Off-farm employment and time allocation in on-farm work in rural China from gender perspective

This paper sheds light on how the growing number of off-farm employees affects the labor allocation of female and male left-behind farmers in the Chinese agricultural sector. We find no direct effect of off-farm employment on left behind workers' total working time in farming, nor do we observe a gender difference in this respect. However, we do find that increasing off-farm work is associated with fewer days worked on staple crops, and in the harvesting and sales stages of the production process. Hiring labor and buying agricultural services also impact left behind workers' time allocation. Moreover, we find that in China, contrary to several other developing countries, there is no trend towards a feminization of agriculture, but rather a tendency in the reverse direction.     

Trends in Agricultural Production Efficiency and their Implications for Food Security in Sub‐Saharan African Countries

The main objective of this paper is to estimate the agricultural sector production efficiency using data envelopment analysis based on a cross‐section of 49 African countries over the 1995–2012 period in order to analyze the determinants of annual efficiency scores to assess the impact of agricultural efficiency on food security. We find that agriculture aid, agricultural sector infrastructure, sanitation, and good governance serve the main drivers of agriculture efficiency and its growth. Our findings also suggest that a large portion of Africa's agricultural sector growth can be attributed to technical progress as opposed to efficiency changes.     

农村劳动力回流、就业选择与农地转出——基于千村调查的经验研究

农村劳动力回流趋势增强,不可避免对农地流转产生影响。文章在理论层面深入剖析了回流劳动力的就业选择与农地转出关系,并采用上海财经大学"千村调查"的数据资料,实证检验了农村劳动力回流特征变化和回流劳动力就业选择对农地转出的影响。研究发现,受非农就业不稳定的推力作用和与家人团聚的拉力作用,越来越多的外出劳动力选择回流,西部外出劳动力回流率最高,达到47.2%。回流劳动力的农地转出率普遍高于非回流劳动力的农地转出率,回流劳动力从事非农生产的就业选择对农地转出存在促进效应,而兼业和务农的选择对农地转出存在抑制效应,这意味着回流农村劳动力并非一定会选择农业生产,也可能选择在更小的地理半径内从事非农就业,并且长期外出从事技术工的经历进一步增强了劳动力回流对农地转出的抑制效应。虽然回流劳动力更倾向非农就业,但回流劳动力规模的扩大,使得兼业和纯务农的比例增加,对农地转出的抑制效应呈增强趋势。研究还发现,个人特征、家庭因素、社会网络也是影响劳动力就业选择和农地转出的重要因素,基层政府和地方政府在推动非农就业的政策合力上存在部分抵消,对农地转出产生了抑制作用。文章为农地流转进程缓慢提供了新的解释,推进农地流转需要关注农村劳动力流动特征新变化,同时兼顾各层级政策目标的衔接性。     

Efficiency and technology gap in China's agriculture: A regional meta-frontier analysis

This paper utilizes a unique county-level dataset to examine technical efficiency and technology gap in China's agriculture. We classify the counties into four regions with distinctive levels of economic development, and hence production technologies. A meta-frontier analysis is used. We find that although the eastern counties have the highest efficiency scores with respect to the regional frontier but the northeastern region leads in terms of agricultural production technology nationwide. Meanwhile, the mean efficiency of the northeastern counties is particularly low, suggesting technology and knowledge diffusion within region might help to improve production efficiency and thus agricultural output.     

“十二五”期间安徽农业产业发展的路径选择

安徽是农业大省，主要农产品产量居全国位次靠前，但与自然条件相近的周边省份相比，其生产效率却存在明显差距，尤其是劳动生产率和土地生产率水平明显低于周边省份。文章分析认为，安徽农业生产效率偏低的主要原因在于主要农产品单产水平低、特色农业发展缓慢、农牧业转化效率低和生产基础条件建设滞后。据此，“十二五”期间安徽农业发展应实施强基固本支撑战略、粮棉油高产提升战略、“粮转肉”增值战略和特色农业基地化战略等四大战略。     

福建省农业投入对农业发展影响的实证分析

利用福建省2001-2013年统计年鉴数据,采用C-D生产函数研究农业投入要素对农业发展的影响进行实证研究。结果发现,福建省农业发展受农业劳动力、化肥、机械化和耕地面积四种投入要素的影响,其中农业劳动力和化肥投入影响较大。提出三条建议：适度引导农业劳动力回归农业部门;合理施肥,提高化肥利用效率;继续加强农机补贴力度,提高农业机械化水平。     

Production Efficiency and the Pricing of Audit Services*

In this paper, we examine the relative efficiency of audit production by one of the then Big 6 public accounting firms for a sample of 247 geographically dispersed audits of U.S. companies performed in 1989. To test the relative efficiency of audit production, we use both stochastic frontier estimation (SFE) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). A feature of our research is that we also test whether any apparent inefficiencies in production, identified using SFE and DEA, are correlated with audit pricing. That is, do apparent inefficiencies cause the public accounting firm to reduce its unit price (billing rate) per hour of labor utilized on an engagement? With respect to results, we do not find any evidence of relative (within‐sample) inefficiencies in the use of partner, manager, senior, or staff labor hours using SFE. This suggests that the SFE model may not be sufficiently powerful to detect inefficiencies, even with our reasonably large sample size. However, we do find apparent inefficiencies using the DEA model. Audits range from about 74 percent to 100 percent relative efficiency in production, while the average audit is produced at about an 88 percent efficiency level, relative to the most efficient audits in the sample. Moreover, the inefficiencies identified using DEA are correlated with the firm's realization rate. That is, average billing rates per hour fall as the amount of inefficiency increases. Our results suggest that there are moderate inefficiencies in the production of many of the subject public accounting firm's audits, and that such inefficiencies are economically costly to the firm.     

