Human capital and the supply of agricultural workers

a column by Tommaso Porzio for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal

The share of the population employed in agriculture across the globe declined steeply over the second half of the 20th century. This coincided with an unprecedented increase in average years of schooling.

This column explores whether these two trends are related.

The results lend support to the idea that increased schooling led more workers to sort out of agricultural work. Whether reallocation out of agriculture has been beneficial for growth, however, remains to be seen.

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