Knowledge in agriculture: a micro data assessment of the role of internal and external knowledge in farm productivity in Sweden

This study examines the impact of internal and external knowledge on firm productivity in the Swedish agricultural sector. It combines theories from regional economics about the geographical aspects of knowledge with traditional theories on the role of knowledge in productivity in agriculture. The study is a firm-level analysis using an unbalanced panel between the years 2002 and 2011 in Sweden. The results show that these firms are positively affected by employees with formal education related to the sector. Higher knowledge levels have a greater impact than lower levels. External knowledge, such as localised spillovers, is also important, but the results on this factor are more ambiguous.