Measuring Total Factor Productivity Change for Agricultural Cooperatives in Japan: A Nonparametric Malmquist Indices Approach

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the productivity change for agricultural cooperatives in Japan measured by nonparametric outputoriented Malmquist indices of total factor productivity. The productivity change is decomposed into technical change and technical efficiency change. Linear programming techniques are used to calculate the productivity change using a panel data set for 49 agricultural cooperatives located in the paddy-field region of Hokkaido in Japan over the period 1982-1991. The results suggest that the pattern of TFP changes tends to be driven more by improvements in technical efficiency rather than technical progress.