ABSTRACT
China's access to the World Trade Organization (WTO) brings Chinese agricultural producers opportunities as well as the urgent message that they must compete with their foreign counterparts. Given limited per capita resources in China, Chinese agricultural producers need to have efficient production if they want to be competitive in the world market. Abdulai and Huffman (2000) compared the results of several agricultural efficiency studies and found that the average profit inefficiency score obtained by Wang, Wailes, and Cramer (1995) for China was higher than those for other countries. With China's accession to the WTO, we wonder how inputs are converted into outputs in China, how efficient Chinese agricultural producers are in their production, what factors contribute to their efficiency, and what kind of pattern their efficiency distribution exhibits. Answers to these questions will help researchers and policymakers to improve agricultural systems/policies and to find out whether or not institutional innovations are necessary.
