Technical efficiency measures for dairy farms using panel data: a comparison of alternative model specifications

This article examines the impact of fixed effects production functions vis-a-vis stochastic production frontiers on technical efficiency measures. An unbalanced panel consisting of 96 Vermont dairy farmers for the 1971-1984 period was used in the analysis. The models examined incorporated both time-variant and timeinvariant technical efficiency. The major source of variation in efficiency levels across models stemmed from the assumption made concerning the distribution of the one-sided term in the stochastic frontiers. In general, the fixed effects technique was found superior to the stochastic production frontier methodology. Despite the fact that the results of various statistical tests revealed the superiority of some specifications over others, the overall conclusion of the study is that the efficiency analysis was fairly consistent throughout all the models considered.