La agricultura y el bienestar nacional en el mundo

Calculations of marginal welfare effects suggest that agricultural development has had important positive effects on national welfare, especially in developing countries. Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries have also benefited from agricultural growth, but non-agricultural production has had marginal welfare effects that are greater in magnitude to those provided by agricultural activities. The industrialized, high-income countries experienced positive marginal welfare gains from non-agricultural activities but negative effects from agriculture. These calculations of marginal welfare effects across regions depend on econometric estimates of elasticities linking agricultural and non-agricultural economic activities to four elements proposed in a theoretical national welfare function: national GDP per capita, average income of the poorest households within countries, environmental outcomes concerning air and water pollution and deforestation, and macroeconomic volatility. The empirical models are estimated with various econometric techniques that deal with issues of causality and international heterogeneity.