IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jproda/v52y2019i1d10.1007_s11123-019-00557-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Farm size, inefficiency, and rice production cost in China

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoheng Zhang

    (Huazhong Agricultural University)

  • Xiaohua Yu

    (University of Göttingen)

  • Xu Tian

    (Nanjing Agricultural University)

  • Xianhui Geng

    (Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics)

  • Yingheng Zhou

    (Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics)

Abstract

The relationship between farm size and production cost, especially inefficiency cost, has been a hotly debated topic for decades, but no general conclusion has been reached. This subject has particularly important implications for agricultural policies in China, which is in the course of rapid structural change. We decompose the production cost into frontier cost, technical inefficiency cost and allocative inefficiency cost with a primal system approach, and we demonstrate that technical inefficiency cost increases but allocative inefficiency cost decreases as farm size increases. In addition, large-scale farms gain the overall cost advantage due to their lower allocative inefficiency cost. We also find that a minimum purchase price higher than all farm costs impedes the enhancement of scale and masks the competitiveness of China. Moreover, the determinants of inefficiency costs imply that region-specific market imperfection holds a considerable explanatory power for the allocative inefficiency costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoheng Zhang & Xiaohua Yu & Xu Tian & Xianhui Geng & Yingheng Zhou, 2019. "Farm size, inefficiency, and rice production cost in China," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 52(1), pages 57-68, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jproda:v:52:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11123-019-00557-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11123-019-00557-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11123-019-00557-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11123-019-00557-6?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. Emiko Fukase & Will Martin, 2016. "Who Will Feed China in the 21st Century? Income Growth and Food Demand and Supply in China," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(1), pages 3-23, February.
    2. Xiaohua Yu, 2012. "Productivity, efficiency and structural problems in Chinese dairy farms," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(2), pages 168-175, May.
    3. Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Wang, Hung-Jen, 2006. "Estimation of technical and allocative inefficiency: A primal system approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 134(2), pages 419-440, October.
    4. Ji, Yueqing & Yu, Xiaohua & Zhong, Funing, 2012. "Machinery investment decision and off-farm employment in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 71-80.
    5. Shenggen Fan & Connie Chan‐Kang, 2005. "Is small beautiful? Farm size, productivity, and poverty in Asian agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 32(s1), pages 135-146, January.
    6. Assunção, Juliano & Braido, Luis H.B., 2007. "AJAE Appendix: Testing Household-Specific Explanations for the Inverse Productivity Relationship," American Journal of Agricultural Economics APPENDICES, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(4), pages 1-8, November.
    7. Bruce F. Hall & E. Phillip LeVeen, 1978. "Farm Size and Economic Efficiency: The Case of California," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 60(4), pages 589-600.
    8. Heath Henderson, 2015. "Considering Technical and Allocative Efficiency in the Inverse Farm Size–Productivity Relationship," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 442-469, June.
    9. Atkinson, Scott E & Cornwell, Christopher, 1994. "Parametric Estimation of Technical and Allocative Inefficiency with Panel Data," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 35(1), pages 231-243, February.
    10. Antonio Alvarez & Carlos Arias, 2003. "Diseconomies of Size with Fixed Managerial Ability," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(1), pages 134-142.
    11. Kumbhakar, Subal C., 1997. "Modeling allocative inefficiency in a translog cost function and cost share equations: An exact relationship," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1-2), pages 351-356.
    12. 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.
    13. Barrett, Christopher B. & Bellemare, Marc F. & Hou, Janet Y., 2010. "Reconsidering Conventional Explanations of the Inverse Productivity-Size Relationship," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 88-97, January.
    14. Kumbhakar, Subal C, 1993. "Short-Run Returns to Scale, Farm-Size, and Economic Efficiency," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(2), pages 336-341, May.
