IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea03/271497.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Technical Efficiency of Chinese Grain Production: A Stochastic Production Frontier Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Adam Zhuo
  • Huffman, Wallace E.
  • Rozelle, Scott

Abstract

This article examines technical efficiency of the Chinese grain sector using the framework of stochastic production frontier. The results reveal that: the marginal products of labor and fertilizer are much smaller than that of land; human capital and farm-level specialization have positive effect on efficiency, land fragmentation is detrimental to efficiency, and elder farmers are as efficient as younger farmers. We also examine the effects of size, mechanization and geographic location. Simulation results show that significant output gains can be obtained by eliminating land fragmentation, improving rural education and promoting specialization and mechanization.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Adam Zhuo & Huffman, Wallace E. & Rozelle, Scott, 2003. "Technical Efficiency of Chinese Grain Production: A Stochastic Production Frontier Approach," 2003 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Montreal, Canada 271497, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea03:271497
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.271497
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/271497/files/aaea-2003-002.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/271497/files/aaea-2003-002.pdf?subformat=pdfa
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.271497?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shenggen Fan, 2000. "Research Investment and the Economic Returns To Chinese Agricultural Research," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 163-182, September.
    2. Li, Guo & Rozelle, Scott & Brandt, Loren, 1998. "Tenure, land rights, and farmer investment incentives in China," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 19(1-2), pages 63-71, September.
    3. Alan de Brauw & Jikun Huang & Scott Rozelle, "undated". "Sequencing and the Success of Gradualism: Empirical Evidence from China's Agricultural Reform," Center for Development Economics 173, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    4. Stevenson, Rodney E., 1980. "Likelihood functions for generalized stochastic frontier estimation," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 57-66, May.
    5. Herriges, Joseph A. & Kling, Catherine L., 1996. "Testing the consistency of nested logit models with utility maximization," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 33-39, January.
    6. Greene, William H., 1980. "Maximum likelihood estimation of econometric frontier functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 27-56, May.
    7. Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott & Rosegrant, Mark W., 1995. "China and the future global food situation," 2020 vision briefs 20, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. David Widawsky & Scott Rozelle & Songqing Jin & Jikun Huang, 1998. "Pesticide productivity, host‐plant resistance and productivity in China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 19(1-2), pages 203-217, September.
    9. George E. Battese & Greg S. Corra, 1977. "Estimation Of A Production Frontier Model: With Application To The Pastoral Zone Of Eastern Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 169-179, December.
    10. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    11. Benjamin, Dwayne & Brandt, Loren & Giles, John, 2005. "The Evolution of Income Inequality in Rural China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(4), pages 769-824, July.
    12. Christopher Findlay, 1997. "Grain Sector Reform in China," Chinese Economies Research Centre (CERC) Working Papers 1997-01, University of Adelaide, Chinese Economies Research Centre.
    13. Abdulai, Awudu & Huffman, Wallace, 2000. "Structural Adjustment and Economic Efficiency of Rice Farmers in Northern Ghana," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(3), pages 503-520, April.
    14. Yang, Dennis Tao, 1997. "Education and Off-Farm Work," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(3), pages 613-632, April.
    15. Mao, Weining & Koo, Won W., 1997. "Productivity growth, technological progress, and efficiency change in chinese agriculture after rural economic reforms: A DEA approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 157-174.
    16. Kumbhakar, Subal C & Ghosh, Soumendra & McGuckin, J Thomas, 1991. "A Generalized Production Frontier Approach for Estimating Determinants of Inefficiency in U.S. Dairy Farms," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 9(3), pages 279-286, July.
    17. Wang, Jirong & Cramer, Gail L. & Wailes, Eric J., 1996. "Production efficiency of Chinese agriculture: evidence from rural household survey data," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 17-28, September.
    18. Jirong Wang & Eric J. Wailes & Gail L. Cramer, 1996. "A Shadow-Price Frontier Measurement of Profit Efficiency in Chinese Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(1), pages 146-156.
    19. Guilkey, David K & Lovell, C A Knox & Sickles, Robin C, 1983. "A Comparison of the Performance of Three Flexible Functional Forms," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 24(3), pages 591-616, October.
