| Title: | Modeling the length and shape of the R&D lag: an application to UK agricultural productivity. |
| Authors: | Thirtle, Colin
Piesse, Jenifer
Schimmelpfennig, David
USDA, ERS |
| Source: | Agricultural economics the journal of the International Association of Agricultural Economists. 2008 July, v. 39, no. 1 Blackwell Publishing Inc, p. 73-85. |
| NALT Subjects: | econometric models
agricultural economics
productivity
agricultural research
research and development
patents
costs and returns
United Kingdom |
| Other Subjects: | Impact assessment
Technical change
Agricultural innovation |
| Issue Date: | Jul-2008 |
| Abstract: | This article updates total factor productivity (TFP) growth in UK agriculture from 1953-2005 and shows that public and private research and returns to scale explain TFP. Cointegration and causality tests are used to investigate the validity of attempts to explain UK agricultural productivity with R&D and related technology variables. Then, the length and shape of the lag structures are modeled and compared with the structures that are commonly imposed on the data. The rates of return (ROR) to R&D using the data determined lags differ considerably from those obtained by imposing lag shapes. These comparisons show that the ROR to public R&D are sensitive to the lag shape as well as its length and that the omission of other technology variables, such as mechanical and chemical patents pertaining to agriculture and farm size can bias the ROR. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10113/16983 |
| Appears in Collections: | USDA Research and Information
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