Household farm, cooperative farm, and efficiency : Evidence from rural de-collectivization in China

A model of household optimizing behaviour in a household farm and a cooperative farm is presented in this paper. It is found that a household will supply more effort in the household farm than in the cooperative farm, and, as a consequence, the total output produced by the household farming system is larger than that produced by the cooperative farming system. Empirical data show a shift from the cooperative farming system to the household one resulted in a 19,7 % productivity jump, and over 60 % of the 26,4 % output growth between 1980 and 1983 can be attributed to this institutional change. (DÜI-Sbt)