[go: up one dir, main page]
More Web Proxy on the site http://driver.im/
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/agrerw/v22y1993i01p88-101_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency Analysis of Developing Country Agriculture: A Review of the Frontier Function Literature

Author

Listed:
  • Bravo-Ureta, Boris E.
  • Pinheiro, António E.
Abstract
This article reviews and critiques the frontier literature dealing with farm level efficiency in developing countries. A total of 30 studies from 14 different countries are examined. The country that has received most attention is India, while rice has been the most studied agricultural product. The average technical efficiency (TE) index from all the studies reviewed is 72%. The few studies reporting allocative and economic efficiency show an average of 68% and 43%, respectively. These results suggest that there is considerable room to increase agricultural output without additional inputs and given existing technology. Several of the studies reviewed have sought to explain farm level variation in TE. The variables most frequently used for this purpose have been farmer education and experience, contacts with extension, access to credit, and farm size. With the exception of farm size, the results reveal that these variables tend to have a positive and statistically significant impact on TE. This paper shows that considerable effort has been devoted to measuring efficiency in developing country agriculture using a wide range of frontier models. Despite all this work, the extent to which efficiency measures are sensitive to the choice of methodology remains uncertain.

Suggested Citation

  • Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Pinheiro, António E., 1993. "Efficiency Analysis of Developing Country Agriculture: A Review of the Frontier Function Literature," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 88-101, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:agrerw:v:22:y:1993:i:01:p:88-101_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1068280500000320/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Taylor, Timothy G. & Scott Shonkwiler, J., 1986. "Alternative stochastic specifications of the frontier production function in the analysis of agricultural credit programs and technical efficiency," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 149-160, April.
    2. Forsund, Finn R. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1980. "A survey of frontier production functions and of their relationship to efficiency measurement," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 5-25, May.
    3. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Evenson, Robert E., 1994. "Efficiency in agricultural production: The case of peasant farmers in eastern Paraguay," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 27-37, January.
    4. Birkhaeuser, Dean & Evenson, Robert E & Feder, Gershon, 1991. "The Economic Impact of Agricultural Extension: A Review," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(3), pages 607-650, April.
    5. Sidhu, Surjit S, 1974. "Relative Efficiency in Wheat Production in the Indian Punjab," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(4), pages 742-751, September.
    6. Boris E. Bravo-Ureta & Laszlo Rieger, 1991. "Dairy Farm Efficiency Measurement Using Stochastic Frontiers and Neoclassical Duality," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(2), pages 421-428.
    7. Lockheed, Marlaine E & Jamison, Dean T & Lau, Lawrence J, 1980. "Farmer Education and Farm Efficiency: A Survey," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 37-76, October.
    8. Battese, George E. & Coelli, Tim J., 1988. "Prediction of firm-level technical efficiencies with a generalized frontier production function and panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 387-399, July.
    9. B. E. Bravo‐Ureta & L. Rieger, 1990. "Alternative Production Frontier Methodologies And Dairy Farm Efficiency," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 215-226, May.
    10. Greene, William H., 1980. "Maximum likelihood estimation of econometric frontier functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 27-56, May.
    11. Philip J. Dawson & John Lingard & Christopher H. Woodford, 1991. "A Generalized Measure of Farm-Specific Technical Efficiency," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(4), pages 1098-1104.
    12. Battese, George E. & Tessema, Getachew A., 1992. "Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Production Functions with Time-Varying Parameters and Technical Efficiencies Using Panel Data from Indian Villages," 1992 Conference (36th), February 10-13, 1992, Canberra, Australia 146423, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    13. Pitt, Mark M. & Lee, Lung-Fei, 1981. "The measurement and sources of technical inefficiency in the Indonesian weaving industry," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 43-64, August.
    14. Greene, William H., 1990. "A Gamma-distributed stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 141-163.
    15. Schmidt, Peter & Sickles, Robin C, 1984. "Production Frontiers and Panel Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 2(4), pages 367-374, October.
    16. Afriat, Sidney N, 1972. "Efficiency Estimation of Production Function," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 13(3), pages 568-598, October.
    17. Bagi, Faqir Singh, 1987. "Farm-Level Technical Efficiencies Of Individual Crops," 1987 Annual Meeting, August 2-5, East Lansing, Michigan 270110, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    18. Bailey, DeeVon & Biswas, Basudeb & Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Schulthies, B. Kris, 1989. "An Analysis Of Technical, Allocative, And Scale Inefficiency: The Case Of Ecuadorian Dairy Farms," Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, July.
    19. Mahmood H. Khan & Dennis R. Maki, 1979. "Effects of Farm Size on Economic Efficiency: The Case of Pakistan," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 61(1), pages 64-69.
    20. Kumbhakar, Subal C., 1987. "The specification of technical and allocative inefficiency in stochastic production and profit frontiers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 335-348, March.
    21. Kalirajan, K P, 1990. "On Measuring Economic Efficiency," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 5(1), pages 75-85, January-M.
    22. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Thrall, Robert M., 1990. "Recent developments in DEA : The mathematical programming approach to frontier analysis," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 7-38.
    23. Shapiro, Kenneth H & Muller, Jurgen, 1977. "Sources of Technical Efficiency: The Roles of Modernization and Information," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(2), pages 293-310, January.
    24. repec:bla:econom:v:36:y:1969:i:143:p:304-09 is not listed on IDEAS
    25. Shenggen Fan, 1991. "Effects of Technological Change and Institutional Reform on Production Growth in Chinese Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(2), pages 266-275.
    26. Jondrow, James & Knox Lovell, C. A. & Materov, Ivan S. & Schmidt, Peter, 1982. "On the estimation of technical inefficiency in the stochastic frontier production function model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 233-238, August.
