Open AccessStochastic Frontier and Technical Efficiency of Farms in Irrigated Areas of Pakistan's Punjab
Author(s) -
Abid A. Burki,
Haq Nawaz Shah
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v37i3pp.275-291
Subject(s) - inefficiency , frontier , economics , sample (material) , agricultural economics , agricultural science , stochastic frontier analysis , production–possibility frontier , variable cost , variable (mathematics) , mathematics , econometrics , agricultural engineering , production (economics) , environmental science , geography , microeconomics , engineering , mathematical analysis , chemistry , archaeology , chromatography
This paper presents new evidence on technical efficiency andits sources by examining the cost behaviour of 387 farms and whole-farmdata from five irrigated districts of Punjab. Fitting translog variablecost frontier we find that technical inefficiency raises the cost ofaverage sample farms by 24 percent that could have been saved had thefarms been technically efficient. Our results enable us to conclude thatfarm efficiency is positively related to formal schooling of farmoperators, abundance of canal water, and head reaches of mogha, andnegatively to farm size, while the age of farm operators has no effecton efficiency.