Growth,employment and income distribution in Egyptian agriculture, 1964–1979

This paper is a study of the aggregate behavior of crop production in Egypt. We find that the output growth rate declined in the 1970s but there were some signs of recovery towards the end of the decade. This trend cannot be explained by the observed-cyclical movements in profitability and in the real price of aggregate output. On the other hand, investment in infrastructure goes a long way towards explaining the trends both in aggregate output and in land profitability. Increased investment in agriculture infrastructure tends to raise the growth rate of the sector and, at the same time, to increase labor's share in production at the cost of property share. Our observations also suggest that the demand for agricultural labor is rather inelastic with respect to the wage rate. Therefore, using the agricultural sector as an absorbent of employment shocks in the rest of the economy may lead to significant variability in income distribution.     

Backyard Hog Production Efficiency: Evidence from the Philippines*

This article investigates the economic efficiency and the factors associated with efficiency for a sample of 126 hog producers in the Philippines. The input‐oriented efficiency indices are computed and bootstrapped using data envelopment analysis. Econometric analysis of the factors influencing the efficiency indices are conducted using the Tobit model. Fixed capital does not influence the efficiency scores, whereas labor does negatively influence the efficiency indices. On average, technical efficiency is low, an indication that most households are not using the most efficient technology. Scale efficiency is fairly high but constrained by lack of operating capital and managerial skills. Technical efficiency is constrained by lack of access to credit and limited experience in hog production.     

Agricultural efficiency and welfare in South Africa

Agricultural and food commodity price declines associated with domestic and international agricultural efficiency gains can have important welfare effects for a country. While food price reductions benefit low-income consumers in particular, they may also cause declines in agricultural employment, leading to some resistance to technological change as a policy goal. The simulations reported here use a South African Computable General Equilibrium model with highly disaggregated food and agricultural sectors to illustrate the various effects of such agricultural efficiency gains. The results suggest that technological advances in agriculture should not be resisted because of their negative impact on agricultural employment; the welfare gains from declining prices are too important, while employment gains in other (growing) sectors are likely to outweigh the loss of agricultural employment. In the face of increasing international efficiency South African agriculture should be encouraged to respond by also increasing its efficiency, despite the negative consequences for employment in the industry, as a failure to do so may be even more detrimental to the poor in terms of overall employment.     

我国农地规模经营中家庭农场优势的理论分析

文章从家庭农场经营比雇工农场经营更有效率、农业生产规模与农业产出效率关系、农业技术应用与农业生产规模关系、家庭农场经营易于制定以及执行较为严密的年度生产经营计划等几个方面对家庭农场的生产优势作了全面而深入的分析。文章认为,要实现农地规模经营,必须转变经营意识,配套实行土地流转、农业技术推广、农产品价格保护和农村社会保障等措施。     

Factor reallocation and structural transformation implications of grain subsidies in China

Since agriculture has contributed significantly to China’s economic growth miracle, it is important to understand the contributions and determinants of agriculture related to different agricultural policies in structural transformation in China. However, as one of the most important agricultural policies in China, the effects of the grain subsidy policy on factor reallocation, economic growth, as well as agricultural and non-agricultural production have not been investigated systematically and comprehensively. The absence of using an economy-wide model to estimate the impacts of the grain subsidy policy in China leaves a vacuum in the policy-advising space. This research develops a dynamic single-country, multi-regional computable general equilibrium model of the Chinese economy to evaluate the historical impacts of the grain subsidy policy. Our results reveal that grain subsidies impede the efficiency of factor reallocation and economic structural transformation in China. However, grain subsidies promote grain production growth and temporarily reduce rural-urban income disparity. In order to achieve the long-term sustainable increase in rural income and to mitigate the rural-urban income gap, China needs to further develop its labor-intensive industries (e.g., services) to accommodate the large number of rural labor transfers. Moreover, the large-scale agricultural production and technology improvement in agriculture are the effective measures to ensure food security in China.     

