirical studies on the topic face several constraints among which the length of the time series the official sources provide. The availability of Argefit allows to overcome the issue. It concerns the revenue, cost and factor productivity of the Italian agricultural sector at the regional level from 1951-2002. The paper compare the character of the process of agricultural convergence based on this data set with that pointed out considering the official data, only available from 1980-2002. In order to overcome the neoclassical assumptions, three specific issues are also analysed: the role of the technology, total factor productivity and spatial interactions. The approach adopted is both parametric and non parametric. The results suggest important differences between what the analysis based on Agrefit and on the official data shows. In the former case the process is more accentuated and a probability of mobility towards a double path of convergence prevails. Persistence in disparities characterises the latter case. Contrary to technology, total factor productivity is an important variable for the explanation of agricultural convergence while spatial interaction affect the labour productivity rate of growth but without any improvement in the speed of convergence.
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