TECHNICAL CHANGE DIRECTIONS OF CHINA’S GRAIN PRODUCTION: APPLICATION OF THE BIAS-CORRECTED MALMQUIST INDICES
使用偏差校正的Malmquist指数，研究2003-2013年中国水稻、小麦和玉米生产的技术变化方向，发现三种作物均呈现节约劳动、使用化肥和机械的技术变化，其中小麦最为显著。
This paper aims at measuring productivity and efficiency of China’s three most important grain crops–rice, wheat and maize–as well as identifying the main directions of technical change prevailing in their production. The bias-corrected Malmquist production indices are employed to measure the technical changes (TCs) in terms of input-saving or input-using in China’s grain production, by using provincial aggregate data obtained from the National Farm Production Costs and Returns Survey. The research covers the period of 2003–2013. Application of the bias-corrected Malmquist index showed a labor-saving technical change against all the remaining inputs for the three crops under analysis. The highest frequencies of fertilizer- and machinery-using, labor-saving technical changes were observed for wheat farming. Therefore, a reduction in labor intensity should be the most promising for wheat if compared with rice and maize.