Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/chinae/v24y2016i3p37-51.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Off-farm Employment Affects Technical Efficiency of China's Farms: The Case of Jiangsu

Author

Listed:
  • Linxiu Zhang
  • Weiliang Su
  • Tor Eriksson
  • Chengfang Liu
Abstract
Using three-wave survey data for four villages of Jiangsu Province in China, the present paper examines whether and to what extent off-farm employment affects the technical efficiency of agricultural production. The level of technical efficiency is measured using a stochastic frontier production function approach. Based on estimation results from instrumental variable panel quantile regressions we find that there is a positive significant effect of off-farm employment on the level of farm technical efficiency. We also find that fragmentation of farmland is a barrier to the improvement of technical efficiency. In addition, we find a downward trend in the level of agricultural technical efficiency among our sample. Therefore, the Chinese Government should stimulate agricultural mechanization and the development of farming techniques to improve technical efficiency in the context of increasing off-farm employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Linxiu Zhang & Weiliang Su & Tor Eriksson & Chengfang Liu, 2016. "How Off-farm Employment Affects Technical Efficiency of China's Farms: The Case of Jiangsu," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 24(3), pages 37-51, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:chinae:v:24:y:2016:i:3:p:37-51
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/cwe.12157
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mu, Ren & van de Walle, Dominique, 2011. "Left behind to farm? Women's labor re-allocation in rural China," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(S1), pages 83-97.
    2. Sylvie Démurger & Shi Li, 2013. "Migration, Remittances, and Rural Employment Patterns: Evidence from China," Research in Labor Economics, in: Labor Market Issues in China, pages 31-63, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Jean-Paul Chavas & Ragan Petrie & Michael Roth, 2005. "Farm Household Production Efficiency: Evidence from The Gambia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(1), pages 160-179.
    4. Liu, Zinan & Zhuang, Juzhong, 2000. "Determinants of Technical Efficiency in Post-Collective Chinese Agriculture: Evidence from Farm-Level Data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 545-564, September.
    5. Yee, Jet & Ahearn, Mary Clare & Huffman, Wallace, 2004. "Links among Farm Productivity, Off-Farm Work, and Farm Size in the Southeast," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(3), pages 591-603, December.
    6. Fangbin Qiao & Scott Rozelle & Linxiu Zhang & Yi Yao & Jian Zhang, 2015. "Impact of Childcare and Eldercare on Off-farm Activities in Rural China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 23(2), pages 100-120, March.
    7. Chang, Hongqin & Dong, Xiao-yuan & MacPhail, Fiona, 2011. "Labor Migration and Time Use Patterns of the Left-behind Children and Elderly in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2199-2210.
    8. Helfand, Steven M. & Levine, Edward S., 2004. "Farm size and the determinants of productive efficiency in the Brazilian Center-West," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 241-249, December.
    9. Hung‐Hao Chang & Fang‐I Wen, 2011. "Off‐farm work, technical efficiency, and rice production risk in Taiwan," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 42(2), pages 269-278, March.
    10. Fang Cai, 2015. "Haste Makes Waste: Policy Options Facing China after Reaching the Lewis Turning Point," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 23(1), pages 1-20, January.
    11. Zhou, Xianbo & Li, Kui-Wai & Li, Qin, 2011. "An analysis on technical efficiency in post-reform China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 357-372, September.
    12. Federico Belotti & Silvio Daidone & Giuseppe Ilardi & Vincenzo Atella, 2013. "Stochastic frontier analysis using Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 13(4), pages 718-758, December.
    13. Mochebelele, Motsamai T. & Winter-Nelson, Alex, 2000. "Migrant Labor and Farm Technical Efficiency in Lesotho," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 143-153, January.
    14. A. Parikh & K. Shah, 1994. "Measurement Of Technical Efficiency In The North‐West Frontier Province Of Pakistan," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 132-138, January.
    15. Shujie Yao & Zinan Liu, 1998. "Determinants of Grain Production and Technical Efficiency in China," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 171-184, June.
    16. Wang, Jirong & Cramer, Gail L. & Wailes, Eric J., 1996. "Production efficiency of Chinese agriculture: evidence from rural household survey data," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 17-28, September.
    17. Deininger, Klaus & Jin, Songqing, 2005. "The potential of land rental markets in the process of economic development: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 241-270, October.
