Scale efficiency in Danish agriculture: an input distance–function approach

This paper presents the results of an analysis that predicts the scale efficiency of individual farms and analyses the differences in scale efficiency over time and between farms. Representative farm account data for 1985--2006 are used, and the study applies stochastic frontier analysis using an input distance--function approach. The results show that pig farms have improved their input scale efficiency significantly over time, as have dairy farms during the last few years after a period of constant scale efficiency. Crop farms have the lowest scale efficiency, and there is a considerable potential for improving productivity in the cash crop sector by increasing the size of the farms. It is shown that a change in scale efficiency and technological change are the major components of aggregate productivity changes for all farm types. Oxford University Press and Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics 2010; all rights reserved. For permissions, please email journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.

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