Inequality and Agricultural Structural Change: Evidence from Macro and Microdata , 1950-Present

Pre-print, Working paper: Since 1950, agricultural productivity has been increasing even as labourers leave agriculture. However, while average productivity of the sector has been converging, withinsector inequality has been increasing. Agricultural income inequality is still less than overall income inequality, but it measures significantly higher when we use higher-quality and more comprehensive survey data. This means not only to observe the entirety of household farm income, but also to measure the magnitude of capital income and corporate profits in the sector. Given the likely increase in agricultural inequality during the process of structural change, I show also the extent to which social protection programmes are both insufficient a nd poorly targeted for rural populations.

Author(s)

Matthew Fisher-Post

Date of publication
  • 2025
Keywords JEL
D3 N5 O1 Q1
Keywords
  • Agricultural structural change
  • Food systems transformation
  • Inequality
Internal reference
  • World Inequality Lab Working Papers n°2025-03
Version
  • 1