Determinants of microregional agricultural labour productivity – Evidence from Czechia
Autor: | Jan Ženka, Luděk Krtička, Petr Žufan, Ondřej Slach |
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Rok vydání: | 2016 |
Předmět: |
Land use
business.industry 05 social sciences Geography Planning and Development 0211 other engineering and technologies 021107 urban & regional planning Forestry 02 engineering and technology Agricultural economics Economies of scale Agricultural land Agriculture Tourism Leisure and Hospitality Management Urbanization 0502 economics and business Economics 050207 economics Agricultural productivity Land tenure business Productivity General Environmental Science |
Zdroj: | Applied Geography. 71:83-94 |
ISSN: | 0143-6228 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.apgeog.2016.04.004 |
Popis: | In this paper we aimed to explain differences in agricultural labour productivity at microregional level. We tested the effects of three major independent variables – farmland fragmentation, urbanization economies and farm size structure with particular emphasis on the relationship between land-use fragmentation and microregional differences in agricultural labour productivity. Our principal question therefore was if higher agricultural labour productivity at microregional level is associated with internal scale economies resulting from large average farm size (in terms of employment), proximity to large cities as a proxy for urbanization economies and lower levels of land-use fragmentation. We also asked if productivity gains from large average size of plots is higher than potential losses resulting from land tenure (tenants are generally less productive than farmland owners). Drawing on a case study of Czechia – a country with extremely fragmented farmland ownership, but the largest average size of plots in the EU and a strong role of farmland rental market – we confirmed our initial expectation that land-use fragmentation affects negatively microregional agricultural labour productivity. Larger average size of plots is positively related to microregional agricultural labour productivity despite potentially negative effects of land tenure. At the same time, no significant effects of urbanization economies and farm size structure were documented. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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