Changing Structure and Sustainable Development for China’s Hog Sector

Xiaoheng Zhang, Feng Chu, Xiaohua Yu, Yingheng Zhou, Xu Tian, Xianhui Geng and Jinyang Yang
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Xiaoheng Zhang: College of Economic and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Feng Chu: Laboratory Informatique, Biologie Intégrative et Systèmes Complexes, University of Évry-Val d’Essonne, Évry 91020, France
Yingheng Zhou: College of Economic and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Xianhui Geng: College of Economic and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Supply shortages and competitive disadvantages are the main problems faced by China’s hog sector. The non-essential import of pork products, triggered by competitive disadvantages, poses great challenges to hog farms. Structural changes are an important policy concern in China and elsewhere. Previous literature has ignored whether the ongoing structural changes from backyard to large farms can contribute to sustainable development. This study adopts the micro-level data of hog farms collected from Jiangsu Province, and uses a two-step metafrontier model and a primal system approach. The empirical results reveal that the ongoing structural changes are capable of boosting the growth in output in China’s hog sector, since the stronger increase in comparable technical efficiency compensates for the inappropriate technology. Furthermore, the ongoing structural changes are also beneficial in the reduction of production costs and in improving competitiveness in China’s hog sector. The decline in technical and allocative inefficiency costs, particularly for technical inefficiency costs, contributes to the cost advantage with the increasing farm size.

Keywords: productivity; metafrontier; production cost; China; hog production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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