Revisiting the Role of Education for Agricultural Productivity

Abstract

Various recent cross-country regressions have detected insignificant or even surprisingly negative effects of schooling on agricultural productivity. Applying advanced panel econometric techniques to a sample of 95 developing and emerging countries from 1961 to 2002, we show that these results are due to a problematic reliance on enrollment and literacy indicators. Using data on educational attainment, we instead find a sizable and significant impact of schooling (avg. increase of approx. 3.2% per year of schooling) on agricultural productivity that is robust to estimation methods and model specification. We also find that returns from schooling are higher in technologically more advanced countries.