Conference paper

Publication year: 1999

Pages: 331-347

Journal: European Review of Agricultural Economics

Volume number: 26

Issue number: 3

ISSN: 0165-1587

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/26.3.331

Conference: IXth Congress of the European-Association-of-Agricultural-Economists

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Abstract: 
The efficiency of East German and West German farms is compared for 1995-1997. Non-parametric frontier analysis is used to decompose efficiency differences into technical and scale effects. The results suggest that eastern farms have the potential to attain the same technical efficiency level as western farms. Nevertheless, western farms on average are more productive than their eastern counterparts, which have lower mean scale efficiency and a higher variance of scale efficiency. Therefore, the crucial issue is less a question of optimal production types or optimal ownership types, but more a question of well-functioning factor markets to facilitate adjustments that improve scale efficiency.

Harvard Citation style: Thiele, H. and Brodersen, C. (1999) Differences in farm efficiency in market and transition economies: empirical evidence from West and East Germany, European Review of Agricultural Economics, 26(3), pp. 331-347. https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/26.3.331

APA Citation style: Thiele, H., & Brodersen, C. (1999). Differences in farm efficiency in market and transition economies: empirical evidence from West and East Germany. European Review of Agricultural Economics. 26(3), 331-347. https://doi.org/10.1093/erae/26.3.331