Abstract
This paper aims at measuring productivity and efficiency of China’s three most important grain crops-rice, wheat and maize-as well as identifying the main directions of technical change prevailing in their production. The bias-corrected Malmquist production indices are employed to measure the technical changes (TCs) in terms of input-saving or input-using in China’s grain production, by using provincial aggregate data obtained from the National Farm Production Costs and Returns Survey. The research covers the period of 2004-2012. Application of the bias-corrected Malmquist index showed a labor-saving technical change against all the remaining inputs for the three crops under analysis. The highest frequencies of fertilizer- and machinery-using, labor-saving technical changes were observed for wheat farming. Therefore, a reduction in labor intensity should be the most promising for wheat if compared with rice and maize.
Li, T. X.; Baležentis, T.; Cao, L. J.; Zhu, J.; Streimikiene, D.; Melnikienė, R. 2018. Technical Change Directions of China’s Grain Production: Application of the Bias-Corrected Malmquist Indices. Technological and Economic Development of Economy. 24(5): 2065–2082.