本文以W. Arthur Lewis 勞力無限供給的雙元經濟模型作為參考架構提出一個米糖雙元經濟模型。此模型指出，在糖(產品)市場的獨佔與甘煎(要素)市場的制度性控制下，維生米作收益決定了出口部門原料供給者蔗農的收益，從而影響到日本糖業資本與蔗農間的利益分配，並因此導致米糖利益的對立。本文接著討論以蔗作相對面積作為米糖相剋指標的「爭地論」內部所存在的問題；此外，並透過數據與歷史事件澄清1920年代末至1930年代初蔗作耕地面積微幅下降的主因並非受到蓬萊米的排擠，而是市場需求有限以及生產技術的影響。「米糖相剋」的真意乃是日本糖業資本與本地農民的利益衝突，而非米蔗爭地。

The authors apply W. Arthur Lewis' theory of unlimited labor supply to develop a dualistic economic model addressing the contradictory relationship between rice and sugar production in colonial Taiwan. According to the proposed model, the distribution of Japanese sugar profits and indigenous cane farmer income was determined by the subsistence levels of indigenous rice farmers. The conflict of interests pitted Japanese sugar capital against indigenous farmers. This contrasts with economist explanations of the rice­sugar rivalry that are constrained by the ill-founded argument of farmland competition between rice and cane production and thus fail to capture the essential character of the colonial economy.