Human Capital and TFP Growth of Regional Agriculture in China:Empirical Study Based on Data Envelopment Analysis

Taking human capital factor and technical inefficiency into account,the paper estimates and calculates TFP growth of regional agriculture in China from 1988 to 2006 through the method of non-parameter Malmquist productivity index.It explores the source of agriculture TFP growth by classifying TFP growth into three parts,namely technological progress,pure technical efficiency change and scale efficiency change.Empirical studies show that the significant agricultural TFP growth from 1988 to 2006,which basically makes a pro-cyclical contribution to agricultural growth,can be roughly divided into four stages.And provincial TFP growth differs wildly.Technological progress makes the crucial contribution to TFP growth and technical efficiency has limited effects on promoting TFP growth.In addition,the consideration of the impact of human capital factor on agricultural growth fulfils a great function on the estimation of TFP.At last,it points out that we should try our best to surmount the institutional obstacles of agricultural technical spread through institutional innovation,and realize agricultural technical progress and technical efficiency improvement to promote agricultural TFP growth.