我国农业劳动力供求状况与粮食安全

目前我国农业劳动力的供给为18099万人,需求为17247万人,农业剩余劳动力为852万人,剩余比例为4.71%,可见,目前我国农业已基本无剩余劳动力。进一步调查发现,劳动力的这种供求状况对农业生产影响很大,对粮食安全构成了威胁,主要表现为耕地撂荒、弃粮从经、降低复种指数和粗放经营等。因此,人们对明天"谁来种地"的担忧并非杞人忧天。     

日本农业发展对中国农业经营方式的启示与借鉴

走中国特色农业现代化道路本质上是要寻找一种适合中国“农情”、“域情”的农业经营方式，通过对日本农业发展道路研究，中国农业经营方式要本着低成本需要和高就业自愿的两个原则，从农业现代化发展过程来看，要经历两个重要阶段，即精细密集农业型＋生物技术型阶段和资金密集型＋生物技术型阶段。     

黑龙江省农村劳动力转移的动因、制约因素与发展趋势

采用实证分析方法讨论了黑龙江省农村劳动力转移的动因、制约因素与发展趋势,认为在未来,我国农村劳动力转移的总趋势必然更加顺畅,将实现从农业向非农产业转移,从农村向城市转移,随着现代农业分工水平的进一步提高,还会出现农业和农村内部的劳动力转移,但也面临着农业、农村空壳化现象,威胁粮食安全。受国际金融危机影响,作为劳务输出大省的黑龙江,农民转移就业也受到影响。但挑战与机遇同在。     

Dynamic price discovery in Chinese agricultural futures markets

Research has not fully explored how Chinese agricultural futures markets perform their price discovery function over time. Our paper examines the role of Chinese agricultural futures markets in the price discovery process based on three well-established measurements of average price discovery contribution, and more importantly, the dynamic price discovery measurement. Using daily futures and spot prices from fourteen agricultural commodities, we find eleven contracts are efficient in price discovery. Besides, market-oriented changes in policies strengthen the price discovery performance of most futures markets, except for commodities that rely heavily on imports from other countries. Our results also suggest that trading activity is particularly important in determining whether thinly traded contracts are efficient in price discovery. Our paper provides a comprehensive judgment involving both average and dynamic price discovery contribution measurements on assessing the efficiency of Chinese agricultural futures markets. Our results might also serve as a reminder that market-oriented reforms in the spot markets of commodities might be useful to intensify the pricing power of the futures markets.     

Relative earnings of husbands and wives in urban China

This paper studies the relative contribution of Chinese husbands and wives to the family income in the process of economic transition. We find that the role of urban husbands as the main financial supporters of their families becomes relatively more important during economic transition. We argue that this trend may have reflected the restoration of the functions of household production and labor market in the process of economic transition. This restoration allows households to allocate time, effort and human capital investment for each household member and for each household and market activity in a more efficient way.     

中国农业劳动力断层浅论

农村大量优秀人才特别是农业青壮年劳动力的流失、抛荒、弃耕在一定程度上影响到农业生产,致使农业劳动力可能出现断层现象。文章在分析农业劳动力断层这种现象的基础上,提出了提高农业生产效率、增加农村教育投入、加强农村剩余劳动力合理有序流动等建议,以期使我国农业走上     

The changing role of agriculture with economic structural change – The case of China

We analyze the implication of structural change to the evolving role of agriculture using China as an example. By combining a growth decomposition exercise with Input-Output (IO) and CGE model analyses using China's seven input-output tables (IOTs) in 1987–2017, the evolving role of the agriculture is quantitatively measured. The growth decomposition analysis shows that between 1978 and 2017, China doubled the size of its total labor force, while the absolute number of agricultural workers falls in this period. Rising labor productivity in agriculture has led to rapid agricultural growth without increasing agricultural employment, allowing agriculture to indirectly contribute to the economywide productivity growth through structural change.The measurement of economic integration using an IO approach helps to explain why China's rapid structural change has been accompanied by similar rapid productivity growth within each sector. The general equilibrium effect of structural change on the evolving role of agriculture is further assessed using two CGE models representing the initial (1987) and end (2017) years of a period of 30 years. Similar agricultural productivity shock induces a smaller economywide gain in 2017 than in 1987 in the CGE models, while the gap in the general equilibrium gain between these two years is much smaller than the difference in agriculture's size of the economy in the two years because of stronger linkages between agriculture and the rest of the economy in 2017. About 0.5 unit additional nonagricultural value-added is associated with a unit agricultural value-added increase in 1987, while additional gains in nonagricultural value-added rise to 2.7 unit in 2017.Our analysis of economic integration and implication of structural change to the evolving role of agriculture emphasizes the supply side role for sustainable growth in which agriculture continues to play an important but different role from the past when the demand side effects were stronger. Policies to strengthen supply side linkages have been emphasized in the recent years in China. Exploring further integration between agriculture and the rest of the economy should be part of the new growth strategy.     

Productivity and Comparative Advantage in Rice Agriculture in South‐East Asia Since 1870*

Rice long dominated the agricultural economies of South‐East Asia. Given the economic predominance of agriculture, the development of rice production had a significant bearing on the economies in the region. This article explains why the countries of mainland South‐East Asia long dominated the international rice market. It quantifies labor productivity in rice production and argues that simple, low‐cost and labor‐extensive, but low‐yielding production technology allowed farmers in mainland South‐East Asia to achieve significantly higher levels of labor product‐ivity than in the more densely populated rice‐producing areas in South‐East Asia and Japan. High levels of labor productivity were a major source of comparative advantage in rice production for Burma, Thailand and Southern Vietnam.