Production Structure, Technical Change, and Productivity Growth in Albanian Agriculture

Abstract

This paper analyzes the production structure, technical change, and total factor productivity of Albanian agriculture during the postwar period. Albanian agriculture faced severe structural problems such as limited economies of scale, labor-using technical change, decreasing partial factor (land and labor) productivities, and slow growth of total factor productivity. Agricultural development in Albania was based mainly on input increases, which accounted for almost 90% of output growth. Consequently, the economic crisis appearing since 1990 is not due only to the adjustment process toward a market economy but has also been affected by the postwar agricultural development strategy.