@article{Fleming:59076,
      recid = {59076},
      author = {Fleming, Euan M. and Hadley, David and Holloway, Garth J.},
      title = {Modelling Synergies and Scope Economies between Farm  Enterprises and Ecosystem Outputs in the Agricultural  Sector in England and Wales},
      address = {2010},
      number = {421-2016-26742},
      pages = {12},
      year = {2010},
      abstract = {Interest has been growing in the nature of synergies in  agroecosystems, prompted in part
by growing concerns about  the effects of environmental degradation on  agricultural
productivity and interrelations between  agricultural outputs and ecosystem outputs.  Most
productivity analyses focus on technology, technical  inefficiency and scale effects on
productivity; yet scope  economies derived from synergies can also have  substantial
effects that are likely to increase in the  future. Scope economies take on special
importance when  farms diversify to halt declining biodiversity and other  forms of
environmental degradation. We present results of  an empirical case study based on panel
data on farms in  England and Wales. A stochastic input distance function is  estimated
using Bayesian methods that enable economies of  scope to be calculated between pairs of
outputs based on  the derivatives of the input distance function. Results  confirm the
presence of scope economies from diversity,  providing prima facie evidence that
diversity is beneficial  in farming systems in England and Wales. But a number  of
challenges lie ahead to improve the data set and method  of measuring scope economies
for further substantiation of  this evidence. Chief among them is the need to obtain a  better
measure of ecosystem outputs. The complexity of  agroecosystems, with their diverse
elements and numerous  interactions between elements, presents a major challenge  for
data collection.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/59076},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.59076},
}