Higher Intensity, Higher Profit? Empirical Evidence from Dairy Farming in New Zealand
利用新西兰农场数据，研究不同投入强度的奶牛养殖系统对产量和财务绩效的影响，发现高投入系统物理产量更好但财务表现并不更优，且效果因地区和绩效水平而异。
Abstract Over the last two decades there have been significant and well‐documented changes in the nature and structure of New Zealand dairy production. One particular feature has been a marked shift in the ‘input intensity’ of dairy farming systems through increased use of supplementary feed. These changes have generated debate about the impact of dairy farm intensity on the performance of farm businesses and the competitiveness of the New Zealand dairy sector. Using a novel econometric approach, we assess statistically the impact of three types of dairy farming systems on milk production and financial performance, using farm business data provided by DairyBase ® . Our empirical results show that higher input systems perform significantly better physically than lower input systems, but not financially. The disaggregated analysis suggests that the average treatment effects differ by region and performance quantiles.