Comparing Crop Yields Effect of the Change from a Command Economy to a Market Economy

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, wheat yield in Russia has gone up. Part of the gain is because they just stopped farming about 20% of the worst land.

Meanwhile, wheat yield also went up for the world as a whole.

An important point: yields went up even faster in countries like Mexico.

to “smooth out” year-to-year variations. You can add trend lines to “smooth out” year-to-year variations.

Comparing these trends leads to one simple conclusion:

BUT the increase Comparing these trends Wheat yields in Russia did go up after the change from a “command economy” to a “free-market economy,” BUT the increase was basically the same as the world average. Comparing these trends leads to one simple conclusion:

more complicated graphs, Here are three more complicated graphs, each one making a simple point:

Grain area in Russia went down about 20 %.

Wheat yields in Pakistan and India are low, but they are rising faster than in Mexico. And yields in Mexico are rising faster than in Russia.

that grain yields are reaching There is some evidence that grain yields are reaching some kind of limit.

Here’s the question: How do we start to give children the tools to evaluate assertions about cause and effect?