Price Distortions and Resource-Use Efficiency in Indian Agriculture: A Restricted Profit Function Approach.

Abstract

This paper develops a generalized profit function that incorporates price distortions resulting from imperfect market conditions, sociopolitical and institutional constraints, as well as technical and allocative inefficiency. The model is applied to test (1) the appropriateness of the neoclassical profit function and (2) the effect of education and farm size on allocative performance using farm-level data from Indian agriculture. Empirical results reject the neoclassical profit-maximization hypothesis based on market prices in favor of the general model with price distortions and, therefore, help to improve allocation of inputs and output. Farm size is found to reduce price distortions only for small farmers. Copyright 1992 by MIT Press.