The Effect of Off-Farm Employment on Agricultural Production Efficiency: Micro Evidence in China

With ensuring food security becoming a priority for the Chinese government, prevalence of off-farm employment (OE) may cast shadow on agricultural productivity. Based data China Family Panel Studies in 2018, Tobit model and threshold effect have been applied to investigate impact productivity efficiency (APE), measured by envelopment analysis (DEA). The result has shown that: (1) OE contributes low level APE. (2) Both self-employed (SOE) wage-based (WOE) lower APE levels when endogenous issues are addressed. However, SOE had greater negative than WOE. (3) There exists associated with APE, indicating that disappears degree is high enough, study findings implications improving production context large-scale farmers.