讲座主题：Transportation Costs, Ability Sorting, and the Agricultural Productivity Gap

主讲嘉宾：杭静 副教授

单位：中山大学岭南学院

讲座时间：2023年11月2日（周四） 19:00

线下地点：经济学院307会议室

线上平台：腾讯会议ID：716-807-444

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摘   要：This paper proposes a novel explanation for the large labor productivity gap between agriculture and non-agriculture in developing countries. I interpret the productivity gaps as reflecting high ability workers sort into non-agriculture while low ability workers sort into agriculture. The sorting mechanism builds on two ingredients: lower food prices for agricultural workers due to transportation costs and declining food expenditure shares in income due to subsistence food requirement. Low ability (income) workers value lower food prices more because they spend a larger fraction of their income on food. The sorting mechanism has larger effects in developing countries as these countries have higher transportation costs and higher expenditure share of food. I formalize the idea in a two-sector multi-region general equilibrium model. Quantitative analysis shows that the ability sorting mechanism can explain around 30% of the labor productivity gap in Malawi relative U.S. Model predictions are tested using a detailed household survey from Malawi.

嘉宾介绍：杭静，美国加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA） 经济学博士，中山大学岭南学院副教授，分属国际经济与区域经济教研室。研究兴趣包括产业结构变迁、资源错配等相关问题，相关研究成果发表于《经济研究》、《经济学季刊》、《管理世界》、《财贸经济》等杂志。主持国家自然科学青年项目1项、博士后基金面上项目1项。