IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i4p1282-d142480.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency and Risk in Sustaining China’s Food Production and Security: Evidence from Micro-Level Panel Data Analysis of Japonica Rice Production

Author

Listed:
  • Chengjun Wang

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, Zhejiang A&F University, Lin’an, Zhejiang 311300, China
    Faculty of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310082, China)

  • Zhaoyong Zhang

    (School of Business & Law, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup WA6027, Australia)

  • Ximin Fei

    (Faculty of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310082, China)

Abstract

Sustainable food production and food security are always challenging issues in China. This paper constructs a multi-element two-level constant-elasticity-of-substitution (CES) model to assess technological progress in, and its contribution to, japonica rice production in China. The results show that the speed of technological progress in the production of japonica rice on average was 0.44% per annum in 1985–2013, and technological progress has contributed significantly to the growth of japonica rice production in China. Robustness checks show that the results appear to be sensitive to which sub-sample is used. Labour and some other inputs are found to be significant but negative, especially during the middle sampling period of 1994–2006 and in eastern and western regions. This has important policy implications on the impact of rural-to-urban migration and farmers’ human development.

Suggested Citation

  • Chengjun Wang & Zhaoyong Zhang & Ximin Fei, 2018. "Efficiency and Risk in Sustaining China’s Food Production and Security: Evidence from Micro-Level Panel Data Analysis of Japonica Rice Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:1282-:d:142480
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/1282/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/1282/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Neumann, Kathleen & Verburg, Peter H. & Stehfest, Elke & Müller, Christoph, 2010. "The yield gap of global grain production: A spatial analysis," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(5), pages 316-326, June.
    2. Burchi, Francesco & De Muro, Pasquale, 2016. "From food availability to nutritional capabilities: Advancing food security analysis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 10-19.
    3. Chang, Hongqin & Dong, Xiao-yuan & MacPhail, Fiona, 2011. "Labor Migration and Time Use Patterns of the Left-behind Children and Elderly in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2199-2210.
    4. Miguel A. León-Ledesma & Peter McAdam & Alpo Willman, 2010. "Identifying the Elasticity of Substitution with Biased Technical Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1330-1357, September.
    5. Beck, Nathaniel & Katz, Jonathan N., 2001. "Throwing Out the Baby with the Bath Water: A Comment on Green, Kim, and Yoon," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 55(2), pages 487-495, April.
    6. Robert M. Solow, 1956. "A Contribution to the Theory of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 70(1), pages 65-94.
    7. Benjamin Crost & Bhavani Shankar & Richard Bennett & Stephen Morse, 2007. "Bias from Farmer Self-Selection in Genetically Modified Crop Productivity Estimates: Evidence from Indian Data," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 24-36, February.
    8. Arne Henningsen & Géraldine Henningsen, 2011. "Econometric Estimation of the “Constant Elasticity of Substitution" Function in R: Package micEconCES," IFRO Working Paper 2011/9, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    9. Binswanger-Mkhize, Hans P. & Savastano, Sara, 2017. "Agricultural intensification: The status in six African countries," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 26-40.
    10. Xingliang Ma & Melinda Smale & David J. Spielman & Patricia Zambrano & Hina Nazli & Fatima Zaidi, 2017. "A Question of Integrity: Variants of Bt Cotton, Pesticides and Productivity in Pakistan," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 366-385, June.
    11. Zhaoyong Zhang, 2002. "Productivity And Economic Growth: An Empirical Assessment Of The Contribution Of Fdi To The Chinese Economy," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 27(2), pages 81-94, December.
    12. Sheahan, Megan & Barrett, Christopher B., 2017. "Ten striking facts about agricultural input use in Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 12-25.
    13. McCullough, Ellen B., 2017. "Labor productivity and employment gaps in Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 133-152.
    14. Renato Villano & Boris Bravo-Ureta & Daniel Solís & Euan Fleming, 2015. "Modern Rice Technologies and Productivity in the Philippines: Disentangling Technology from Managerial Gaps," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 129-154, February.
    15. Madhur Gautam & Bingxin Yu, 2015. "Agricultural productivity growth and drivers: a comparative study of China and India," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(4), pages 573-600, November.
