The economic literature on pest control exclusively assumes a non-negative marginal product of pesticides based on a monotonic non-decreasing function of damage abatement, which may bias pesticide productivity estimates. This paper proposes a specification that allows for a negative marginal product of pesticides and a damage-abating role for labour and machinery. Pesticide productivity is found to be lower than previously reported. Conventional farms are found to rely substantially on pesticides and machinery for damage abatement, whereas organic farms mainly rely on machinery use and changes in cultural practices. Productivity analyses based on the asymmetric specification suggest that pesticides are used optimally in conventional farming, which contrasts with results in previous literature. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.
Download Info
To our knowledge, this item is not available for
download. To find whether it is available, there are three
options:
1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page
whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be
available.
Publisher Info
Article provided by Oxford University Press for the Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics in its journal European Review of Agricultural Economics.
Volume (Year): 32 (2005) Issue (Month): 2 (June) Pages: 167-189 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
(with abstract),
plain text
(with abstract),
BibTeX,
RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite),
ReDIF
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Christopher F. Baum).
Related research
Keywords:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)