One reason is that seasonal adjustment is tricky in such countries where the shift from agriculture to industry changes the pattern of seasonality over time, says Mr Kroeber.

ECONOMIST: Is China overstating its true rate of growth?

One notable exception was the late Jacques Cauvin, who, in the seventies, proposed that an early form of religion a cult of the bull and the fertility goddess had fostered a fertility-oriented world view that eventually engendered the shift to agriculture.

NEWYORKER: The Sanctuary

Labour productivity soars as poor economies shift workers from agriculture to a growing manufacturing sector.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

All four Republicans responding to the Register survey, for example, supported Freedom to Farm and its shift to a more market-oriented agriculture policy.

CNN: By GEORGE ANTHAN/DES MOINES REGISTER

Enacting and maintaining the one-child policy alleviated growing pressures on agriculture and natural resources to give China a chance to shift industries and redirect capital into transforming China into an industrial nation and then a privatized economy.

FORBES: China's Growing Problem Of Too Many Single Men