Frontier technology and inefficiencies in programming sector models: An application to Swedish agriculture

A new approach to sector modelling with mathematical programming is proposed. The approach is based on information received from nonparametric efficiency analysis of farm data. Efficient farms are used to construct a set of empirically based, multi-input, multi-output technologies in the sector model. To further improve the depiction of production in the model, observed inefficiencies are also incorporated. An application of the technique replicates base-year observations better than a traditional model. Further, the new model has less tendency towards over-specialisation and unrealistic jumps in the price response. By explicitly taking existing structural inefficiencies into account, the model provides indications of the direction and strength of incentives for structural change.