    16. K. Sato, 1967. "A Two-Level Constant-Elasticity-of-Substitution Production Function," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 34(2), pages 201-218.
    17. Bhavani Shankar & Colin Thirtle, 2005. "Pesticide Productivity and Transgenic Cotton Technology: The South African Smallholder Case," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 97-116, March.
    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. Koesler, Simon & Schymura, Michael, 2012. "Substitution elasticities in a CES production framework: An empirical analysis on the basis of non-linear least squares estimations," ZEW Discussion Papers 12-007, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Knoblach, Michael & Rößler, Martin & Zwerschke, Patrick, 2016. "The Elasticity of Factor Substitution Between Capital and Labor in the U.S. Economy: A Meta-Regression Analysis," CEPIE Working Papers 03/16, Technische Universität Dresden, Center of Public and International Economics (CEPIE).
    3. Simon Koesler & Michael Schymura, 2012. "Substitution Elasticities for CGE Models," EcoMod2012 4010, EcoMod.
    4. Frieling, Julius & Madlener, Reinhard, 2016. "Estimation of Substitution Elasticities in Three-Factor Production Functions: Identifying the Role of Energy," FCN Working Papers 1/2016, E.ON Energy Research Center, Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN), revised Sep 2016.
    5. Giller, Ken E. & Andersson, Jens & Delaune, Thomas & Silva, João Vasco & Descheemaeker, Katrien & van de Ven, Gerrie & Schut, Antonius G.T. & van Wijk, Mark & Hammond, Jim & Hochman, Zvi & Taulya, God, 2022. "IFAD Research Series 83: The future of farming: who will produce our food?," IFAD Research Series 322005, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    6. Michael Knoblach & Fabian Stöckl, 2020. "What Determines The Elasticity Of Substitution Between Capital And Labor? A Literature Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 847-875, September.
    7. Rainer Klump & Peter McAdam & Alpo Willman, 2012. "The Normalized Ces Production Function: Theory And Empirics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 769-799, December.
    8. Simon Koesler & Michael Schymura, 2015. "Substitution Elasticities In A Constant Elasticity Of Substitution Framework - Empirical Estimates Using Nonlinear Least Squares," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 101-121, March.
    9. Thomas Ziesemer, 2023. "Labour-augmenting technical change data for alternative elasticities of substitution: growth, slowdown, and distribution dynamics," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 449-475, May.
    10. Antoszewski, Michał, 2019. "Wide-range estimation of various substitution elasticities for CES production functions at the sectoral level," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 272-289.
    11. McCain, Roger, 2014. "The Piketty Curve and the Elasticity of Substitution," School of Economics Working Paper Series 2014-8, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University.
    12. Paul E. Brockway & Matthew K. Heun & João Santos & John R. Barrett, 2017. "Energy-Extended CES Aggregate Production: Current Aspects of Their Specification and Econometric Estimation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-23, February.
    13. McAdam, Peter & Willman, Alpo & León-Ledesma, Miguel A., 2011. "Aggregation, the skill premium, and the two-level production function," Working Paper Series 1400, European Central Bank.
    14. Bui, Linh & Hoang, Huyen & Bui, Hang, 2015. "Estimating the Constant Elasticity of Substitution Function of Rice Production.The case of Vietnam in 2012," MPRA Paper 71224, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Ezra Oberfield & Devesh Raval, 2021. "Micro Data and Macro Technology," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(2), pages 703-732, March.
    16. Milena Pesheva & Aleksandar Vasilev, 2017. "Endogenising Total Factor Productivity: The Foreign Direct Investment Channel in the Case of Bulgaria (2004-2013)," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 15(2), pages 127-145.
    17. Yazid Dissou & Lilia Karnizova & Qian Sun, 2015. "Industry-level Econometric Estimates of Energy-Capital-Labor Substitution with a Nested CES Production Function," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 43(1), pages 107-121, March.
    18. Mutuc, Maria Erlinda M. & Rejesus, Roderick M. & Pan, Suwen & Yorobe, Jose M., Jr., 2012. "Impact Assessment of Bt Corn Adoption in the Philippines," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 44(1), pages 1-19, February.
    19. Sebastian Gechert & Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova & Dominika Kolcunova, 2022. "Measuring Capital-Labor Substitution: The Importance of Method Choices and Publication Bias," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 45, pages 55-82, July.
    20. Michal Antoszewski, 2017. "Panel estimation of sectoral substitution elasticities for CES production functions," EcoMod2017 10160, EcoMod.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:4:p:1282-:d:142480. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.