ABSTRACT
Much of the substantial windfall gains from the petroleum boom were expended on a relatively large, unproductive public sector bureaucracy and a variety of other recurring subsidies. Full implementation of outward-oriented and sector-neutral macroeconomic policies which remove subsidies to industry and home goods and restore incentives to agriculture and tradeable goods can be expected to generate large increases in agricultural production and productivity and relatively higher rates of economic growth. The principal recommendations of this study have focused on the need to shift from a traditional, natural resource-based to a modern, science-based agriculture as the principal foundation for more rapid economic growth and conservation of natural resources. If petroleum reserves are depleted before the transition to a science-based agriculture, Ecuador's natural resources will quickly become even more intensively exploited for agricultural production.