    20. Dennis L. Chinn, 1977. "Land Utilization and Productivity in Prewar Chinese Agriculture: Preconditions for Collectivization," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 59(3), pages 559-564.
    21. Yair Mundlak, 1961. "Empirical Production Function Free of Management Bias," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 43(1), pages 44-56.
    22. Jürgen Müller, 1974. "On Sources of Measured Technical Efficiency: The Impact of Information," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 56(4), pages 730-738.
    23. Greene, William H., 1980. "On the estimation of a flexible frontier production model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 101-115, May.
    24. Kumbhakar, Subal C., 1990. "Production frontiers, panel data, and time-varying technical inefficiency," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 201-211.
    25. Lee, Lung-Fei, 1983. "A test for distributional assumptions for the stochastic frontier functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 245-267, August.
    26. Dominique DEPRINS & Léopold SIMAR, 1989. "Estimating Technical Inefficiencies With Correction For Environmental Conditions," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 81-102, January.
    27. Stigler, George J, 1976. "The Xistence of X-Efficiency," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(1), pages 213-216, March.
    28. Jirong Wang & Gail L. Cramer & Eric J. Wailes, 1996. "Production efficiency of Chinese agriculture: evidence from rural household survey data," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 15(1), pages 17-28, September.
    29. Weiming Tian & Guang Wan, 2000. "Technical Efficiency and Its Determinants in China's Grain Production," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 159-174, March.
    30. Cornwell, Christopher & Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C., 1990. "Production frontiers with cross-sectional and time-series variation in efficiency levels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 185-200.
    31. Wallace E. Huffman, 1977. "Allocative Efficiency: The Role of Human Capital," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 91(1), pages 59-79.
    32. R.E. Evenson & Douglas Gollin, 2002. "The Green Revolution: An End of Century Perspective," Department of Economics Working Papers 2002-07, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    33. Guang Wan & Enjiang Cheng, 2001. "Effects of land fragmentation and returns to scale in the Chinese farming sector," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 183-194.
    34. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    35. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    36. Huffman, Wallace E. & Evenson, Robert E., 2000. "Structural and productivity change in US agriculture, 1950-1982," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 127-147, January.
    37. Xu, Yingfeng, 1999. "Agricultural productivity in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 108-121.
    38. repec:cor:louvrp:-834 is not listed on IDEAS
    39. Putterman, Louis & Chiacu, Ana F., 1994. "Elasticities and factor weights for agricultural growth accounting: A look at the data for China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 191-204.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shi, X. & Zhou, Y. & Heerink, N. & Ma, X., 2018. "The effect of land tenure governance on grain efficiency: Evidence from three provinces in eastern China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277477, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Sabasi, Darlington & Shumway, C. Richard, 2014. "Technical Change, Efficiency, and Total Factor Productivity in U.S. Agriculture," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170225, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. El-Rasoul, Ahmed Abou El-Yazid & alomar, Ibrahim Saleh, 2012. "دراسة اقتصادية تحليلية لكفاءة استخدام أنماط الري الحديثة: دراسة ميدانية بمزارع منطقة القصيم [An analytical economic study for the efficiency of water resources use in irrigation, “A field study at ," MPRA Paper 98655, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Khor, Ling Yee & Zeller, Manfred, 2012. "Doubts on input quality: The effect of inaccurate fertilizer content on the estimation of production functions and technical efficiency," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126212, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Furong Chen & Yifu Zhao, 2019. "Determinants and Differences of Grain Production Efficiency Between Main and Non-Main Producing Area in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-14, September.
    6. N'cho, Simon Akahoua & Mourits, Monique & Demont, Matty & Adegbola, Patrice Y. & Lansink, Alfons Oude, 2017. "Impact of infestation by parasitic weeds on rice farmers’ productivity and technical efficiency in sub-Saharan Africa," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 12(1), March.
    7. Khor, Ling & Zeller, Manfred, 2015. "Perception of Substandard Fertilizer and Its Impact on Use Intensity," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211843, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    8. Mathias, Karangwa, 2010. "The Effect of Land Fragmentation on the Productivity and Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Maize Farms in Southern Rwanda," Research Theses 243457, Collaborative Masters Program in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
    9. Khor, Ling Yee & Zeller, Manfred, 2014. "Inaccurate fertilizer content and its effect on the estimation of production functions," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 123-132.

