Working Paper: NBER ID: w8863
Authors: Alan L. Olmstead; Paul W. Rhode
Abstract: The standard treatment of U.S. agriculture asserts that, before the 1930s, productivity growth was almost exclusively the result of mechanization rather than biological innovations. This paper shows that, to the contrary, U.S. wheat production witnessed a biological revolution during the 19th and early 20th centuries with wholesale changes in the varieties grown and cultural practices employed. Without these changes, vast expanses of the wheat belt could not have sustained commercial production and yields everywhere would have plummeted due to the increasing severity of insects, diseases, and weeds. Our revised estimates of Parker and Klein's productivity calculations indicate that biological innovations account for roughly one-half of labor productivity growth between 1839 and 1909.
Keywords: productivity growth; agriculture; wheat; biological innovations
JEL Codes: N5; Q1; O3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| biological innovations (O35) | labor productivity growth (O49) |
| new wheat varieties (Q16) | increased yields (Q15) |
| increased yields (Q15) | labor productivity growth (O49) |
| cultural methods (Z10) | enhanced productivity (O49) |
| biological innovations + mechanization (Q16) | agricultural advancements (Q16) |
| biological innovations (O35) | combating threats from pests and diseases (Q16) |