What is it about?
Traditionally, pig production and processing are important elements of agricultural production in Poland and Hungary. Furthermore, in Poland and Hungary, pig production is a relatively more important direction of agricultural production than it is generally in the European Union (EU) and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. We assess whether the decline in the industry can be associated with production efficiency, technological change, or the general level of technological development.
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Why is it important?
Empirical studies on technical efficiency in the pork industry are still limited, especially in terms of cross‐country comparison. We take into account the unobserved heterogeneity and technological differences between two countries. Results illustrate the differences in production function in both countries and technological decline throughout the period of analysis. Furthermore, farms in Hungary were more technologically developed as well as less efficient in relation to the country frontier; however, the higher technological level resulted in generally greater efficiency in relation to the metafrontier
Perspectives
Three main improvements are suggested. First, if appropriate data are available, it would be interesting to adjust estimations of pig production efficiency in accordance with the related environmental footprints. This can be done by applying a bad outputs framework. Second, a dynamic analysis and the application of total factor productivity indices could shed new light on changes in the industry during the period under analysis. Finally, research robustness could be improved by relaxing assumptions about the functional forms of production function and inefficiency distribution. To achieve this, nonparametric or semiparametric estimation methods could be used.
Professor Imre Ferto
Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences: Budapest
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Technological Heterogeneity in Pig Farming: A Metafrontier Approach—Perspectives from Hungary and Poland, Agriculture, October 2021, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/agriculture11100961.
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