Technical efficiency of agriculture in Western Balkan countries undergoing the process of EU integration

Aleksandra Marcikić Horvat, Bojan Matkovski, Stanislav Zekić and Boris Radovanov
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Aleksandra Marcikić Horvat: Department of Business Informatics and Quantitative Methods, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Bojan Matkovski: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Stanislav Zekić: Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Boris Radovanov: Department of Business Informatics and Quantitative Methods, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Serbia

Agricultural Economics, 2020, vol. 66, issue 2, 65-73

Abstract: The main goal of this paper is to compare the relative technical efficiency of agriculture in Western Balkan countries to those of the European Union and to propose ways to improve the position of Western Balkan countries. The group of Western Balkan countries includes Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Albania, which are candidate countries for European Union membership, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is currently a potential candidate. An input-oriented Data Envelopment Analysis model with the variable return to scale was applied to an 11-year period from 2006 to 2016. Input variables used in the model included labour, land, and capital, and the output was presented as the value of agricultural production. The highest average technical efficiency was achieved by the EU15 countries for the entire eleven-year period, while the Western Balkan countries had the lowest score. The source of this inefficiency was identified in lower levels of agricultural performance, e.g. a lower-level use of the primary production factors - labour and land.

Keywords: agriculture; Data Envelopment Analysis; European Union; Western Balkan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlage:v:66:y:2020:i:2:id:224-2019-agricecon

DOI: 10.17221/224/2019-AGRICECON

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