Comparisons of Capital Input in OECD Agriculture, 1973-2011 Articles uri icon

publication date

  • March 2016

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1923-7529

abstract

  • This paper provides a farm sector comparison of relative levels of capital input for 17 OECD countries for the period 1973-2011, with an explicit distinction between land and depreciable assets. Methodologically, we adopt the constant efficiency model to derive capital
    services from capital stocks and construct the purchasing power parity between countries for crosscountry
    comparison. Our estimates show that, after accounting for cyclical fluctuation in the relative
    price of capital inputs, fifteen of the sixteen countries in the comparison had higher levels of capital
    input relative to the United States in 2011 than at the beginning of the sample period in 1973.
    Moreover, our analysis shows that increases in relative capital use on farms in OECD countries
    were accompanied by change in the structure of the capital input, away from land and towards
    depreciable capital items.