Tasso Adamopoulos
Professor
Office: Vari Hall, 1036
Phone: 416-736-2100 Ext: 33269
Email: aadamo@yorku.ca
Primary website: http://tassoadamopoulos.com
Biography I am a Professor at the Department of Economics at York University. My general research interests lie in the areas of macroeconomics, growth and development and international economics. My current work focuses on understanding the determinants of aggregate and producer-level productivity, with a focus on agriculture. I obtained my Ph.D from the University of Toronto.
Degrees
Ph.D. Economics, University of TorontoM.A., Economics, Queens University
B.A., Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business
Professional Leadership
Macroeconomics Conference at Ryerson University: Money, Financial Institutions, and the Real Economy," Toronto, Canada, 2008 (Chair).
Growth Conference at Guelph University: The Role of Human Capital in Economic Growth: Recent Theory and Evidence," Guelph, Canada, 2007 (Presenter).
Society of Economic Dynamics, Vancouver, Canada, 2006 (Presenter, Co-author).
Canadian Economic Association Meetings, Montreal, 2006 (Chair, Presenter).
Community Contributions
Professor Anastasios Adamopoulos, has been invited to several seminars, such as: Wilfrid Laurier University (April 2008), University of Pittsburgh (December 2007), and several others.
He has also reviewed the textbook Macroeconomics by Bradford Delong, Arman Mansoorian, and Leo Michelis (2005).
He was also on the Planning and Appointments Committee, the Ph.D Macroeconomics Comprehensive Exam Committee, and the Graduate Curriculum Committee.
Research Interests
Review of Economic Dynamics , 4(2), 2008, 11(2), 257-282
Abstract: Can the initial distribution of land, in a country's early history, affect its subsequent economic development? In this paper, I show that when land ownership is sufficiently concentrated, the landed elite will lobby the government to raise barriers to industrialization in order to protect its rents in the rural economy. I develop a small open economy model in which barriers take the form of tariffs on the imports of intermediate inputs used in industry. Such tariffs can affect both the timing and the pace of industrialization. The quantitative application of the theory is motivated by an important question in economic history: why did Argentina not replicate Canadian economic success, despite reasonable expectations to the contrary in the late 19th century? I provide evidence that Argentina had a markedly higher inequality in land ownership than Canada. Taking as given the observed differences in land distributions in the early 20th century, the model produces differences in equilibrium tariffs similar to the ones observed at the time, and the ones required to account for the Canadian-Argentine income gap until 1950. Over time however, as land becomes unimportant in production, land inequality ceases to be a source of policy disparities and income gaps.
(with Diego Restuccia)
American Economic Review , 2014, 104(6), 1667-97
Abstract: We study the determinants of di fferences in farm-size across countries and their impact on agricultural and aggregate productivity using a quantitative sectoral model featuring a distribution of farms. Measured aggregate factors (capital, land, economy-wide productivity) account for ¼ of the observed differences in farm size and productivity. Policies and institutions that misallocate resources across farms have the potential to account for the remaining diff erences. Exploiting within-country variation in crop-specifi c price distortions and their correlation with farm size, we construct a cross-country measure of farm-size distortions which together with aggregate factors accounts for ½ of the cross-country diff erences in size and productivity.
[go to paper]
International Economic Review , 2011, 52(2), 489-521
Abstract: I study the role of transportation for development by introducing regional trade and a transportation sector into the standard two-sector model of agriculture-nonagriculture. Low transport productivity can distort the allocation of resources across geographically dispersed production units within sectors and between agriculture and nonagriculture. I infer cross-country transport productivity disparities from observed domestic transport costs and transport infrastructure stocks. "Endowing" rich countries with the transport productivity of poor countries would reduce their income by 10%. Combining transport productivity disparities with disparities in nonagricultural productivity and arable land the model yields a 50% higher rich-poor income ratio than the two-sector model.
[go to paper]
(with Ahmet Akyol)
Review of Economic Dynamics , 2009, 12(2), 697-717
Abstract: From 1960 to 2003, Turkey has underperformed relative to several Western economies, in terms of hours worked and output per hour. Our sectoral analysis illustrates two points. First, Turkey's large drop in hours is due to the fact that the substantial decline in agricultural hours has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in nonagricultural market hours. Second, the sectoral composition of output is important for understanding Turkey's relatively weak rise in output per hour. We develop a simple model of structural transformation and home production to provide an account of Turkey's performance relative to the US and Southern Europe. We find that the evolution of exogenous differences in sectoral productivity and taxes, between Turkey and the US, as well as Southern Europe, can account quantitatively for most of Turkey's relative underperformance to these regions.
