Agricultural productivity growth by farm size in Brazil

• Grant number: 14/12402-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: September 08, 2014
• End date: September 07, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics - Agrarian and Natural Resource Economics
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Marques de Magalhães
• Grantee: Marcelo Marques de Magalhães
• Host Investigator: Steven M. Helfand
• Host Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Tupã. Tupã , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Riverside (UCR), United States

Abstract

This project propose to estimate two heterogeneous stochastic frontier production models that allow producers to utilize different technologies. A discrete heterogeneous model will be estimated with the whole set of biomes, while a continuous heterogeneity model will be applied to each of the biomes (six biomes with particular interest on the extremes Cerrado and Caatinga). The models will be estimated with data that is aggregated into "representative farms" that vary by municipality (more than 5000), farm size (up to 5 classes), and biomes (6 classes). Thus, there could be as many as 150,000 observations in the data set, although in practice many of these cells will be empty. In addition to a wealth of descriptive statistics that will be generated with the raw data, the model output will permit decomposing inefficiency into a component attributable to permanent characteristics such as average rainfall, a component due to public policy variables, and an idiosyncratic component. The relationships between these components of inefficiency and each individual state variable will be studied. (AU)