Sources of measured agricultural yield difference

Simone Pieralli

No 124771, 2012 Annual Meeting, August 12-14, 2012, Seattle, Washington from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: We decompose yield difference relative to a reference level into components attributable to (1) efficiency difference, and movements along the frontier due to (2) land quality, to (3) land size, and to (4) other inputs. The production frontier is built using nonparametric methods requiring no specification of the functional form of the technology. We analyze the contributions to yield relative to a reference unit in terms of the quadripartite decomposition finding that results depend on the choice of the unit of reference. If the reference unit is chosen to be the mean, land size contributions are found to be negatively correlated to yield with usual finite moments regression methods. Also nonparamteric correlation confirms the negative sign of the relationship. If the reference unit is chosen to be the median instead, land size contributions are found to be negatively correlated to yield with usual finite moments regression methods. But nonparametric correlation is not statistically significant because many farmers have no contribution to production difference from their different land sizes. Integrated squared density difference tests show in both cases efficiency has a major role in shaping the distribution.

Keywords: Land Economics/Use; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 96
Date: 2012-06-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-eff
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea12:124771

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.124771

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