A stochastic frontier approach to total factor productivity measurement in Bangladesh crop agriculture, 1961-92

This paper applies a stochastic production frontier model to measure total factor productivity growth, technical efficiency change and technological change in Bangladesh crop agriculture for the 31 observations from 1960/61 to 1991/92, using data for 16 regions. The results reveal that technical change followed a U-shaped pattern, rising from the early 1970s, when the green revolution varieties were adopted, giving an overall rate of technical progress at 0.27 per cent per year. However, technical efficiency declined throughout, at an estimated annual rate of 0.47 per cent. The combined effect of slow technical progress, dominated by the fall in technical efficiency resulted in total factor productivity (TFP) declining at a rate of 0.23 per cent per annum, with the rate of decline increasing in the later years. TFP change is shown to depend on the green revolution technology and agricultural research expenditures