IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aare09/47625.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring And Decomposing Agricultural Productivity And Profitability Change

Author

Listed:
  • O'Donnell, Christopher J.

Abstract

The total factor productivity (TFP) of a multiple-output multiple-input firm can be defined as the ratio of an aggregate output to an aggregate input. With this definition, index numbers that measure changes in TFP can be expressed as the ratio of an output quantity index to an input quantity index. This paper uses the term multiplicatively complete to describe TFP index numbers that are constructed in this way. O'Donnell (2008) shows that, irrespective of the returns to scale and/or scope properties of the production technology, all multiplicatively complete TFP index numbers can be decomposed into widely-used measures of technical change and technical efficiency change, as well as unambiguous measures of scale and mix efficiency change. Members of the class of multiplicatively complete TFP index numbers include the Fisher, Tornquist and Moorsteen-Bjurek indexes, but not the popular Malmquist index of Caves, Christensen and Diewert (1982a). This paper uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to compute and decompose Moorsteen-Bjurek indexes of world agricultural TFP change for the period 1970- 2001. In a DEA model that prohibits technical regress, only two countries are found to maximize TFP during the study period: Nepal from 1970 to 1995, and Thailand for several years in the late 1990s. The paper explains how changes in the agricultural terms of trade have drawn other larger agricultural producers away from TFP-maximizing input-output points. The annual rate of technical progress in global agriculture is estimated to be less than 1% per annum.

Suggested Citation

  • O'Donnell, Christopher J., 2009. "Measuring And Decomposing Agricultural Productivity And Profitability Change," 2009 Conference (53rd), February 11-13, 2009, Cairns, Australia 47625, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aare09:47625
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.47625
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/47625/files/O_Donnell.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.47625?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. Christopher O’Donnell & Robert Chambers & John Quiggin, 2010. "Efficiency analysis in the presence of uncertainty," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 1-17, February.
    2. John R. Hicks, 1961. "The Measurement of Capital in Relation to the Measurement of Other Economic Aggregates," International Economic Association Series, in: D. C. Hague (ed.), The Theory of Capital, chapter 0, pages 18-31, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. C.J. O'Donnell, 2008. "An aggregate quantity-price framework for measuring and Decomposing productivity and profitability change," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072008, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    4. D. W. Jorgenson & Z. Griliches, 1967. "The Explanation of Productivity Change," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 34(3), pages 249-283.
    5. Bert Balk, 2001. "Scale Efficiency and Productivity Change," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 159-183, May.
    6. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "Multilateral Comparisons of Output, Input, and Productivity Using Superlative Index Numbers," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(365), pages 73-86, March.
    7. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "The Economic Theory of Index Numbers and the Measurement of Input, Output, and Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1393-1414, November.
    8. Tim J. Coelli & D. S. Prasada Rao, 2005. "Total factor productivity growth in agriculture: a Malmquist index analysis of 93 countries, 1980–2000," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(s1), pages 115-134, January.
    9. Diewert, W. E., 1976. "Exact and superlative index numbers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-145, May.
    10. F. A. Lutz, 1961. "The Theory of Capital," International Economic Association Series, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-08452-4 edited by D. C. Hague.
    11. J. D. Mullen & G. M. Scobie & J. Crean, 2008. "Agricultural research: Implications for productivity in New Zealand and Australia," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 191-211.
    12. Fare, Rolf & Shawna Grosskopf & Mary Norris & Zhongyang Zhang, 1994. "Productivity Growth, Technical Progress, and Efficiency Change in Industrialized Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 66-83, 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. W. Diewert & Kevin Fox, 2010. "Malmquist and Törnqvist productivity indexes: returns to scale and technical progress with imperfect competition," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 101(1), pages 73-95, September.
    2. Athanasoglou, Panayiotis P. & Georgiou, Evangelia A. & Staikouras, Christos C., 2009. "Assessing output and productivity growth in the banking industry," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 1317-1340, November.
    3. C.J. O'Donnell, 2011. "The Sources of Productivity Change in the Manufacturing Sectors of the U.S. Economy," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072011, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    4. Arjomandi, Amir & Valadkhani, Abbas & O’Brien, Martin, 2014. "Analysing banks’ intermediation and operational performance using the Hicks–Moorsteen TFP index: The case of Iran," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 111-125.
    5. Santos, João & Domingos, Tiago & Sousa, Tânia & St. Aubyn, Miguel, 2016. "Does a small cost share reflect a negligible role for energy in economic production? Testing for aggregate production functions including capital, labor, and useful exergy through a cointegration-base," MPRA Paper 70850, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Charles R. Hulten, 2000. "Total Factor Productivity: A Short Biography," NBER Working Papers 7471, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. W. Erwin Diewert & Kevin J. Fox, 2014. "Decomposing Bjurek Productivity Indexes into Explanatory Factors," Discussion Papers 2014-33, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    8. Massimo Del Gatto & Adriana Di Liberto & Carmelo Petraglia, 2011. "Measuring Productivity," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 952-1008, December.
    9. M. Spitzer, 1997. "Interregional Comparison of Agricultural Productivity Growth, Technical Progress, and Efficiency Change in China's Agriculture: A Nonparametric Index Approach," Working Papers ir97089, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
    10. Sourafel Girma & Holger Görg, 2016. "Multinationals’ Productivity Advantage: Scale Or Technology?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT Volume 53: World Scientific Studies in International Economics, chapter 1, pages 3-15, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. C. O’Donnell, 2012. "An aggregate quantity framework for measuring and decomposing productivity change," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 255-272, December.
    12. Xiang Ao & Lilyan E. Fulginiti, 2005. "Productivity Growth in China: Evidence from Chinese Provinces," Development and Comp Systems 0502024, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Diogo Cunha Ferreira & Rui Cunha Marques, 2016. "Malmquist and Hicks–Moorsteen Productivity Indexes for Clusters Performance Evaluation," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 15(05), pages 1015-1053, September.
    14. Kao, Chiang, 2010. "Malmquist productivity index based on common-weights DEA: The case of Taiwan forests after reorganization," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 484-491, December.
    15. W. Diewert & Alice Nakamura, 2003. "Index Number Concepts, Measures and Decompositions of Productivity Growth," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 127-159, April.
    16. Burda, Michael C. & Severgnini, Battista, 2014. "Solow residuals without capital stocks," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 154-171.
    17. 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.
    18. Jean-Paul CHAVAS & Thomas L. COX, 1994. "A Primal-Dual Approach To Nonparametric Productivity Analysis: The Case Of U.S. Agriculture," Staff Papers 372, University of Wisconsin Madison, AAE.
    19. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2023. "Productivity analysis: roots, foundations, trends and perspectives," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 229-247, December.
    20. Diewert, Erwin & Fixler, Dennis & Zieschang, Kimberly, 2012. "Problems with the Measurement of Banking Services in a National Accounting Framework," Economics working papers erwin_diewert-2012-14, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 04 Apr 2012.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Productivity Analysis;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:aare09:47625. 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/aaresea.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.