Productivity and product quality: evidence from agricultural products in south Mediterranean countries
2007
Belhaj Hassine Belghith, Nadia | Ben Ayed Mouelhi, Rym
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between trade openness and productivity in the Mediterranean countries agricultural sector. The study basically focuses on analyzing the effects of exports quality on productivity growth at the aggregate farming sector. The impact of quality on productivity is evaluated through the estimation of a dynamic production function by the GMM estimator over five groups of agricultural products on a panel of nine South Mediterranean Countries and five European Union Countries for the period 1990 to 2005. The model is expanded with a range of countries specific characteristics and competitive conditions such as trade barriers and exports varieties among the explanatory variables. The empirical findings suggest that trade openness may enhance agricultural productivity growth. It appears from the results that products quality, as inferred from trade data, contributes to productivity gains.
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