Measuring technical efficiency in the Greek agricultural sector

This paper measures the degree of technical efficiency of Greek farms at discrete points in time. Stochastic frontier production functions are estimated from four annual Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) surveys of the 1992–1995 period. From the results, a measure of technical efficiency is calculated for each farm for each year. The four distributions of technical efficiency values are examined and compared. All four samples show a wide range of farm-specific technical efficiency but efficiency is improving over the period. The paper also presents frontier estimates for small and large farms classified according to economic size. In that case, technical efficiency measures are calculated and their distributions are examined and compared. The results show that large farms are more efficient than small farms. However, efficiency is improving in both size farms over the period. In general, the results of this study indicate that there is substantial scope for improving technical efficiency of Greek farms.