Measuring Agricultural Productivity: A New Look

This paper presents revised procedures for calculating total factor productivity and measuring productivity growth in U.S. agriculture over the postwar years. Our estimates reflect (1) a disaggregated treatment of outputs and inputs and (2) indexing / procedures that do not im ose a priori restrictions on the structure of production. We find that productivity grew at the average annual rate of 1. 5 percent during the 1948-79 period, compared with the 1.70 percent per year estimated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The similar estimates of productivity growth overshadow some important differences in measurement of individual inputs.