Total factor productivity growth in China's agricultural sector

A panel dataset of 29 provinces in China is used to analyze the productivity growth in China's agricultural sector over the period 1990–2003. We compute the output-oriented Malmquist productivity indexes and their decomposition using a sequential data envelopment analysis approach. The results...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChina economic review Vol. 19; no. 4; pp. 580 - 593
Main Authors CHEN, Po-Chi, YU, Ming-Miin, CHANG, Ching-Cheng, HSU, Shih-Hsun
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Inc 01.12.2008
Elsevier
SeriesChina Economic Review
Subjects
Agriculture
China
Malmquist productivity index
Total factor productivity
Total factor productivity Agriculture China Malmquist productivity index
O13
O47
Malmquist productivity index
China
Total factor productivity
Agriculture
O33
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Summary:A panel dataset of 29 provinces in China is used to analyze the productivity growth in China's agricultural sector over the period 1990–2003. We compute the output-oriented Malmquist productivity indexes and their decomposition using a sequential data envelopment analysis approach. The results indicate that the major source of productivity growth is technical progress and that the regional disparities in productivity growth worsen over time. The second stage regression results show that the main determinants of technical progress are agricultural tax cut, public investment in R&D and infrastructure, as well as mechanization while market reform, education and disaster mitigations are associated with efficiency improvement. The deterioration in scale efficiency, however, suggests a transition problem in relation to mechanization and highlights the importance of structural adjustment facilitations.
ISSN:1043-951X
1873-7781
DOI:10.1016/j.chieco.2008.07.001