The Relationship between Farm Size and Productivity in Agriculture: Evidence from Maize Production in Northern China

Yu Sheng, Jiping Ding and Jikun Huang

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2019, vol. 101, issue 3, 790-806

Abstract: The relationship between farm size and productivity has long been a topic of debate in development economics. Using farm-level panel data from 2003 to 2013, we investigate the relationship between maize yield and farm size in Northern China. After controlling for farm-specific characteristics, we restore a mild U-shaped relationship between maize yield and cropping area from the apparent inverse U-shaped curve. This suggests that an inverse farm size–productivity relationship persists for most small-sized farms. Further analyses demonstrate that farmer input choice between labor and capital is likely to smooth the non-linear farm size–productivity relationship, with capital use being more likely to affect the farm size–productivity relationship at a larger scale. The findings imply that subsidizing farmers to rent land without helping them become better-equipped could result in resource misallocation towards larger farms using less-efficient labor-intensive technologies.

Keywords: Farm size; land productivity; inverse relationship; Northeast and Northern China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (52)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:101:y:2019:i:3:p:790-806.

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