Selection, Agriculture, and Cross-Country Productivity Differences
提出一个基于工人自选择的新解释，说明为何农业部门的生产率差异比非农业部门更大，并用一般均衡Roy模型验证了生存食品需求导致低生产率工人留在农业的机制。
Cross-country labor productivity differences are larger in agriculture than in non-agriculture. We propose a new explanation for these patterns in which the self-selection of heterogeneous workers determines sector productivity. We formalize our theory in a general-equilibrium Roy model in which preferences feature a subsistence food requirement. In the model, subsistence requirements induce workers that are relatively unproductive at agricultural work to nonetheless select into the agriculture sector in poor countries. When parameterized, the model predicts that productivity differences are roughly twice as large in agriculture as non-agriculture even when countries differ by an economy-wide efficiency term that affects both sectors uniformly.