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Abstract
Recent research has focused on the effect of public infrastructure on economic performance. In this paper, a model of
Greek agriculture's technology and behaviour is constructed based on the dual cost function framework. The model provides
a decomposition of productivity growth into the components technical change, returns to scale, and public infrastructure. The
empirical estimates indicate that public infrastructure investment provides a significant return to agriculture and augments
productivity growth. Over the period 1960-1995, the impact of public infrastructure on productivity growth in livestock and
crop production is found to be positive, although it has been declining since the late 1970s. These results strongly suggest
that a decline in public infrastructure investment can partly explain the observed decline in the productivity growth of Greek
agriculture in the 1980s.
© 2003 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.