Input Subsidies to Improve Smallholder Maize Productivity in Malawi: Toward an African Green Revolution. Denning G, Kabambe P, Sanchez P, Malik A, Flor R, et al. PLoS Biology Vol. 7, No. 1, e23.
Silver bullet, or propaganda?
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Input Subsidies to Improve Smallholder Maize Productivity in Malawi: Toward an African Green Revolution. Denning G, Kabambe P, Sanchez P, Malik A, Flor R, et al. PLoS Biology Vol. 7, No. 1, e23.
Silver bullet, or propaganda?
Subsidies increase production. Duh. Welcome to 10,000 years of agricultural history.
They do? Or do inputs increase production?
Subsidies increase production of the focal good. This is unsurprising. But the authors say something else. They say that the benefits of those subsidies are greater than the costs. The problem is that they arrive at this conclusion thanks to the sample size of one cherry-picked case and the creative accounting.