Technical efficiency and spatial econometric model: Application to rice production of thailand

Abstract

© 2021, The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Bayesian statistics and the MCMC simulation applied to the spatial panel data is presented in this paper focusing on rice farming in Thailand. Rice is chosen because it can be grown in all geographic regions of the country as the main staple and for domestic market and export. The rice sector has been crucial in all facets of the Thai society and rice farmers have been regarded as the backbone of the country. However, there are some obstacles curbing the improvement of rice production and rice farming systems. This paper is conducted employing the panel time-series data to investigate the spatial effects on the productivity of rice farming in Thailand. Yearly panel time-series data obtained from 76 provinces of Thailand is used for this study which includes three sections: (1) The overview of rice production in Thailand, (2) Technical efficiency reports for regional rice farming areas, and (3) Spatial panel econometric investigation to arrive at some significant findings for making effective policy recommendations. The empirical results from this study can be useful for those with interest in political benefit and contribute to the body of knowledge necessary for further research in agricultural economics.