Resource reallocation and its contribution to productivity growth in Australian broadacre agriculture

Abstract

This article uses farm survey data to measure the contribution of cross-farm resource reallocation to industry-level productivity growth in Australian broadacre agriculture. We show that resource reallocation between farms mainly occurred between incumbent farms and between farms with different productivity growth. Resource reallocation is estimated to account for around half of the industry-level productivity growth that occurred between 1978 and 2010, and its contribution appears to have increased over time. Moreover, we also show that resource reallocation effects vary across different inputs, partly due to their different mobility. This analysis improves our understanding of how reforms targeting structural adjustment – and the resource reallocation this generates – can influence aggregate productivity growth. Show more