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Labor Productivity Growth in the Kansas Farm Sector: A Tripartite Decomposition Using a Non-Parametric Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Amin W. Mugera ,
Michael R. Langemeier  and
Allen M. Featherstone
Amin W. Mugera
Affiliation:
Institute of Agriculture and in the School of Agriculture and Resource Economics at the University of Western Australia, in Crawley, Australia
Michael R. Langemeier
Affiliation:
Center for Commercial Agriculture at Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Indiana
Allen M. Featherstone
Affiliation:
Master of Agribusiness Program in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kansas
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Abstract

We use nonparametric production function methods to decompose farm-level labor productivity growth into components attributable to efficiency change, technical change, and factor intensity. The estimation is accomplished using balanced panel data drawn from the Kansas Farm Management Association for the period 1993 to 2007. We find that labor productivity growth is primarily driven by factor intensity and technical change. Efficiency change is declining with increasing productivity growth, and technical change is not Hicks-neutral and occurs at high levels of factor intensity, suggesting that innovation is embodied in factor intensity.

Keywords

labor productivity growthefficiency changetechnical changefactor intensity
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , December 2012 , pp. 298 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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