Technical efficiency in dairy farming: A comparison of France and Hungary in 2001-2006

The paper investigates the difference in technical efficiency and potential technology gap between French and Hungarian dairy farms during 2001-2006, using Data Envelopment Analysis under each country’s respective frontier and under a common frontier (metafrontier). Results indicate that French farms have a more optimal scale of production than Hungarian farms, but Hungarian farms make better use of the technology. They also have a more productive technology than French farms. The latter finding is obtained under the assumption of a hypothetical common frontier. Although French and Hungarian farmers do not have access to the same technologies and the metafrontier is still hypothetical, our paper adds to the thin literature that compares two countries in terms of performance.