ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1600375
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing Food Security and Trade Resilience in Sustainable Agricultural SystemsView all 29 articles
Labor-saving Agricultural Mechanization Services (LAMS) and the Technical Efficiency in Agricultural Production: Evidence from Chinese Rural Households
Provisionally accepted
- 1Peking University, Beijing, China
- 2Chinese Academy of Fiscal Science, Beijing, China
- 3Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China
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This study investigates how LAMS affect TE among Chinese smallholders.Using data from China's National Rural Fixed Observation Point Survey 2019 covering 1,519 rice-producing households across 10 major provinces, the study employs stochastic frontier analysis, instrumental variable methods, and moderating effect models to identify causal effects. Results show that LAMS adoption significantly improves TE by substituting capital for labor in labor-intensive production stages.Furthermore, the analysis reveals that external contextual factors moderate the LAMSefficiency relationship. Market constraints exhibit a substitution effect, reducing the marginal benefit of LAMS. In contrast, HSFC positively moderates LAMS impacts, as land consolidation and infrastructure improvements facilitate mechanization uptake.
Keywords: labor-saving agricultural mechanization services, Technical efficiency, Stochastic frontier analysis, Rural households, Household contract responsibility system
Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 07 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yangchen, Yang and Hong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Danny Cyra Yangchen, Peking University, Beijing, China
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