Farm size and TFP Growth in the Southeast region, from 1985 to 2006

Abstract The aim of this paper is to measure the Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth by farm size in Southeast, from 1985, 1995/96 and 2006 agricultural census, as well as to decompose TFP change into its components, technological change and technical efficiency change. The methodology is based on stochastic frontier analysis. Data is aggregated at the municipality level into five size classes: 0-5 ha, 5-20 ha, 20-100 ha, 100-500 ha, and 500 ha and above. It was observed TFP growth in the Southeast; however, it was heterogeneous across size classes. The last size classes, of 100-500 ha and above 500 ha, achieved higher TFP growth than the first three classes (0-5 ha, 5-20 ha and 20-100 ha). However, all size classes had technical inefficiency increased.