Chapter 13 - Agricultural Output and Productivity of Labour and Land in Latin America

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the agricultural output and productivity of labor and land in Latin America. Comparisons of agricultural sector value aggregates are of considerable interest and importance among Latin American countries. Rapid but differential rates of structural adjustments in favor of industrialization, particularly with respect to the development of an export-oriented mining sector, have provided wide variations in levels of economic development among the countries of the region. The differentiated pace of structural adjustments across countries may have been a result of movements in the relative price of agricultural and industrial output. The International Comparisons Project (ICP) work tends to show that the purchasing power of currencies of less-developed agricultural producers is probably significantly undervalued when official exchange rates are used as the basis of intercountry comparisons. This chapter employs ICP and Food and Agriculture Organization measures of the general price level for different agricultural and GDP based commodity groups to shed some light on agricultural price policy and exchange rate issues.