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Abstract
A stochastic production frontier has been estimated to measure the technical efficiency of an
unbalanced panel of beef cattle farms extracted from the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN)
databank of Veneto region in Italy. The technical efficiency is measured based on the estimation of
a non-neutral and heteroscedastic production frontier. The model explains the average value of
technical inefficiency as a linear function of the farm-specific variables (Battese and Coelli, 1995)
and the input interaction variables (Huang and Liu, 1994). The inefficiency term is assumed to be
distributed as a truncated normal with a heteroscedastic variance explained as a function of the
farm-specific variables (Reifschneider and Stevenson, 1991).
The average value of the farm technical efficiency is 78.6% ranging from a minimum of
30.6% to a maximum of 97.6%. The technical efficiency is positively related with the herd extension
expressed as number of LSU (Livestock Unit), the value of beef production per LSU, the rate of
purchased concentrated feed, and the percentage of concentrated feed used over the overall feed
expenditure. Conversely the technical efficiency is negatively correlated with the intensification of
the use of buildings investment and labour per LSU.