| This paper analyses efficiency and total factor productivity (TFP) in Hungarian sugar beet production applying non-parametric frontier techniques. For 2004 and 2005 efficiency and TFP are calculated by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and by a Malmquist index respectively. Between 2004 and 2005 the average technical efficiency was very stable, around 0.80 for CRS efficiency and 0.87 for VRS efficiency, suggesting that in both years farms were similarly clustered towards the frontier. The analysis of returns to scale reveals that during both years half (48%) of the sugar beet growers were operating under increasing returns to scale. In the two analysed years changes occurred between decreasing returns to scale and scale efficient farms, when the first... |