[go to paper]
Biography I am a Professor at the Department of Economics at York University. My general research interests lie in the areas of macroeconomics, growth and development and international economics. My current work focuses on understanding the determinants of aggregate and producer-level productivity, with a focus on agriculture. I obtained my Ph.D from the University of Toronto.
Degrees
Ph.D. Economics, University of TorontoM.A., Economics, Queens University
B.A., Economics, Athens University of Economics and Business
Professional Leadership
Macroeconomics Conference at Ryerson University: Money, Financial Institutions, and the Real Economy," Toronto, Canada, 2008 (Chair).
Growth Conference at Guelph University: The Role of Human Capital in Economic Growth: Recent Theory and Evidence," Guelph, Canada, 2007 (Presenter).
Society of Economic Dynamics, Vancouver, Canada, 2006 (Presenter, Co-author).
Canadian Economic Association Meetings, Montreal, 2006 (Chair, Presenter).
Community Contributions
Professor Anastasios Adamopoulos, has been invited to several seminars, such as: Wilfrid Laurier University (April 2008), University of Pittsburgh (December 2007), and several others.
He has also reviewed the textbook Macroeconomics by Bradford Delong, Arman Mansoorian, and Leo Michelis (2005).
He was also on the Planning and Appointments Committee, the Ph.D Macroeconomics Comprehensive Exam Committee, and the Graduate Curriculum Committee.
Research Interests
All Publications
Review of Economic Dynamics , 4(2), 2008, 11(2), 257-282
Abstract: Can the initial distribution of land, in a country's early history, affect its subsequent economic development? In this paper, I show that when land ownership is sufficiently concentrated, the landed elite will lobby the government to raise barriers to industrialization in order to protect its rents in the rural economy. I develop a small open economy model in which barriers take the form of tariffs on the imports of intermediate inputs used in industry. Such tariffs can affect both the timing and the pace of industrialization. The quantitative application of the theory is motivated by an important question in economic history: why did Argentina not replicate Canadian economic success, despite reasonable expectations to the contrary in the late 19th century? I provide evidence that Argentina had a markedly higher inequality in land ownership than Canada. Taking as given the observed differences in land distributions in the early 20th century, the model produces differences in equilibrium tariffs similar to the ones observed at the time, and the ones required to account for the Canadian-Argentine income gap until 1950. Over time however, as land becomes unimportant in production, land inequality ceases to be a source of policy disparities and income gaps.
(with Diego Restuccia)
American Economic Review , 2014, 104(6), 1667-97
Abstract: We study the determinants of di fferences in farm-size across countries and their impact on agricultural and aggregate productivity using a quantitative sectoral model featuring a distribution of farms. Measured aggregate factors (capital, land, economy-wide productivity) account for ¼ of the observed differences in farm size and productivity. Policies and institutions that misallocate resources across farms have the potential to account for the remaining diff erences. Exploiting within-country variation in crop-specifi c price distortions and their correlation with farm size, we construct a cross-country measure of farm-size distortions which together with aggregate factors accounts for ½ of the cross-country diff erences in size and productivity.
[go to paper]
International Economic Review , 2011, 52(2), 489-521
Abstract: I study the role of transportation for development by introducing regional trade and a transportation sector into the standard two-sector model of agriculture-nonagriculture. Low transport productivity can distort the allocation of resources across geographically dispersed production units within sectors and between agriculture and nonagriculture. I infer cross-country transport productivity disparities from observed domestic transport costs and transport infrastructure stocks. "Endowing" rich countries with the transport productivity of poor countries would reduce their income by 10%. Combining transport productivity disparities with disparities in nonagricultural productivity and arable land the model yields a 50% higher rich-poor income ratio than the two-sector model.
[go to paper]
(with Ahmet Akyol)
Review of Economic Dynamics , 2009, 12(2), 697-717
Abstract: From 1960 to 2003, Turkey has underperformed relative to several Western economies, in terms of hours worked and output per hour. Our sectoral analysis illustrates two points. First, Turkey's large drop in hours is due to the fact that the substantial decline in agricultural hours has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in nonagricultural market hours. Second, the sectoral composition of output is important for understanding Turkey's relatively weak rise in output per hour. We develop a simple model of structural transformation and home production to provide an account of Turkey's performance relative to the US and Southern Europe. We find that the evolution of exogenous differences in sectoral productivity and taxes, between Turkey and the US, as well as Southern Europe, can account quantitatively for most of Turkey's relative underperformance to these regions.
[go to paper]
