Allocative and Technical Efficiency of Corporate Farms in Russia

This study is aimed to analyze Russian corporate farms technical efficiency using DEA and allocative efficiency basing upon VMP calculations. The estimations are carried out on three aggregation levels: total farm, sectors (livestock and crops production) and selected commodities (grain, sunflower, beef, milk and pork), using survey data. The results of analyses suggest that there is no substantial misallocation of resources given current input and output prices. High technical efficiency scores speak for production technologies being homogeneous and mean that simple extension of "best practice" production will not eliminate the large productivity gap between Russia and the developed market economies.transition economies, productivity, efficiency, production function, Data Envelopment Analysis, Agribusiness, D610, P230, Q180,

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN RUSSIAN AGRICULTURE

For decades, Russian agriculture had had little technological progress and virtually no foreign investment, which resulted in a stable production possibilities frontier and made the sector ideally suited to production function analysis. The production function estimations reported in Chapters 10-13 add to a series of previous studies of the input/output relationship in Russian agriculture (e.g., Clayton, 1980, 1984; Gray, 1981; Johnson and Brooks, 1983), which generally followed the same methodology. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, however, the average response production functions gave way in the economics literature to more sophisticated production analysis techniques that measured not only productivity but technical efficiency as well (Aigner, et al., 1977; Bauer, 1990). Some of the major methodological advances in applying technical efficiency analysis to individual firms were made by a joint Russian-American team in Moscow in the early 1980s (Jondrow, et al., 1982; Danlin et al., 1985), but lack of data for many sectors of the Russian economy precluded the application of this technique until the end of the decade. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the initial optimistic expectation was that many sectors of the new Russian economy could rapidly achieve both higher productivity and higher technical efficiency once market forces prevailed. Our research attempts to understand why this has not happened in Russian agriculture in terms of technical efficiency.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Allocative and Technical Efficiency of Corporate Farms in Russia

This study is aimed to analyze Russian corporate farms technical efficiency using DEA and allocative efficiency basing upon VMP calculations. The estimations are carried out on three aggregation levels: total farm, sectors (livestock and crops production) and selected commodities (grain, sunflower, beef, milk and pork), using survey data. The results of analyses suggest that there is no substantial misallocation of resources given current input and output prices. High technical efficiency scores speak for production technologies being homogeneous and mean that simple extension of "best practice" production will not eliminate the large productivity gap between Russia and the developed market economies

Grain and Sunflower Crops on Russian Farms in 2001: How Efficient is Crop Production?

An unusually detailed sample of large farms in Rostov, Ivanovo and Nizhny Novgorod regions of Russia in 2001 allows microeconomic examination of the production of grain and sunflower crops on Russian farms. Farms are found to have some excess capital and labour, but not land and other types of capital. New operators are found to be more efficient than other farms thought they do not necessarily produce more output. Neither rural infrastructure, location nor specialisation has a clear impact on farm efficiency. How workers are paid is found to be a potential short‐term method for improving farm efficiency that would not involve major farm restructuring

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN RUSSIAN AGRICULTURE

For decades, Russian agriculture had had little technological progress and virtually no foreign investment, which resulted in a stable production possibilities frontier and made the sector ideally suited to production function analysis. The production function estimations reported in Chapters 10-13 add to a series of previous studies of the input/output relationship in Russian agriculture (e.g., Clayton, 1980, 1984; Gray, 1981; Johnson and Brooks, 1983), which generally followed the same methodology. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, however, the average response production functions gave way in the economics literature to more sophisticated production analysis techniques that measured not only productivity but technical efficiency as well (Aigner, et al., 1977; Bauer, 1990). Some of the major methodological advances in applying technical efficiency analysis to individual firms were made by a joint Russian-American team in Moscow in the early 1980s (Jondrow, et al., 1982; Danlin et al., 1985), but lack of data for many sectors of the Russian economy precluded the application of this technique until the end of the decade. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the initial optimistic expectation was that many sectors of the new Russian economy could rapidly achieve both higher productivity and higher technical efficiency once market forces prevailed. Our research attempts to understand why this has not happened in Russian agriculture in terms of technical efficiency

Technical Efficiency in Russian Agriculture

For decades, Russian agriculture had had little technological progress and virtually no foreign investment, which resulted in a stable production possibilities frontier and made the sector ideally suited to production function analysis. The production function estimations reported in Chapters 10-13 add to a series of previous studies of the input/output relationship in Russian agriculture (e.g., Clayton, 1980, 1984; Gray, 1981; Johnson and Brooks, 1983), which generally followed the same methodology. In the late 1970s and the 1980s, however, the average response production functions gave way in the economics literature to more sophisticated production analysis techniques that measured not only productivity but technical efficiency as well (Aigner, et al., 1977; Bauer, 1990). Some of the major methodological advances in applying technical efficiency analysis to individual firms were made by a joint Russian-American team in Moscow in the early 1980s (Jondrow, et al., 1982; Danlin et al., 1985), but lack of data for many sectors of the Russian economy precluded the application of this technique until the end of the decade. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the initial optimistic expectation was that many sectors of the new Russian economy could rapidly achieve both higher productivity and higher technical efficiency once market forces prevailed. Our research attempts to understand why this has not happened in Russian agriculture in terms of technical efficiency

Allocative and Technical Efficiency of Corporate Farms in Russia

The efficiency of Russian corporate farms is analysed using the data of a 2003 survey. Allocative efficiency is assessed using the value of marginal product of inputs from production function estimation; technical efficiency is determined using Data Envelopment Analysis. The analysis is carried out on three aggregation levels: total farm; production sectors (crops, livestock); selected commodities. The results suggest that there is no substantial misallocation of resources given current input and output prices. High technical efficiency scores suggest that the production technologies are homogeneous, and simple extension of ‘best practice’ production will not eliminate the productivity gaps between Russia and the developed market economies. Comparative Economic Studies (2005) 47, 200–213. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100089