Efficient Innovation in Dairy Production - Empirical Findings for Germany

This empirical study aims to shed light on the dynamic linkages between innovation and efficiency at individual farm level. We use a comprehensive dataset for dairy farms in Germany for the period 1995 to 2010. Based on a directional distance function framework we estimate the changes in efficiency, technical change and productivity over the period considered. In a second step we then investigate possible factors for technically efficient milk production at farm level before we finally try to identify those farms that are capable of translating investments in innovative technologies into actual efficiency gains over time applying a multinomial logit approach. Our empirical findings reveal that investments in innovative dairy technologies are only reflected in higher profitability if sufficient Know-How for the efficient use of these innovations is available.