The measurement of competitiveness in agriculture is often based on data for average or‘typical’ farms. However, if the farms that are summarized in this manner are heterogeneous, inferences based on aggregated measures can be misleading. The authors propose the calculation of competitiveness indicator distributions based on micro-data. This procedure makes it possible to determine for each product (a) the proportion of the farms producing it that is competitive and (b) the proportion of the total production/output value of the product that derives from competitive/uncompetitive farms. Furthermore, the authors propose and contrast distribution-based and aggregate-based approaches for ranking activities.
BernardA. B.EatonJ.JensonJ. B.KortumS. (2003), ‘Plants and productivity in international trade’, The American Economic Review, Vol 93, No 4, pp 1268–1290.
2.
EfronB.TibshiraniR. J. (1993), An Introduction to the Bootstrap, Chapman & Hall, New York.
3.
GalushkoV.BrümmerB.DemyanenkoS. (2004), ‘Measuring the productive efficiency of Ukrainian farms’, in von Cramon-TaubadelS.DemyanenkoS.KuhnA., eds, Ukrainian Agriculture – Crisis and Recovery, Shaker, Aachen.
4.
GittingerJ. P. (1982), Economic Analysis of Agricultural Projects, 2 ed, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD.
KoopmanT. (1957), Three Essays on the State of Economic Science, McGraw-Hill, New York.
7.
KurkalovaL.JensenH. (2002), Technical Efficiency of Grain Production in Ukraine: An Analysis Using Farm-Level Data, Journal Paper No J-17036, Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, IA.
8.
LiefertW. (2002), ‘Comparative (dis?) advantage in Russian agriculture’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol 84, No 3, pp 762–767.
9.
LissitsaA.OdeningM. (2005), ‘Efficiency and total factor productivity in Ukrainian agriculture in transition’, Agricultural Economics, Vol 32, No 3, pp 311–325.
10.
MastersW. A.Winter-NelsonA. (1995), ‘Measuring the comparative advantage of agricultural activities: Domestic resource costs and the social cost–benefit ratio’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol 77, pp 243–250.
11.
MelitzM. (2003), ‘The impact of trade on intra-industry reallocations and aggregate industry productivity’, Econometrica, Vol 71, No 6, pp 1695–1725.
12.
MonkeE. A.PearsonS. R. (1989), The Policy Analysis Matrix for Agricultural Development, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
13.
RosenblattM. (1956), ‘Remarks on some nonparametric estimates of a density function’, Annals of Mathematical Statistics, Vol 27, pp 643–669.
14.
von Cramon TaubadelS.NivyevskyiO.GrueningerM. (2008), ‘Ukraine: Agricultural competitiveness’, World Bank Policy Note No 44843-UA, World Bank, Washington, DC.
