ESTIMATION OF TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN SWEDISH CROP FARMS - A PSEUDO PANEL-DATA APPROACH

This paper deals with the estimation of technical efficiency using pse udo panel data constructed from rotating panel data on Swedish crop fa rmers where each unit is observed for a maximum of four yeas. Farms ar e grouped into 89 cohorts, using their common time-invariant character istics, and the cohorts are used as an individual unit in the empirica l analysis. The overall technical inefficiency is decomposed into a pe rsistent and a residual component. An alternative model with time-vary ing technical inefficiency is also considered. In addition to technica l inefficiency, measures of returns to scale and technical change are also obtained.