Research On The Impact Of Trade-openness On Agricultural Production Efficiency

Since acceding to the World Trade Organization(WTO),China’s international trade has been growing continuously while trade liberalization has increased.Trade openness has become an important driving force affecting China’s economic growth with a very close connection to the development of various fields.More importantly,it has brought a greater impact on China’s agricultural production.Therefore,this study measures the total factor productivity of agriculture in the context of trade openness and applies various methods to analyze the impact of trade openness on the total factor productivity of agriculture in China.With the background of China’s active expansion of trade openness in recent years in terms of trade policies and openness concepts,this thesis examines trade openness and agricultural production at the provincial level in China in depth,sorts out the mechanisms by which trade openness affects agricultural total factor productivity,and conducts a DEA-Malmquist index to measure and analyze agricultural total factor productivity based on the province level and the crops level of maize,japonica rice and soybeans in China.The main drivers of agricultural total factor productivity are further verified by using the gray correlation index method.On this basis,an empirical study on the correlation between trade openness and total factor productivity in agriculture based on province level is conducted through a panel fixed effects model,and the channels through which trade openness affects total factor productivity in agriculture are analyzed,and further,the heterogeneity of the impact of trade openness on total factor productivity in agriculture and the possible nonlinear relationship between them are discussed.Then,this thesis presents an empirical analysis of the relationship between agricultural trade openness and agricultural total factor productivity and technological progress based on crop level,taking corn,japonica rice and soybean as examples,and analyzes the impact of agricultural trade openness on crop total factor productivity based on different perspectives of exports and imports.Finally,based on the results of the empirical study,targeted and constructive policy recommendations are provided on how China can promote the improvement of agricultural total factor productivity in the process of expanding trade openness.The results of the study show that:(1)China’s agricultural total factor productivity shows growth during the period under examination,and technical progress and technical efficiency jointly contribute to agricultural total factor productivity,and scale efficiency contributes more to the growth of agricultural technical efficiency;(2)Trade openness significantly promotes the development of China’s agricultural total factor productivity.(3)The effects of trade opening on China’s agricultural total factor productivity are significantly heterogeneous,with positive effects on the eastern region,positive but not significant effects on the central region,and significant negative effects on the western region;In terms of periods,the impact of trade openness on agricultural total factor productivity is positive in both the periods from 2002 to 2010 and from 2011 to 2020,but the regression coefficient of the latter is not significant.(4)A threshold effect exists for the effect of trade openness on agricultural total factor productivity,with the effect turning from negative to positive when the degree of trade openness crosses the threshold.(5)Agricultural export has a significant contribution to technological progress and total factor productivity for corn,japonica rice and soybeans,while the opposite is true for import.