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Abstract
Spain occupies the first position in the European and Mediterranean rankings of citrus
production and trade. In our analysis we assess the technical efficiency with which this sector is
operating. The main objective of this study is to analyze productivity and technical efficiency of
Spanish citrus sector through citrus farms with high orange production. A stochastic frontier
production model is estimated in which the technical inefficiency effects are defined by the
time-varying inefficiency model. A primal approach is used to decompose Total Factor
Productivity (TFP) growth into its various components. Results indicate improvement in
efficiency scores of Spanish citrus farms along the period studied. Allocative efficiencies,
technical efficiency change, and scale effects are found to be the main factors that increase TFP
growth.