规模经济抑或分工经济--来自农业家庭经营绩效的证据

农地规模经营与农业分工深化是实现农业规模经营的两类相互关联的路径选择。本文探讨了农地经营规模、农业分工与农业家庭经营绩效之间的关系,并利用江汉平原地区的1701个样本农户调查数据进行实证检验。结果表明:(1)农地流转及其规模经营内生的交易费用与组织管理成本问题,导致农地规模对农业家庭经营绩效的改进效应存在适度规模水平;(2)交易费用决定了分工的边界,农业横向专业化、纵向服务卷入均与经营绩效呈倒"U"型关系;(3)农地规模经营与分工深化是两种相互关联的农业规模经营策略,农地经营规模对农户横向专业化、纵向服卷入均具有显著的正向影响,然而一旦越过规模门槛,农户更倾向于减少纵向服务卷入;(4)农业分工与市场容量相互关联且相互决定,横向专业化所表达的市场容量是纵向分工深化的前提,而纵向分工深化亦反过来强化农户横向专业化生产水平。由此,本文认为改善农业家庭经营绩效应当是农地要素优化配置与分工深化的内在统一与有机结合。

Economies of Scale or Division of Labor Economy?--Evidence from Household Operation Performance in Agriculture

There are two options for achieving scale operation in agriculture,including farmland scale operation and deepening the agricultural division of labor.The present paper theoretically explores the relationship between farmland scale operation,the agricultural division of labor,and household operation performance.Additionally,this paper empirically tests the relationship by 1701 household survey data in the Jianghan Plain.The results indicate that:(1)transaction costs and management costs induced by farmland transfer and farmland scale operation result in the fact that there exists a moderate scale when improving household operation performance via enlarging farmland scale;(2)transaction cost defines the boundary of the division of labor.Then,the horizontal specialization of agriculture and the vertical involvement of services are in an inverted"U"relationship with household operation performance,respectively;(3)farmland scale operation and deepening the agricultural division of labor are the two interrelated strategies for achieving scale operation.Therefore,farmland scale operation has a positive effect on both horizontal specialization and vertical service involvement.However,once excessing the scale threshold is crossed,households are more inclined to reduce vertical service involvement;(4)the agricultural division of labor and market capacity are interrelated and mutually determined.Market capacity represented by horizontal specialization is the premise of vertical division of labor.Then deepening the vertical division of labor inversely strengthens the horizontal specialization of households.This paper reveals that a proper combination of optimizing agricultural factor allocation and deepening the division of labor would improve household operation performance.