IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/lauspo/v101y2021ics0264837720325175.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using measures of efficiency for regionally-targeted smallholder policy intervention: The case of Pakistan’s horticulture sector

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmad, Shabbir
  • Shankar, Sriram
  • Steen, John
  • Verreynne, Martie-Louise
  • Burki, Abid Aman

Abstract

The empirical literature on the sources of production efficiency mostly focuses on technical and scale efficiency, and the relative importance of mix efficiency is often overlooked. This paper estimates input-oriented technical and mix efficiency using a farm-level survey dataset of 730 smallholder horticulture farms in Pakistan. We estimate a Bayesian stochastic production frontier model to draw precise statistical inferences by using finite sample properties. We find that the estimated mean mix inefficiency (0.65) is roughly as large as mean technical inefficiency (0.64). Moreover, we detect large technical and mix efficiency disparities across agro-climatic zones and farm sizes, which we attribute to suboptimal farm practices. We conclude that policy-makers should focus on strategies that target to improve both technical and mix inefficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmad, Shabbir & Shankar, Sriram & Steen, John & Verreynne, Martie-Louise & Burki, Abid Aman, 2021. "Using measures of efficiency for regionally-targeted smallholder policy intervention: The case of Pakistan’s horticulture sector," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:101:y:2021:i:c:s0264837720325175
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105179
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837720325175
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.105179?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew B. Bernard & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2009. "Products and Productivity," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 111(4), pages 681-709, December.
    2. Douglas Gollin & David Lagakos & Michael E. Waugh, 2014. "Agricultural Productivity Differences across Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 165-170, May.
    3. Berthold Herrendorf & Todd Schoellman, 2015. "Why is Measured Productivity so Low in Agriculture?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(4), pages 1003-1022, October.
    4. Christian Ritter & Léopold Simar, 1997. "Pitfalls of Normal-Gamma Stochastic Frontier Models," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 167-182, May.
    5. C. O’Donnell & K. Nguyen, 2013. "An econometric approach to estimating support prices and measures of productivity change in public hospitals," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 323-335, December.
    6. Bjurek, Hans, 1996. " The Malmquist Total Factor Productivity Index," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(2), pages 303-313, June.
    7. Simeon Ehui & John Pender, 2005. "Resource degradation, low agricultural productivity, and poverty in sub‐Saharan Africa: pathways out of the spiral," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(s1), pages 225-242, January.
    8. Gómez, Miguel I. & Ricketts, Katie D., 2013. "Food value chain transformations in developing countries - Selected hypotheses on nutritional implications," ESA Working Papers 288987, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    9. Thomas C. Pinckney, 1989. "The Multiple Effects of Procurement Price on Production and Procurement of Wheat in Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 28(2), pages 95-120.
    10. Geweke, John, 1986. "Exact Inference in the Inequality Constrained Normal Linear Regression Model," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 1(2), pages 127-141, April.
    11. Amin W. Mugera & Michael R. Langemeier & Andrew Ojede, 2016. "Contributions of Productivity and Relative Price Changes to Farm-level Profitability Change," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1210-1229.
    12. Jim Griffin & Mark Steel, 2007. "Bayesian stochastic frontier analysis using WinBUGS," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 27(3), pages 163-176, June.
    13. Mellor, John W. & Malik, Sohail J., 2017. "The Impact of Growth in Small Commercial Farm Productivity on Rural Poverty Reduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 1-10.
    14. van den Broeck, Julien & Koop, Gary & Osiewalski, Jacek & Steel, Mark F. J., 1994. "Stochastic frontier models : A Bayesian perspective," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 273-303, April.
    15. 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.
    16. David Hadley & Euan Fleming & Renato Villano, 2013. "Is Input Mix Inefficiency Neglected in Agriculture? A Case Study of Pig-based Farming Systems in England and Wales," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 505-515, June.
    17. 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.
    18. Ilke Van Beveren, 2012. "Total Factor Productivity Estimation: A Practical Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 98-128, February.
    19. Gómez, Miguel I. & Ricketts, Katie D., 2013. "Food value chain transformations in developing countries: Selected hypotheses on nutritional implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 139-150.
    20. Weinberger, Katinka & Lumpkin, Thomas A., 2007. "Diversification into Horticulture and Poverty Reduction: A Research Agenda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1464-1480, August.
    21. Sanzidur Rahman & Ruhul Salim, 2013. "Six Decades of Total Factor Productivity Change and Sources of Growth in Bangladesh Agriculture (1948–2008)," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 275-294, June.
    22. Koop, Gary & Osiewalski, Jacek & Steel, Mark F. J., 1997. "Bayesian efficiency analysis through individual effects: Hospital cost frontiers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1-2), pages 77-105.
    23. Shenoy, Ajay, 2017. "Market failures and misallocation," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 65-80.
    24. Dale J. Poirier, 1995. "Intermediate Statistics and Econometrics: A Comparative Approach," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262161494, December.
    25. 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.
    26. Hossein Mehrabi Boshrabadi & Renato Villano & Euan Fleming, 2008. "Technical efficiency and environmental‐technological gaps in wheat production in Kerman province of Iran," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 38(1), pages 67-76, January.
    27. Shabbir Ahmad, 2020. "Estimating input-mix efficiency in a parametric framework: application to state-level agricultural data for the United States," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(36), pages 3976-3997, July.
    28. Desiere, Sam & Jolliffe, Dean, 2018. "Land productivity and plot size: Is measurement error driving the inverse relationship?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 84-98.
    29. Ugur, Mehmet & Mitra, Arup, 2017. "Technology Adoption and Employment in Less Developed Countries: A Mixed-Method Systematic Review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 1-18.
    30. Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2005. "Measuring technical and allocative inefficiency in the translog cost system: a Bayesian approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 355-384, June.
    31. Ali, Mubarik & Byerlee, Derek, 2002. "Productivity Growth and Resource Degradation in Pakistan's Punjab: A Decomposition Analysis," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(4), pages 839-863, July.
    32. Good, D. & Nadiri, M.I. & Sickles, R., 1996. "Index Number and Factor Demand Approaches to the Estimarion of Productivity," Working Papers 96-34, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University.
    33. George Battese & D. Rao & Christopher O'Donnell, 2004. "A Metafrontier Production Function for Estimation of Technical Efficiencies and Technology Gaps for Firms Operating Under Different Technologies," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 91-103, January.
    34. Giannakis, Elias & Bruggeman, Adriana, 2018. "Exploring the labour productivity of agricultural systems across European regions: A multilevel approach," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 94-106.
    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. Koomson, Isaac & Orkoh, Emmanuel & Ahmad, Shabbir, 2023. "Non-farm entrepreneurship, caste, and energy poverty in rural India," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).

