Efficiency, total factor productivity and returns to scale in a sustainable perspective: An analysis in the European Union at farm and regional level
Vítor João Pereira Domingues Martinho
Land Use Policy, 2017, vol. 68, issue C, 232-245
Abstract:
For global sustainability it is imperative to find a balance across the three main components of sustainable development which are the economic, social and environmental aspects. However, it is not a simple task to make these contexts compatible, usually because of economic pressures which transform them into opposed objectives. This framework occurs across several dimensions within society and the economy, where the agricultural sector is not an exception. The objective of this study is to analyse the efficiency, total factor productivity and returns to scale in an economic, social and environmental perspective in farms of the European Union (EU) regions through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approaches. The research concerning the returns to scale will be complemented by the Keynesian models. Data obtained from the European Union Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) was considered. The results show that in maintaining or improving the levels of production in farms, it is often possible to greatly reduce, in some cases, the consumption of fertilizers and crop protection products. On the other hand, from a social perspective, some European Union regions are more generous in the salaries paid to farming workers and absorb more labour, which in a European context of unemployment, may be an interesting way to realistically look at and be engaged in the agricultural planning in a sustainable way, founding a balanced trade-off among the economic, social and environmental dimensions.
Keywords: Sustainability; Returns to scale; Farm Accountancy Data Network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C14 C22 O18 Q01 Q12 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837717301394
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:68:y:2017:i:c:p:232-245
DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.07.040
Access Statistics for this article
Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen
More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().