Research and productivity in Asian agriculture.

The general outline and structure of this volume are as follows. Part I is directed toward the development of public and private-sector re search and extension institutions with a focus on Asian agriculture. Chapter 1 documents the growth of public institutions, including the International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCS). Chapter 2 docu ments institutional development in both public and private-sector re search activities and shows that the private sector is more active in these activities than was previously supposed.

Part II uses the relatively well-developed methods of productivity decomposition to investigate the determinants of productivity growth. The four studies in this part add to the growing literature of productiv ity studies, and each finds that agricultural research investments do have an impact on productivity growth. The methodology of these produc tivity decomposition studies does not presuppose that research activities are the sole determinant of productivity growth. Indeed the studies identify several policy-related factors as determinants of productivity change.

Part III also addresses the question of the determinants of productiv ity growth but with a newer and more complex methodology. Advances in economic theory and econometric methodology in the past ten to fifteen years have opened up rich new possibilities for empirical analyses in this area. By taking advantage of the "duality" between production (or transformation) functions and maximized profit functions, the ana lyst can derive a system of product supply and factor demand equations. Each of these equations includes productivity impact variables such as research stock variables. By estimating such systems with appropriate data, one can then compute the impact of a change in research invest ment not only on productivity but on the supply of each product and the demand for each variable factor. Such estimated systems are reported for the Philippines, Thailand, and India in Part III.

The estimated product supply and factor demand systems can then be used to develop a set of simulated markets for products and factors. Chapter 10 of Part III develops an empirical application of this method ology to compute the impacts of research, extension, and other policy related investments on the real incomes of specific population groups. Chapter 11 extends this analysis to a broader range of population induced policy questions. Thus by taking advantage of the power of modern economic methodology, the chapters in Part III demonstrate that one can address the important question, Who gains and who loses from these investments?

Part IV offers international perspectives on agricultural research and extension systems and technology transfer. Two chapters focus on the IARCS and their impacts on national productivity by technology trans fer. A third chapter addresses the question of the impact of the IARCS on national program development.

The concluding chapter in this volume summarizes the productivity and income effects of research and extension reported in this and other studies and contrasts this evidence with investment evidence. Invest ment policy implications are given in brief.