IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/jlaare/30811.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Analysis Of Economic Efficiency In Agriculture: A Nonparametric Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Chavas, Jean-Paul
  • Aliber, Michael

Abstract

A nonparametric analysis of technical, allocative, scale, and scope efficiency of agricultural production is presented based on a sample of Wisconsin farmers. The results indicate the existence of important economies of scale on very small farms, and of some diseconomies of scale for the larger farms. Also, it is found that most farms exhibit substantial economies of scope, but that such economies tend to decline sharply with the size of the enterprises. Finally, the empirical evidence suggests significant linkages between the financial structure of the farms and their economic efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Chavas, Jean-Paul & Aliber, Michael, 1993. "An Analysis Of Economic Efficiency In Agriculture: A Nonparametric Approach," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 18(1), pages 1-16, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:30811
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.30811
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/30811/files/18010001.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.30811?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean-Paul Chavas & Thomas L. Cox, 1988. "A Nonparametric Analysis of Agricultural Technology," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(2), pages 303-310.
    2. Forsund, Finn R. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1980. "A survey of frontier production functions and of their relationship to efficiency measurement," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 5-25, May.
    3. Bruce F. Hall & E. Phillip LeVeen, 1978. "Farm Size and Economic Efficiency: The Case of California," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 60(4), pages 589-600.
    4. Bauer, Paul W., 1990. "Recent developments in the econometric estimation of frontiers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 39-56.
    5. Varian, Hal R, 1984. "The Nonparametric Approach to Production Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 579-597, May.
    6. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Thrall, Robert M., 1990. "Recent developments in DEA : The mathematical programming approach to frontier analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 7-38.
    7. Diewert, W. E., 1976. "Exact and superlative index numbers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-145, May.
    8. Byrnes, Patricia, et al, 1987. "Technical Efficiency and Size: The Case of Illinois Grain Farms," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 14(4), pages 367-381.
    9. Philip Garcia & Steven T. Sonka & Man Sik Yoo, 1982. "Farm Size, Tenure, and Economic Efficiency in a Sample of Illinois Grain Farms," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(1), pages 119-123.
    10. Hanoch, Giora & Rothschild, Michael, 1972. "Testing the Assumptions of Production Theory: A Nonparametric Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 256-275, March-Apr.
    11. Surjit S. Sidhu & Carlos A. Baanante, 1979. "Farm-Level Fertilizer Demand for Mexican Wheat Varieties in the Indian Punjab," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 61(3), pages 455-462.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jean‐Paul Chavas & Thomas L. Cox, 1997. "Production Analysis: A Non‐Parametric Time Series Application To Us Agriculture," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1‐3), pages 330-348, January.
    2. Jean-Paul Chavas & Thomas L. Cox, 1994. "A Primal-Dual Approach to Nonparametric Productivity Analysis: the Case of U.S. Agriculture," Wisconsin-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics Staff Papers 372, Wisconsin-Madison Agricultural and Applied Economics Department.
    3. Kuosmanen, Timo, 2001. "DEA with efficiency classification preserving conditional convexity," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(2), pages 326-342, July.
    4. van Schalkwyk, H. D. & van Zyl, J. & Sartorius von Bach, H. J., 1993. "Management And Returns To Farm Size: Results Of A Case Study Using Parametric And Non-Parametric Methodology To Measure Scale Efficiencies," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 32(4), December.
    5. Charyulu, D. Kumara, 2010. "Technical, Allocative and Economic Efficiency of Organic Input Units in India," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 65(4), pages 1-17.
    6. Chavas, Jean-Paul & Cox, Thomas L., 1999. "A Generalized Distance Function And The Analysis Of Production Efficiency," Staff Papers 12601, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    7. Jean-Paul Chavas & Thomas L. Cox, 1992. "A Nonparametric Analysis of the Influence of Research on Agricultural Productivity," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 74(3), pages 583-591.
    8. Gow, Laura R. & Langemeier, Michael R., 1999. "An Efficiency Analysis Of Cattle Backgrounding In Kansas," 1999 Annual Meeting, July 11-14, 1999, Fargo, ND 35701, Western Agricultural Economics Association.
    9. Jean‐Paul Chavas & Thomas L. Cox, 1999. "A Generalized Distance Function and the Analysis of Production Efficiency," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(2), pages 294-318, October.
    10. Coelli, Tim J., 1995. "Recent Developments In Frontier Modelling And Efficiency Measurement," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 39(3), pages 1-27, December.
    11. Llewelyn, Richard V. & Williams, Jeffery R., 1996. "Nonparametric analysis of technical, pure technical, and scale efficiencies for food crop production in East Java, Indonesia," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 113-126, November.
    12. Cherchye, L. & Post, G.T., 2001. "Methodological Advances in Dea," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2001-53-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    13. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Pinheiro, Antonio E., 1993. "Efficiency Analysis Of Developing Country Agriculture: A Review Of The Frontier Function Literature," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 22(1), pages 1-14, April.
    14. Cox, Thomas L. & Mullen, John D. & Hu, Wensheng, 1996. "Nonparametric Measures Of The Impacts Of Public Research Expenditures On Australian Broadacre Agriculture: Preliminary Results," Staff Papers 12656, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    15. Gian Carlo Scarsi, 1999. "Local Electricity Distribution in Italy: Comparative Efficiency Analysis and Methodological Cross-Checking," Working Papers 1999.16, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    16. Cox, Thomas L. & Mullen, John D. & Hu, Wensheng, 1997. "Nonparametric measures of the impact of public research expenditures on Australian broadacre agriculture," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 41(3), pages 1-28.
    17. Allen M. Featherstone & Ghassan A. Moghnieh & Barry K. Goodwin, 1995. "Farm‐level nonparametric analysis of cost‐minimization and profit‐maximization behavior," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 13(2), pages 109-117, November.
    18. Tsur, Yacov, 1990. "Testing The Significance Of Deviations From Rational Behavior," Staff Papers 13267, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    19. Vicente, José R., 2004. "Economic Efficiency of Agricultural Production In Brazil," Brazilian Journal of Rural Economy and Sociology (Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural-RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 42(2), pages 1-22, June.
    20. Hockmann, H., 1990. "Aggregationsprobleme in der Berechnung von Indexziffern," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 26.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Farm Management; Industrial Organization;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:jlaare:30811. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/waeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.