Dr. Wanglin Ma: Agricultural Cooperatives and Technical Efficiency of Apple Farmers in China
On 15 Mar. 2019, we welcomed the speakerDr. Wanglin Ma from Lincoln University, New Zealand. He is a lecturer and Ph.Dsupervisor. He works in the field of agricultural economics and developmenteconomics. In the seminar, Dr. Ma presented his last research “AgriculturalCooperatives and Technical Efficiency of Apple Farmers in China”, which examinesthe impact of agricultural cooperative membership on technical efficiency (TE)of apple farmers in China.
Theempirical results show that TE for cooperative members ranges from 79 to 86 percent and that for non-members ranges from 74 to 84 per cent, depending on howbiases are controlled. In addition, the efficiency levels of both members andnon-members of cooperatives appear to be underestimated if the selectivity biasis not appropriately addressed. Our findings conclude that the average TE isconsistently higher for cooperative members relative to their counterparts,highlighting the positive role of contemporary agricultural cooperatives inpromoting efficient usage of production inputs.
More than 20 teachers and students of the School ofEconomics and Management have participated in the seminar and discussed thestudy with Dr. Ma. We are looking forward to the Bi-Week Applied EconomicsColloquium next week.