    15. Atkinson, Scott E. & Dorfman, Jeffrey H., 2006. "Chasing Absolute Cost and Profit Savings in a World of Relative Inefficiency," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21058, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Tsionas, Efthymios & Kumbhakar, Subal, 2006. "Estimation of Technical and Allocative Inefficiencies in a Cost System: An Exact Maximum Likelihood Approach," MPRA Paper 20173, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Jikun Huang & Jiping Ding, 2016. "Institutional innovation and policy support to facilitate small-scale farming transformation in China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(S1), pages 227-237, November.
    18. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 2008. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency and Productivity Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195183528.
    19. Debertin, David L., 2012. "Agricultural Production Economics, Second Edition," Monographs: Applied Economics, AgEcon Search, number 158319, July.
    20. Shenggen Fan, 2000. "Technological change, technical and allocative efficiency in Chinese agriculture: the case of rice production in Jiangsu," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(1), pages 1-12.
    21. 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.
    22. Yumei Liu & Wuyang Hu & Simon Jetté-Nantel & Zhihong Tian, 2014. "The Influence of Labor Price Change on Agricultural Machinery Usage in Chinese Agriculture," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 62(2), pages 219-243, June.
    23. Tauer, Loren W. & Mishra, Ashok K., 2006. "Can the small dairy farm remain competitive in US agriculture?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 458-468, October.
    24. Shingo Kimura & Keijiro Otsuka & Tetsushi Sonobe & Scott Rozelle, 2011. "Efficiency of Land Allocation through Tenancy Markets: Evidence from China," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 485-510.
    25. Greene, William H., 1980. "On the estimation of a flexible frontier production model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 101-115, May.
    26. 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.
    27. Xiao, Hongbo & Wang, Jimin & Oxley, Les & Ma, Hengyun, 2012. "The evolution of hog production and potential sources for future growth in China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 366-377.
    28. Juliano J. Assunção & Luis H. B. Braido, 2007. "Testing Household-Specific Explanations for the Inverse Productivity Relationship," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 89(4), pages 980-990.
    29. Songqing Jin & Hengyun Ma & Jikun Huang & Ruifa Hu & Scott Rozelle, 2010. "Productivity, efficiency and technical change: measuring the performance of China’s transforming agriculture," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 191-207, June.
    30. Tian, Xu & Yu, Xiaohua, 2015. "Using semiparametric models to study nutrition improvement and dietary change with different indices: The case of China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 67-81.
    31. MacDonald, James M. & O'Donoghue, Erik J. & McBride, William D. & Nehring, Richard F. & Sandretto, Carmen L. & Mosheim, Roberto, 2007. "Profits, Costs, and the Changing Structure of Dairy Farming," Economic Research Report 6704, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    32. OW Maietta, 2000. "The decomposition of cost inefficiency into technical and allocative components with panel data of Italian dairy farms," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 27(4), pages 473-495, December.
    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. Ke Liu & Zhenhong Qi & Li Tan & Caiyan Yang & Canwei Hu, 2023. "Mixed Use of Chemical Pesticides and Biopesticides among Rice–Crayfish Integrated System Farmers in China: A Multivariate Probit Approach," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Hui Luo & Zhaomin Hu & Xiuping Hao & Nawab Khan & Xiaojie Liu, 2022. "Assessment and Comparison of Agricultural Technology Development under Different Farmland Management Modes: A Case Study of Grain Production, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-24, October.
    3. Xiaolin Guo & Guanming Shi & Linyi Zheng & Wenrong Qian, 2022. "How Does the Land Rental Market Participation Affect Household Efficiency? Evidence from Rural China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Xiaoheng Zhang & Guiquan Yan & Yucheng He & Hailong Yu, 2022. "Do Disease and Pest Control Outsourcing Services Reduce Arable Land Abandonment? Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-15, September.
    5. Plogmann, Jana & Mußhoff, Oliver & Odening, Martin & Ritter, Matthias, 2022. "Farm growth and land concentration," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    6. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Hirsch, Stefan, 2021. "Market-oriented agriculture and farm performance: Evidence from rural China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    7. Xinru Han & Ping Xue & Ningning Zhang, 2021. "Impact of Grain Subsidy Reform on the Land Use of Smallholder Farms: Evidence from Huang-Huai-Hai Plain in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-15, September.
    8. Xueqi Wang & Zhongguo Xu & Guan Li & Yuefei Zhuo & Wei Zou, 2023. "Farmland Transfer and Income Distribution Effect of Heterogeneous Farmers with Livelihood Capital: Evidence from CFPS," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-20, July.

