Productivity of U.S. farmers by age is measured by non-parametric programming using 1992 Census data, decomposed into efficiency and technology Malmquist index components. Productivity increases slightly with age and then decreases. In most states productivity variations are from technology use...

I argue that much of what researchers have been measuring as technical inefficiency may be allocative inefficiency. When inputs are aggregated it is shown that any allocative inefficiency is manifested as technical inefficiency. Greater degrees of aggregation may produce lower measures of...