SOURCES OF SECTORAL GROWTH IN AN ECONOMY WIDE CONTEXT - THE CASE OF US AGRICULTURE

Growth in U.S. agriculture is linked to the non-farm economy through d omestic terms of trade and factor market adjustments. With almost stab le input growth, the relatively large contributions from growth in Tot al Factor Productivity (TFP) are passed on to intermediate and final c onsumers in the form of declining real prices for primary farm product s. The resulting net growth in the real value of farm output (GDP) is relatively low (0.25% per annum). The decomposition of TFP suggests th at public agricultural stock of knowledge and infrastructure are ''rob ustly'' associated with TFP growth, while spill-overs from private agr icultural and economy wide research and development (R&D) are positive but, relatively small.