TY - CHAP AB - Egyptian farmers responded to migration-induced labor shortages in the 1970s and 1980s by mechanizing many agricultural operations. Tractor subsidies encouraged this process. After the mid-1980s, wages and employment fell steadily and remained low throughout the 1990s, but agriculture remained mechanized. This paper traces the process by which economic policies and technical indivisibilities locked Egypt into tractor-based mechanization even though economic analysis suggested that smaller scale machines were more profitable to farmers and generated more employment. A linear programming model is used to analyze both the determinants and dynamic implications of tractor adoption. VL - 5 SN - 978-0-76230-992-4, 978-1-84950-193-4/1094-5334 DO - 10.1016/S1094-5334(03)05011-8 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/S1094-5334(03)05011-8 AU - Kerr John PY - 2003 Y1 - 2003/01/01 TI - Price policy, irreversible investment, and the scale of agricultural mechanization in Egypt T2 - Food, Agriculture, and Economic Policy in the Middle East and North Africa T3 - Research in Middle East Economics PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 161 EP - 185 Y2 - 2024/09/26 ER -