| This thesis presents a new view of cross-country agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa based on a first-time application to Africa of the wheat units approach to output aggregation. This approach avoids many of the problems caused by exchange rate distortion and related problems when international output comparisons are based on agricultural value added. Agricultural productivity measures based on the wheat units aggregates reveal a striking recovery of agricultural productivity growth during the mid-1980s. These results contrast sharply with those derived from the more standard output aggregates based on agricultural value added. This is true for both partial and total factor productivity analyses.; The recovery of African agricultural productivity during the 1980s does not appear to have been the result of technical change, though such advances do explain earlier productivity trends in several regions within Africa. Instead, the increased rate of productivity growth in African agriculture was due to a combination of widespread macroeconomic reform and improved weather conditions.; This finding raises concern for the sustainability of Africa's recent productivity gains, since the benefits of macroeconomic reform may be a one-time effect. Indeed, macroeconomic reform may directly jeopardize continued increases in agricultural productivity by reducing public investment in the agricultural research and improved physical infrastructure necessary to support sustained productivity growth. |
