A stochastic distance function frontier was estimated using data from a national survey of organic farmers to evaluate the effect of farm-specific attributes on efficiency. Farm-specific and regional variables that shift efficiency were incorporated into the multioutput distance function, including organic farming experience, use of soil-improving inputs, and farmer involvement in research. Par...

This paper aims to estimate a translog stochastic frontier production function in the analysis of a balanced panel of 147 mixed Catalan farms in a five-year period (1989-1993), in order to attempt to measure and explain variation in output inefficiency scores with a one-stage approach. The mean output efficiency in the period analysed was estimated to be 62.3%. Using techniques for confidence i...

This essay assesses the relationship between farm size and productivity. Both parametric and nonparametric methods are used to derive efficiency measures. Smaller farms are found to have higher net farm income per hectare, and to be more technically efficient, than larger farms. JEL Classifications: Q12, O12

Using three-wave survey data for four villages of Jiangsu Province in China, the present paper examines whether and to what extent off-farm employment affects the technical efficiency of agricultural production. The level of technical efficiency is measured using a stochastic frontier production function approach. Based on estimation results from instrumental variable panel quantile regressions...

Fiji’s agricultural sector, and within it, the sugar industry, has been the driving force behind the country’s development. The sugar industry, however, is facing a number of challenges of which production efficiency is one of them. This paper examines farm productivity, efficiency and profitability in the industry. It suggests that without improving farm level efficiency and productivity the i...

The farm machinery statistics is an important task of the farm machinery management, the statistics of farm machinery in Jiangsu Province are very wide. Improving the working of statistical analyses by advanced computer technology, enhancing the efficiency, is a topic which the farm machinery superintendent and the scientific and technical worker explore continuously. The present situation of t...