Agricultural credit scale and agricultural green production efficiency: a Metafrontier-Malmquist-Luenberger and panel Tobit approach

Abstract

The agricultural credit scale plays a crucial role in improving the agricultural green production efficiency (AGPE) in China. This paper selected the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2020 and used the Metafrontier-Malmquist-Luenberger index to calculate the agricultural green production efficiency. On this basis, this paper uses the Panel Tobit model to analysis the impact of agricultural credit scale on AGPE. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) From 2009 to 2020, the average AGPE in 30 provinces was 4.2%, and agricultural technology progress was the main driving factor for AGPE growth. 2) The agricultural credit scale significantly promotes AGPE, and the impact of the agricultural credit scale on AGPE presents a significant inverted U-shape. 3) The impact of the agricultural credit scale on AGPE in eastern, central, and western regions is significantly heterogeneous. 4) AGPE has significant spatial spillover effects. This paper believes that improving agricultural green production efficiency requires paying attention to the important role played by the scale of agricultural credit.