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ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE OPTIMUM SCALE OF ENTERPRISE IN FARMING *
Author(s) -
Ritson Christopher
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.1972.tb01449.x
Subject(s) - agriculture , scope (computer science) , scale (ratio) , economics , capital (architecture) , measures of national income and output , agricultural economics , returns to scale , economies of scale , market economy , macroeconomics , microeconomics , production (economics) , geography , cartography , archaeology , computer science , programming language
This article examines the effect over time of national economic growth upon the optimum scale of enterprise in farming. It argues that there are forces within an economy leading to the growth of optimum scale in farming, irrespective of the nature of technical innovation and in spite of the limited scope for increased sales of agricultural produce as national income rises. The early part of the paper develops a method of characterising optimum scale which is in terms of marginal return to money capital employed in the farm business.