The Effects of Rural Infrastructure Development on Agricultural Production Technical Efficiency: Evidence from the Data of Second National Agricultural Census of China

Abstract

This paper studies the effects of rural infrastructure development on agricultural production technical efficiency, using data from the second agricultural census of China. Employing Data Envelopment Analysis, this paper first estimates agricultural production technical efficiency of each administrative area of China. A Tobit model is then applied to study the effects on agricultural production technical efficiency of various types of rural infrastructures. Our empirical results suggest that transportation infrastructure plays the most substantial positive role on technical efficiency, followed by vocational/technical education infrastructure, electricity facilities and water supply systems. In addition, other potential factors influencing agriculture technical efficiency include regional industrial structure, mechanical intensity, the quality of labor and geographical locations.