    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. Chen, Zhuo & Huffman, Wallace E. & Rozelle, Scott, 2009. "Farm technology and technical efficiency: Evidence from four regions in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 153-161, June.
    2. Tim J. Coelli, 1995. "Recent Developments In Frontier Modelling And Efficiency Measurement," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 39(3), pages 219-245, December.
    3. Vaneet Bhatia & Sankarshan Basu & Subrata Kumar Mitra & Pradyumna Dash, 2018. "A review of bank efficiency and productivity," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 55(3), pages 557-600, November.
    4. Massimo Del Gatto & Adriana Di Liberto & Carmelo Petraglia, 2011. "Measuring Productivity," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 952-1008, December.
    5. Julio Peña & Julio Aguirre & René Cerca D'amico, 2004. "Pesca demersal en Chile: eficiencia técnica y escalas de operación," Revista de Analisis Economico – Economic Analysis Review, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business, vol. 19(1), pages 119-160, June.
    6. Levent Kutlu & Shasha Liu & Robin C. Sickles, 2022. "Cost, Revenue, and Profit Function Estimates," Springer Books, in: Subhash C. Ray & Robert G. Chambers & Subal C. Kumbhakar (ed.), Handbook of Production Economics, chapter 16, pages 641-679, Springer.
    7. Massimiliano Piacenza, 2002. "Regulatory Constraints and Cost Efficiency of the Italian Public Transit Systems: An Exploratory Stochastic Frontier Model," CERIS Working Paper 200202, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    8. Martín Rossi, 2015. "The Econometrics Approach to the Measurement of Efficiency: A Survey," Working Papers 117, Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia, revised Feb 2015.
    9. Sickles, Robin C. & Song, Wonho & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2018. "Econometric Analysis of Productivity: Theory and Implementation in R," Working Papers 18-008, Rice University, Department of Economics.
    10. Emilio Gómez-Déniz & Jorge Pérez-Rodríguez, 2015. "Closed-form solution for a bivariate distribution in stochastic frontier models with dependent errors," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 215-223, April.
    11. Sedik, David & Trueblood, Michael & Arnade, Carlos, 1999. "Corporate Farm Performance in Russia, 1991-1995: An Efficiency Analysis," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 514-533, September.
    12. Osborne, Stefan & Trueblood, Michael A., 2001. "An Examination Of Economic Efficiency Of Russian Crop Output In The Reform Period," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20548, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Kanter, Christopher A. & Hueth, Brent & Gould, Brian W., 2013. "A Comparative Efficiency Analysis of Cooperative and Non-cooperative Dairy Manufacturing Firms," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150497, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Edward Ebo ONUMAH & Bernhard BRÜMMER & Gabriele HÖRSTGEN-SCHWARK, 2010. "Productivity of the hired and family labour and determinants of technical inefficiency in Ghana's fish farms," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 79-88.
    15. Henderson, Benjamin B. & Kingwell, Ross S., 2001. "An Investigation of the Technical and Allocative Efficiency of Broadacre Farmers," 2002 Conference (46th), February 13-15, 2002, Canberra, Australia 125109, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    16. Mustafa U. Karakaplan & Levent Kutlu, 2019. "School district consolidation policies: endogenous cost inefficiency and saving reversals," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 1729-1768, May.
    17. Martin, Sheila Ann, 1992. "The effectiveness of state technology incentives: evidence from the machine tool industry," ISU General Staff Papers 1992010108000011381, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    18. Mulwa, Richard & Kabubo-Mariara, Jane, 2017. "Productive Efficiency and Its Determinants in a Changing Climate: A Monotonic Translog Stochastic Frontier Analysis," EfD Discussion Paper 17-6, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    19. Ahmad, Munir & Boris E., Bravo-Ureta, 1996. "Technical efficiency measures for dairy farms using panel data: a comparison of alternative model specifications," MPRA Paper 37703, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Chen, Zhuo & Song, Shunfeng, 2008. "Efficiency and technology gap in China's agriculture: A regional meta-frontier analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 287-296, June.

    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:aaea03:271497. 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/aaeaaea.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.