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Abstract
The main purposes of this study are to quantitatively investigate the production
structure and the pattern of technical change in Thai agriculture for the period of
1972-94. A translog variable cost function framework is used to estimate a system of
the cost function and the associated cost share equations for Thai agriculture. The
system is estimated using the iterative seemingly unrelated regression method applied
to a panel of 92 observations, comprising annual data from 1972 to 1994 for four
regions in Thailand. The analytical results indicate that there were scale economies,
low technical progress, and complementarities between capital and fertiliser, capital
and hired labour, and capital and unpaid family labour. Technical change was biased
toward saving hired labour, operator labour and unpaid family labour and also biased
toward using fertiliser and capital.