摘要：In this research we studied empirical relationships between agricultural production dynamicsand six quantitative World Bank governance indicators for 173 countries between 1975 and 2007. It ishypothesized that in countries with lower quality of governance, agricultural production increases are morelikely to be achieved by area expansions than by increases in yields. We distinguished four groups ofcountries: those with both area and yield increases; those with increasing yields but decreasing area; thosewith decreasing yields but a growing area; and those with both declines in yields and area. We analyzeddifferences between these four groups, and also analyzed governance-production relationships within thesegroups. On average, quality of governance is low in countries with both area and yield increases and highin countries with increasing yields but decreasing area. Countries with declining yields were too few innumber to allow for quantitative analyses. The analysis of governance-production relationships within thefour groups suggests that countries with a lower quality of governance are more inclined to achieveproduction increases by expanding agricultural area rather than increasing yields. Additional explanatoryvalue of governance indicators to agricultural production dynamics is generally small, but neverthelesssignificant in most cases. Our results suggest that, in order for agricultural production to increase withoutexcessive expansions of agricultural area, governance issues should be resolved
