Convergence in US and EU agriculture

This paper finds strong and robust evidence of convergence of labour produc tivity in agriculture across all US states and 11 EU countries during 1970- 1992. Moreover, off-farm migration has a positive effect on the speed of co nvergence, especially in the EU. Holding the off-farm migration rate consta nt, the speed of convergence for EU countries (2.9 per cent per year) is st ronger than for US states (1.9 per cent per year). A convergence speed of 2 .9 per cent means that an EU country needs about 10 years to eliminate one- quarter of the gap between its initial output per worker and its own steady state, and half a century to eliminate three-quarters of the gap.