    18. Alan de Brauw & Jikun Huang & Linxiu Zhang & Scott Rozelle, 2013. "The Feminisation of Agriculture with Chinese Characteristics," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(5), pages 689-704, May.
    19. Weiliang Su & Chengfang Liu & Linxiu Zhang & Renfu Luo & Hongmei YI, 2015. "Household-level linkages between off-farm employment and agricultural fixed assets in rural China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(2), pages 185-196, May.
    20. Barry K. Goodwin & Ashok K. Mishra, 2004. "Farming Efficiency and the Determinants of Multiple Job Holding by Farm Operators," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 86(3), pages 722-729.
    21. Gorton, Matthew & Davidova, Sophia, 2004. "Farm productivity and efficiency in the CEE applicant countries: a synthesis of results," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 1-16, January.
    22. Ji, Yueqing & Yu, Xiaohua & Zhong, Funing, 2012. "Machinery investment decision and off-farm employment in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 71-80.
    23. Kazushi Takahashi & Keijiro Otsuka, 2009. "The increasing importance of nonfarm income and the changing use of labor and capital in rice farming: the case of Central Luzon, 1979–2003," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(2), pages 231-242, March.
    24. Kung, James Kai-sing, 2002. "Off-Farm Labor Markets and the Emergence of Land Rental Markets in Rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 395-414, June.
    25. Tijani, A.A., 2006. "Analysis of the technical efficiency of rice farms in Ijesha Land of Osun State, Nigeria," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 45(2), pages 1-10, June.
    26. Binam, Joachim Nyemeck & Tonye, Jean & wandji, Njankoua & Nyambi, Gwendoline & Akoa, Mireille, 2004. "Factors affecting the technical efficiency among smallholder farmers in the slash and burn agriculture zone of Cameroon," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(5), pages 531-545, October.
    27. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-444, June.
    28. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July.
    29. Rios, Ana R. & Shively, Gerald E., 2005. "Farm size and nonparametric efficiency measurements for coffee farms in Vietnam," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19159, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    30. Jema Haji, 2007. "Production Efficiency of Smallholders' Vegetable-dominated Mixed Farming System in Eastern Ethiopia: A Non-Parametric Approach," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhou, Xiaoshi & Ma, Wanglin, 2021. "Effects of Agricultural Mechanization on Land Productivity: Evidence from China," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315143, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Musa Hasen Ahmed & Kumilachew Alamerie Melesse, 2018. "Impact of off-farm activities on technical efficiency: evidence from maize producers of eastern Ethiopia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Ming Chang & Jing Liu & Hongxu Shi & Tianfeng Guo, 2022. "The Effect of Off-Farm Employment on Agricultural Production Efficiency: Micro Evidence in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-12, March.
    4. Hayatullah Ahmadzai, 2022. "Hope for Change: Is Diversifying Production Portfolios an Ideal Strategy to Boost Farming Efficiency in Afghanistan?," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 22(1), pages 7-31, January.
    5. Yahui Wang, 2019. "What Affects Participation in the Farmland Rental Market in Rural China? Evidence from CHARLS," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-15, December.
    6. Muhammad Rizwan & Ping Qing & Abdul Saboor & Muhammad Amjed Iqbal & Adnan Nazir, 2020. "Production Risk and Competency among Categorized Rice Peasants: Cross-Sectional Evidence from an Emerging Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, May.
    7. Hayatullah Ahmadzai, 2017. "Crop Diversification and Technical Efficiency in Afghanistan: Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Discussion Papers 2017-04, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    8. Shi, Hongxu & Xu, Hao & Gao, Wei & Zhang, Jinhao & Chang, Ming, 2022. "The impact of energy poverty on agricultural productivity: The case of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    9. Li, Xinyi & Ito, Junichi, 2023. "Determinants of technical efficiency and farmers’ crop choice rationality: A case study of rural Gansu, China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Mondal, Ripon Kumar & Selvanathan, Eliyathamby A & Selvanathan, Saroja, 2020. "The impact of rural nonfarm employment on agricultural input use and productivity in Bangladesh," 2020 Conference (64th), February 12-14, 2020, Perth, Western Australia 305251, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jin Yang & Hui Wang & Songqing Jin & Kevin Chen & Jeffrey Riedinger & Chao Peng, 2016. "Migration, local off-farm employment, and agricultural production efficiency: evidence from China," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 247-259, June.
