Damage control inputs: a comparison of conventional and organic farming systems
提出一种允许农药边际产品为负的损害控制模型，发现农药生产率低于以往估计；传统农场依赖农药和机械，有机农场则依赖机械和耕作方式变化，且传统农场农药使用达到最优。
The economic literature on pest control exclusively assumes a non-negative marginal product of pesticides based on a monotonic non-decreasing function of damage abatement, which may bias pesticide productivity estimates. This paper proposes a specification that allows for a negative marginal product of pesticides and a damage-abating role for labour and machinery. Pesticide productivity is found to be lower than previously reported. Conventional farms are found to rely substantially on pesticides and machinery for damage abatement, whereas organic farms mainly rely on machinery use and changes in cultural practices. Productivity analyses based on the asymmetric specification suggest that pesticides are used optimally in conventional farming, which contrasts with results in previous literature.