Productivity growth in pre-1990 Mongolian agriculture: spiralling disaster or emerging success?

Abstract

The reasons for the spectacular collapse of so many centrally-planned economies are a source of ongoing debate. In this paper, we use detailed farm-level data to measure total factor productivity (TFP) changes in Mongolian grain and potato farming during the 14-year period immediately preceding the 1990 economic reforms. We measure TFP growth using stochastic frontier analysis (SPA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods. Our results indicate quite poor overall performance, with an average annual TFP change of-1.7% in grain and 0.8% in potatoes, over the 14-year period. However, the pattern of TFP growth changed substantially during this period, with TFP growth exceeding 7% per year in the latter half of this period. This suggests that the new policies of improved education, greater management autonomy, and improved incentives, which were introduced in final two planning periods in the 1980s, were beginning to have a significant influence upon the performance of Mongolian crop farming.

Resource Allocation Efficiency of the Prawn-Carp Farmers of Bangladesh

“…Areas where DEA was frequently applied are hospitals=clinics (Birman et al, 2003;Field & Emronuznejad, 2003;190 M. F. Alam and K. Murshed-e-Jahan Gerard & Roderick 2003;Hollingsworth & Wildman, 2003;Linna et al, 2003); insurance companies=offices (Bogetoff et al, 2003); banks (Drake & Hall, 2003;Feroz et al, 2003;Luo, 2003;Prior, 2003), universities (Abbott & Doucouliagos, 2003); airports=transport (Bazargan & Vasigh, 2003) and industries (Chen, 2003;Hawdon, 2003). Agriculture (farming) also constitutes an important area where DEA was successfully applied (Bayarsaihan & Coelli, 2003;Kelvin et al, 2007;Coelli et al, 2002;Bravo-Ureta & Pinheiro, 1997;Rahman, 2003;Balcombe et al, 2007). However, studies conducted in general on aquaculture are relatively low as compared to other areas mentioned here.…”