    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. Shabbir Ahmad & Sriram Shankar & John Steen & Martie-Louise Verreynne & Abid Aman Burki, 2018. "What Drives Smallholders' Productivity in Pakistan's Horticultural Sector?," Discussion Papers Series 597, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    2. Marijn Verschelde & Michel Dumont & Glenn Rayp & Bruno Merlevede, 2016. "Semiparametric stochastic metafrontier efficiency of European manufacturing firms," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 53-69, February.
    3. O'Donnell, Christopher J. & Coelli, Timothy J., 2005. "A Bayesian approach to imposing curvature on distance functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 493-523, June.
    4. José Luis Gallizo & Jordi Moreno & Manuel Salvador, 2015. "European banking integration: is foreign ownership affecting banking efficiency?," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 340-368, April.
    5. Marta Arbelo-Pérez & Pilar Pérez-Gómez & Antonio Arbelo, 2023. "Profit efficiency and its determinants in the agricultural sector: A Bayesian approach," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 69(11), pages 436-445.
    6. Marta Arbelo-Pérez & Pilar Pérez-Gómez & Antonio Arbelo, . "Profit efficiency and its determinants in the agricultural sector: A Bayesian approach," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 0.
    7. Goto, Mika & Makhija, Anil K., 2007. "The Impact of Competition and Corporate Structure on Productive Efficiency: The Case of the U.S. Electric Utility Industry, 1990-2004," Working Paper Series 2007-10, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    8. Bao Hoang Nguyen & Robin C. Sickles & Valentin Zelenyuk, 2021. "What do we know from the vast literature on efficiency and productivity in healthcare? A Systematic Review and Bibliometric Analysis," CEPA Working Papers Series WP092021, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    9. Jorge Galán & Helena Veiga & Michael Wiper, 2014. "Bayesian estimation of inefficiency heterogeneity in stochastic frontier models," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 85-101, August.
    10. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    11. Kamil Makie{l}a & B{l}a.zej Mazur, 2020. "Stochastic Frontier Analysis with Generalized Errors: inference, model comparison and averaging," Papers 2003.07150, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2020.
    12. Antonio Arbelo & Marta Arbelo-Pérez & Pilar Pérez-Gómez, 2022. "Are SMEs less efficient? A Bayesian approach to addressing heterogeneity across firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1915-1929, April.
    13. Fernandez, Carmen & Koop, Gary & Steel, Mark F.J., 2005. "Alternative efficiency measures for multiple-output production," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 411-444, June.
    14. Kamil Makieła & Błażej Mazur, 2022. "Model uncertainty and efficiency measurement in stochastic frontier analysis with generalized errors," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 35-54, August.
    15. José L. Gallizo & Jordi Moreno & Manuel Salvador, 2016. "Banking Efficiency in the Enlarged European Union: Financial Crisis and Convergence," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(1), pages 66-88, April.
    16. Tecles, Patricia Langsch & Tabak, Benjamin M., 2010. "Determinants of bank efficiency: The case of Brazil," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(3), pages 1587-1598, December.
    17. Economou, Polychronis & Malefaki, Sonia & Kounetas, Konstantinos, 2019. "Productive Performance and Technology Gaps using a Bayesian Metafrontier Production Function: A cross-country comparison," MPRA Paper 94462, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Parmeter, Christopher F. & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2012. "Bayesian estimation approaches to first-price auctions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 168(1), pages 47-59.
    19. Kalyan Chakraborty & Basudeb Biswas & W. Cris Lewis, 2001. "Measurement of Technical Efficiency in Public Education: A Stochastic and Nonstochastic Production Function Approach," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(4), pages 889-905, April.
    20. Efthymios G. Tsionas, 2006. "Inference in dynamic stochastic frontier models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(5), pages 669-676, July.

    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:eee:lauspo:v:101:y:2021:i:c:s0264837720325175. 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: Joice Jiang (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/land-use-policy .

    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.