    2. Musa Hasen Ahmed & Kumilachew Alamerie Melesse, 2018. "Impact of off-farm activities on technical efficiency: evidence from maize producers of eastern Ethiopia," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Boris Bravo-Ureta & Daniel Solís & Víctor Moreira López & José Maripani & Abdourahmane Thiam & Teodoro Rivas, 2007. "Technical efficiency in farming: a meta-regression analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 57-72, February.
    4. Nelson Mango & Clifton Makate & Benjamin Hanyani-Mlambo & Shephard Siziba & Mark Lundy & Caroline Elliott, 2015. "A stochastic frontier analysis of technical efficiency in smallholder maize production in Zimbabwe: The post-fast-track land reform outlook," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(1), pages 1117189-111, December.
    5. Zhihai Yang & Amin W. Mugera & Fan Zhang, 2016. "Investigating Yield Variability and Inefficiency in Rice Production: A Case Study in Central China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-11, August.
    6. Imori, Denise & Guilhoto, Joaquim José Martins & Postali, Fernando Antonio Slaibe, 2012. "Eficiência técnica das agropecuárias familiar e patronal – diferenças regionais no Brasil [Technical efficiency of agricultural households and business - regional differences in Brazil]," MPRA Paper 46954, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Abatania, Luke N. & Hailu, Atakelty & Mugera, Amin W., 2012. "Analysis of farm household technical efficiency in Northern Ghana using bootstrap DEA," 2012 Conference (56th), February 7-10, 2012, Fremantle, Australia 124211, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    8. Orkhan Guliyev & Aijun Liu & Gershom Endelani Mwalupaso & Jarkko Niemi, 2019. "The Determinants of Technical Efficiency of Hazelnut Production in Azerbaijan: An Analysis of the Role of NGOs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-19, August.
    9. Jara-Rojas, Roberto & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Moreira, Victor H. & Diaz, Jose, 2012. "Natural Resource Conservation and Technical Efficiency from Small-scale Farmers in Central Chile," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126227, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Imori, Denise & Guilhoto, Joaquim José Martins & Postali, Fernando Antonio Slaibe, 2012. "Production efficiency of family farms and business farms in the Brazilian regions," MPRA Paper 46995, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Hayatullah Ahmadzai, 2017. "Crop Diversification and Technical Efficiency in Afghanistan: Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Discussion Papers 2017-04, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    12. Muhammad Rizwan & Ping Qing & Abdul Saboor & Muhammad Amjed Iqbal & Adnan Nazir, 2020. "Production Risk and Competency among Categorized Rice Peasants: Cross-Sectional Evidence from an Emerging Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, May.
    13. Ali D. Cagdas & Scott R. Jeffrey & Elwin G. Smith & Peter C. Boxall, 2016. "Environmental Stewardship and Technical Efficiency in Canadian Prairie Canola Production," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 64(3), pages 455-477, September.
    14. Chen, Zhuo & Huffman, Wallace E. & Rozelle, Scott, 2009. "Farm technology and technical efficiency: Evidence from four regions in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 153-161, June.
    15. Silva, João Vasco & Pede, Valerien O. & Radanielson, Ando M. & Kodama, Wataru & Duarte, Ary & de Guia, Annalyn H. & Malabayabas, Arelene Julia B. & Pustika, Arlyna Budi & Argosubekti, Nuning & Vithoon, 2022. "Revisiting yield gaps and the scope for sustainable intensification for irrigated lowland rice in Southeast Asia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    16. Phatima MAMARDASHVILI & Dierk SCHMID, 2013. "Performance of Swiss dairy farms under provision of public goods," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 59(7), pages 300-314.
    17. Chen, Zhuo & Song, Shunfeng, 2008. "Efficiency and technology gap in China's agriculture: A regional meta-frontier analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 287-296, June.
    18. Bojnec, Stefan & Ferto, Imre, 2011. "Impact of Off-farm Income on Farm Efficiency in Slovenia," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114258, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Silvio Daidone & Francisco Pereira Fontes, 2023. "The role of social protection in mitigating the effects of rainfall shocks. Evidence from Ethiopia," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 315-332, December.
    20. Zavale, Helder & Mabaya, Edward T. & Christy, Ralph D., 2006. "Smallholders' Cost Efficiency in Mozambique: Implications for Improved Maize Seed Adoption," 2006 Annual Meeting, August 12-18, 2006, Queensland, Australia 25648, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:chinae:v:24:y:2016:i:3:p:37-51. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwepacn.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.