Inverse Productivity or Inverse Efficiency? Evidence from Mexico
利用墨西哥农村面板数据，发现农场规模与生产率及技术效率呈负相关，大农场每公顷产出更低且离效率前沿更远，表明小农在农业转型中仍有优势。
Using a unique panel data set from rural Mexico, we find strong evidence of a negative relationship between farm size and both productivity and technical efficiency: large farms not only have a lower value of output per hectare than small farms, they also produce further from the efficiency frontier. Our findings suggest that, in spite of the ongoing transformation of agricultural supply chains and economists’ recommendations for small farmers to exit crop production, there may be sustained advantages for smallholder farms. Our analysis offers new insights into inverse-farm size relationship, the productivity–efficiency relationship, and the use of stochastic frontier techniques.