IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/ajagec/v75y1993i4p990-999..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nonparametric Tests of Cost Minimizing Behavior: A Study of Indian Farms

Author

Listed:
  • Subhash C. Ray
  • Dipasis Bhadra

Abstract

We extend existing nonparametric methods of analyzing production efficiency to allow some inputs to be quasi-fixed. Varian's Weak Axiom of Cost Minimization is modified to derive the Weak Axiom of Variable Cost Minimization. The methodology is applied to farm level data from West Bengal, India, which are analyzed for consistency with cost minimizing behavior. There is strong evidence against overall cost minimization, a result that cannot be rationalized in terms of production uncertainty and risk aversion. However, violation of either technical efficiency or of variable cost minimization is much less serious. This suggests that failure of cost minimization is principally due to imperfections in the markets for capital and land.

Suggested Citation

  • Subhash C. Ray & Dipasis Bhadra, 1993. "Nonparametric Tests of Cost Minimizing Behavior: A Study of Indian Farms," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 75(4), pages 990-999.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:75:y:1993:i:4:p:990-999.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/1243986
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

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

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Featherstone, Allen M. & Moghnieh, Ghassan A. & Goodwin, Barry K., 1995. "Farm-level nonparametric analysis of cost-minimization and profit-maximization behavior," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 109-117, November.
    2. Loren Tauer & Zdenko Stefanides, 1998. "Success in maximizing profits and reasons for profit deviation on dairy farms," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 151-156, February.
    3. Silva, Elvira, 1999. "A Nonparametric Approach To Short-Run Production Analysis In A Dynamic Context," 1999 Annual meeting, August 8-11, Nashville, TN 21608, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Amar Oukil & Slim Zekri, 2021. "Investigating farming efficiency through a two stage analytical approach: Application to the agricultural sector in Northern Oman," Papers 2104.10943, arXiv.org.
    5. W D A Bryant, 2009. "General Equilibrium:Theory and Evidence," World Scientific Books, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., number 6875, January.
    6. Vicente, José R., 2004. "Economic Efficiency of Agricultural Production In Brazil," Brazilian Journal of Rural Economy and Sociology (Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural-RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 42(2), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Jean-Paul Chavas & Ragan Petrie & Michael Roth, 2005. "Farm Household Production Efficiency: Evidence from The Gambia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(1), pages 160-179.
    8. Goodhue, Rachael E. & Rausser, Gordon C. & Simon, Leo K., 2000. "Processor placements and producer incentives: analyzing broiler chicken production contracts," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt2tc2g983, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    9. Goodhue, Rachael E. & Rausser, Gordon C. & Simon, Leo K., 1998. "Understanding Production Contracts: Testing An Agency Theory Model," 1998 Annual meeting, August 2-5, Salt Lake City, UT 20946, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    10. Lemberg, Beth & Wongcharupan, Metha, 1998. "Nonparametric Analysis Of Cost Minimization And Efficiency," 1998 Annual meeting, August 2-5, Salt Lake City, UT 20952, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    11. Paul Oslington, 2012. "General Equilibrium: Theory and Evidence," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 88(282), pages 446-448, September.

    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:oup:ajagec:v:75:y:1993:i:4:p:990-999.. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    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.