DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTIVITY OF PIG FARMS IN GERMANY

The development and change of productivity, as well as of its influencing factors, is of interest in economic research. In this paper we analyse the development of productivity in pig farms in Germany. Balanced farm panels are selected from the German Farm Accounting Data Network (FADN). As a productivity measure we use the Färe-Primont Index proposed by O’Donnell. Results shows a rather constant productivity level of pig fattening farms and decreasing productivity of farms specialized in piglet production. Due to cyclical pig prices the variation of productivity is rather high in pig farms. Significant scale effects are identified with highest TFP levels of large sized farms. The variation of income over time is much more pronounced than of productivity, which might partially be determined by the rather high aggregation of output and input variables used for the productivity calculations.