    27. Toda, Yasushi, 1976. "Estimation of a Cost Function When the Cost Is Not Minimum: The Case of Soviet Manufacturing Industries, 1958-1971," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 58(3), pages 259-268, August.
    28. Schmidt, Peter & Knox Lovell, C. A., 1979. "Estimating technical and allocative inefficiency relative to stochastic production and cost frontiers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 343-366, February.
    29. Timothy G. Taylor & H. Evan Drummond & Aloisio T. Gomes, 1986. "Agricultural Credit Programs and Production Efficiency: An Analysis of Traditional Farming in Southeastern Minas Gerais, Brazil," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 68(1), pages 110-119.
    30. K. Kalirajan, 1981. "An Econometric Analysis of Yield Variability in Paddy Production," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 29(3), pages 283-294, November.
    31. Battese, George E., 1992. "Frontier production functions and technical efficiency: a survey of empirical applications in agricultural economics," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 7(3-4), pages 185-208, October.
    32. Carter, Michael R, 1984. "Identification of the Inverse Relationship between Farm Size and Productivity: An Empirical Analysis of Peasant Agricultural Production," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 131-145, March.
    33. Stigler, George J, 1976. "The Xistence of X-Efficiency," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(1), pages 213-216, March.
    34. Battese, G. E. & Tessema, G. A., 1993. "Estimation of stochastic frontier production functions with time-varying parameters and technical efficiencies using panel data from Indian villages," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 9(4), pages 313-333, December.
    35. 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.
    36. Bauer, Paul W., 1990. "Recent developments in the econometric estimation of frontiers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1-2), pages 39-56.
    37. 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.
    38. Ray, Subhash C, 1985. "Measurement and Test of Efficiency of Farms in Linear Programming Models: A Study of West Bengal Farms," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 47(4), pages 371-386, November.
    39. Kopp, Raymond J. & Diewert, W. Erwin, 1982. "The decomposition of frontier cost function deviations into measures of technical and allocative efficiency," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 319-331, August.
    40. Battese, George E. & Coelli, Tim J. & Colby, T.C., 1989. "Estimation of Frontier Production Functions and the Efficiencies of Indian Farms Using Panel Data from ICRISAT's Village Level Studies," 1989 Conference (33rd), February 7-9, 1989, Christchurch, New Zealand 144383, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    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. 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.
    2. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    3. Boris Bravo-Ureta & Daniel Solís & Víctor Moreira López & José Maripani & Abdourahmane Thiam & Teodoro Rivas, 2007. "Technical efficiency in farming: a meta-regression analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 57-72, February.
    4. Reddy, Mahendra, 2002. "Implication of Tenancy Status on Productivity and Efficiency: Evidence from Fiji," Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics, Sri Lanka Agricultural Economics Association (SAEA), vol. 4, pages 1-20.
    5. Thiam, Abdourahmane & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Rivas, Teodoro E., 2001. "Technical efficiency in developing country agriculture: a meta-analysis," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 25(2-3), pages 235-243, September.
    6. 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.
    7. Munir Ahmad & Azkar Ahmad, 1998. "An Analysis of the Sources of Wheat Output Growth in the Barani Area of the Punjab," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 231-249.
    8. Gian Carlo Scarsi, 1999. "Local Electricity Distribution in Italy: Comparative Efficiency Analysis and Methodological Cross-Checking," Working Papers 1999.16, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    9. 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.
    10. Abdul Wadud, 2013. "Impact of Microcredit on Agricultural Farm Performance and Food Security in Bangladesh," Working Papers 14, Institute of Microfinance (InM).
    11. Kevin Cullinane & Dong-Wook Song, 2003. "A stochastic frontier model of the productive efficiency of Korean container terminals," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 251-267.
    12. Sickles, Robin C., 2005. "Panel estimators and the identification of firm-specific efficiency levels in parametric, semiparametric and nonparametric settings," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 305-334, June.
    13. Ali M. Oumer & Amin Mugera & Michael Burton & Atakelty Hailu, 2022. "Technical efficiency and firm heterogeneity in stochastic frontier models: application to smallholder maize farms in Ethiopia," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 213-241, April.
    14. Cullinane, Kevin & Song, Dong-Wook & Gray, Richard, 2002. "A stochastic frontier model of the efficiency of major container terminals in Asia: assessing the influence of administrative and ownership structures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 743-762, October.
    15. Schalk Hans Joachim & Untiedt Gerhard & Lüschow Jörg, 1995. "Technische Effizienz, Wachstum und Konvergenz in den Arbeitsmarktregionen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (West). Eine ökonometrische Analyse für die Verarbeitende Industrie mit einem „Frontier Product," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 214(1), pages 25-49, February.
    16. Vangelis Tzouvelekas & Konstantinos Giannakas & Peter Midmore & Konstantinos Mattas, 1997. "Technical efficiency measures for olive-growing farms in Crete, Greece," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 3(2), pages 154-169, May.
    17. Raghbendra Jha & Hari K. Nagarajan & Subbarayan Prasanna, 2005. "Land Fragmentation and its Implications for Productivity: Evidence from Southern India," ASARC Working Papers 2005-01, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    18. Althaler, Karl S. & Slavova, Tatjana, 2000. "DEA Problems under Geometrical or Probability Uncertainties of Sample Data," Economics Series 89, Institute for Advanced Studies.
    19. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2015. "Efficiency of the banking system in Vietnam under financial liberalization," OSF Preprints qsf6d, Center for Open Science.
    20. Dong, Xiao-yuan & Putterman, Louis, 1997. "Productivity and Organization in China's Rural Industries: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 181-201, April.

    More about this item

    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:cup:agrerw:v:22:y:1993:i:01:p:88-101_00. 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: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/age .

    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.