Measuring the Efficiency of European Union Farms under Heterogeneous Technologies

The aim of the present study was to derive the characteristics of the production process for crop farms in the European Union member states. The paper uses regional data on farms taken from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). Therefore, the models that account for heterogeneity among the analysed regions, were used in the present study. In particular, the paper considers two approaches to modelling heterogeneity: deterministic and stochastic. The deterministic approach is reflected in the paper with the usage of translog production function model, which allows output elasticities to depend on the input levels. The stochastic approach is represented by a stochastic frontier model with random coefficients. The application of the above-mentioned concept allowed to derive the Cobb-Douglas (C-D) production function model with individual parameters. The parameters of the four models were estimated using the Bayesian approach. The obtained results indicate that the C-D model is the best. In addition, it was observed that for the EU average, the highest production elasticity is with respect to materials, while the lowest w.r.t area. Surprisingly, the results suggest a high mean technical efficiency of the analysed regions (0.95), with very small dispersion of these scores.