Abstract

Can public R&D in developing countries raise productivity? We study how Brazil’s Embrapa—a public research corporation founded in 1973 to develop locally-relevant agricultural technologies—shaped agricultural development. Researcher-level microdata reveal that Embrapa shifted innovation toward staple crops and Brazil-specific ecology, with no decline in researcher productivity. Exploiting Embrapa’s staggered expansion alongside municipality-level variation in the ecological suitability of Embrapa’s innovation, we find significant increases in agricultural productivity, concentrated in targeted staple crops. Our estimates imply that Embrapa raised aggregate agricultural productivity by 110% with a benefit–cost ratio of 17, driven by the applicability of Embrapa’s innovation across Brazil.