    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. Xiaoheng Zhang & Feng Chu & Xiaohua Yu & Yingheng Zhou & Xu Tian & Xianhui Geng & Jinyang Yang, 2017. "Changing Structure and Sustainable Development for China’s Hog Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, January.
    2. Tung Liu, 2020. "Measuring Technical, Allocative inefficiency, and Cost Inefficiency by Applying Duality Theory," Working Papers 202001, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Jun 2020.
    3. Brissimis, Sophocles N. & Delis, Manthos D. & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2010. "Technical and allocative efficiency in European banking," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 204(1), pages 153-163, July.
    4. Julien, Jacques C. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Rada, Nicholas E., 2019. "Assessing farm performance by size in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 153-164.
    5. 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.
    6. Ferreira, M. & Feres, J.G., 2018. "Farm Size and Productive Efficiency in Brazilian Amazon," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277289, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Ferreira, Marcelo Dias Paes & Féres, José Gustavo, 2020. "Farm size and Land use efficiency in the Brazilian Amazon," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    8. Juan José Díaz-Hernández, "undated". "Exact Allocative and Technical Inefficiency Using the Normalized Quadratic Cost System," Studies on the Spanish Economy 210, FEDEA.
    9. Jean-Philippe Boussemart & Herv頌eleu & Vivian Valdmanis, 2015. "A two-stage translog marginal cost pricing approach for Floridian hospital outputs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(38), pages 4116-4127, August.
    10. Liu, Tung, 2021. "Measuring cost inefficiency: A dual approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    11. Atkinson, Scott E. & Dorfman, Jeffrey H., 2006. "Chasing Absolute Cost and Profit Savings in a World of Relative Inefficiency," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21058, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    12. Di­az-Hernández, Juan José & Marti­nez-Budri­a, Eduardo & Jara-Di­az, Sergio, 2008. "The effects of ignoring inefficiency in the analysis of production: The case of cargo handling in Spanish ports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 321-329, February.
    13. Almuhanad Melhim & Erik J. O'Donoghue & C. Richard Shumway, 2009. "Do the Largest Firms Grow and Diversify the Fastest? The Case of U.S. Dairies," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 31(2), pages 284-302, June.
    14. Fang Xia & Lingling Hou & Songqing Jin & Dongqing Li, 2020. "Land size and productivity in the livestock sector: evidence from pastoral areas in China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(3), pages 867-888, July.
    15. Larson,Donald F. & Muraoka,Rie & Otsuka,Keijiro, 2016. "On the central role of small farms in African rural development strategies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7710, The World Bank.
    16. Lai, Hung-pin & Kumbhakar, Subal C., 2019. "Technical and allocative efficiency in a panel stochastic production frontier system model," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 278(1), pages 255-265.
    17. Amsler, Christine & Prokhorov, Artem & Schmidt, Peter, 2016. "Endogeneity in stochastic frontier models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 190(2), pages 280-288.
    18. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    19. Christine Amsler & Artem Prokhorov & Peter Schmidt, 2021. "A new family of copulas, with application to estimation of a production frontier system," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 1-14, February.
    20. Rada, Nicholas & Wang, Chenggang & Qin, Lijian, 2015. "Subsidy or market reform? Rethinking China’s farm consolidation strategy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 93-103.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Rice production; Farm size; Technical inefficiency cost; Allocative inefficiency cost; Primal system approach;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C31 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models; Quantile Regressions; Social Interaction Models
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

    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:kap:jproda:v:52:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11123-019-00557-6. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.