Files
Abstract
This paper examines the consistency of two series of aggregate output data in comparing
the agricultural performance of60 developing countries. Employing two approaches that take into account
the fact that deepening of intermediate goods takes place in agriculture as development proceeds, it is
found that, in less than half the country cases tested, the data on gross agricultural output compiled by
the US Department of Agriculture and the series on value-added in agriculture .produced by the World
Bank are consistent with each other and with the expectation of deepening of intermediate goods. The
World Bank's aggregates provide the more optimistic reading of performance of the two series, but neither
series indicates that a majority of developing countries have performed adequately in terms of the test of
agricultural performance suggested by Johnston and Mellor in 1961.