THE STOCK OF CAPITAL IN EUROPEAN-COMMUNITY AGRICULTURE

This paper presents estimates of capital stocks of buildings and machi nery and transportation vehicles in European Community agriculture. Th e capital stocks are the cumulation of all past investments adjusted f or discards of worn-out assets and loss of efficiency of assets over t heir service life. Asset discards are calculated based on an assumed m ean service life for a group of assets and a distribution of actual di scards around this mean service life. Efficiency loss is assumed to be a function of age. The function relating efficiency to age of the ass et is approximated by a rectangular hyperbola concave to the origin. T his rectangular hyperbola provides a general model incorporating sever al of the commonly used forms of depreciation as special cases.