| In the case of weak growth of input factors,the growth of Total Factor Productivity(TFP)has become an important way to break through the constraints of resources and environment.The growth of TFP can realize sustainable development of food production and guarantee national food security.It is also an important direction of China’s agricultural growth in the agricultural supply-side reform.In the future,household management of smallholder farmers will remain in the dominant position for a long time,and seeking new motivation is the key to solve the problem of improving TFP.Agricultural machinery service outsourcing production mode is a representative of the agricultural productive service,is widely rise and development,small farmers can invest elements in the form of services through outsourcing,and replace the labor force with machinery at lower service prices.Service inputs reduce the threshold of the household management in using capital and technology for small farmers.At the same time,the scale economy of large-scale farmers is obtained for small farmers.Academia pointed out that the mode of agricultural management in our country should be changed from land scale operation to service scale operation of agricultural production outsourcing.The development of agricultural producer services has become a key solution for decision-makers,and whether agricultural producer services can promote the growth of grain TFP has also become a very concerned issue in the academic circle.Existing studies have pointed out that the outsourcing of services in manufacturing and industrial enterprises has a positive effect on total factor productivity.But cyclical,seasonal and life-rhythm attributes of agricultural production is very different in properties such as manufacturing.In addition to the basic national conditions of ―big country small farmers‖,the influence mechanism of productive services on total factor productivity in agricultural sector needs to be further studied.Existing studies have highlighted the important role of outsourcing agricultural machinery services for food production,but the production patterns of agricultural machinery services have not been integrated into the analytical framework to examine their impact on TFP growth,thus failing to respond effectively to the important concern that whether outsourcing agricultural machinery services can be a source of TFP growth for food.For example,how to explain the influence mechanism of factor input servitization on TFP? How to promote service scale operation through effective policy design and institutional arrangement,and promote small farmers to achieve TFP growth? Therefore,the scientific question to be studied in this paper is whether agricultural machinery service outsourcing can promote the growth of food TFP,and the effect mechanism of agricultural machinery service outsourcing on food total factor productivity.Taking food production as an example,this paper mainly uses mathematical model to analyze the relationship between agricultural machinery service outsourcing and TFP.The variable coefficient stochastic frontier analysis method and econometric analysis method are used to carry on the empirical test.Firstly,according to the service economy theory,the theoretical framework of whether agricultural machinery service outsourcing can promote the improvement of food TFP is constructed.Using panel data and household survey data,the panel interaction fixed effect model,instrumental variable fixed effect method,2SLS,IVQR and other methods are used to carry out empirical tests on the effect of agricultural machinery service outsourcing on food TFP growth.Secondly,it is theoretically expounded that agricultural machinery service outsourcing is beneficial to the deepening of agricultural division of labor,constructs the model of regulation effect.The system GMM estimation method is used to verify the moderating effect of agricultural division of labor on the relationship between agricultural machinery service outsourcing and food TFP.Then the relative price of the core concept ―Factor relative price‖ of the induced technology change model is extended to the service element,and the decline of the relative price of agricultural machinery service is the main inductive factor for farmers to replace labor with machinery.The panel data model is constructed and the interactive fixed effect model is used to verify that the technological progress bias is accelerated under the mode of production of service outsourcing.The mediation effect model was used to verify the mediating effect of technological progress bias on the promotion of TFP growth by service outsourcing of agricultural machinery.Finally,based on Two-Sector Model and Learning Model,the micro-mechanism of agricultural machinery service outsourcing affecting food total factor productivity is analyzed.Based on household survey data,IV-PROBIT and IV-TOBIT and other methods are used to verify the complementary effect of human capital and the substitution effect of technology learning,so as to confirm the micro-mechanism of agricultural machinery service outsourcing affecting TFP.Based on the train of the thought "literature review → theory construction → empirical test →conclusion suggestion",this paper comprehensively uses variable coefficient stochastic frontier analysis and econometric analysis methods,and draws the following conclusions:(1)The service outsourcing production mode represented by agricultural mechanization can become the growth source of food TFP,and the promotion effect of agricultural machinery service outsourcing on food TFP of farmers needs to be based on the certain scale of land management.China’s agricultural machinery service market has been promoting the growth of food TFP since it entered the intermediate development stage in 2007.Both labor-intensive and technology-intensive services outsourcing are beneficial to improve the TFP of food production.At present,the role of technology-intensive outsourcing in promoting TFP of food needs to be improved.The degree of agricultural machinery service outsourcing had a more obvious promoting effect on the food TFP of the 0.75 quantile.The empirical results showed that the agricultural machinery service outsourcing had a significant promoting effect on the food TFP of the farmers when the food area of the farmers was at least 8 mu.At present,small-scale decentralized household operation in China hinders the improvement of food TFP by agricultural machinery service outsourcing.Therefore,large-scale land management should be effectively implemented and promoted appropriately,and high-quality agricultural development can be achieved through the effective linkage between land scale management and service scale management.(2)Agricultural machinery service outsourcing affects grain TFP through the moderating effect of agricultural division of labor and the mediating effect of technological progress bias.The moderating effect of agricultural division of labor is reflected in that the market capacity formed by the continuous cropping of food crops helps to deepen the agricultural division of labor.Only when the scale of operation exceeds a certain threshold value,the service market capacity is formed under the condition of continuous planting and the degree of agricultural division of labor is deepened,can the marginal effect of promoting the improvement of TFP be generated.The empirical results show that the degree of agricultural division of labor has a significant moderating effect,and agricultural machinery service outsourcing can further improve food TFP under the moderating effect of agricultural division of labor.Under the inductive mechanism of relative price of factors,agricultural machinery service outsourcing promotes the formation of technological progress bias to mechanical factors,and promotes the increase of food TFP through the intermediary role of technological progress bias.In this paper,the analysis framework of induced technological change is expanded from the effect of factors on relative price to the effect of services on relative price.Under the condition of ultra-small scale of land management,restricted by the economy or break-even point of the using machinery,the decline of the relative price of agricultural machinery service is the main inducement factor for farmers to replace labor with machinery.The empirical results show that the change of relative price of agricultural machinery and labor has no obvious direct inducement effect on technological progress bias,but the change of relative price of agricultural machinery service and labor has significant inducement effect on technological progress bias.The relative price of machinery and labor has an indirect effect on technological progress bias through service outsourcing.The superposition effect of agricultural machinery service outsourcing on inducing technological progress bias is an important mechanism to promote the organic linkage between small farmers and modern agriculture.(3)The complementary effect of human capital and the substitution effect of technological learning are the micro-mechanism of agricultural machinery service outsourcing to improve farmers’ TFP of food.The complementary effect of human capital is mainly reflected in the compensation of the aging of agricultural labor force and the low education level by the outsourcing production mode of agricultural machinery service.The empirical results show that service outsourcing to labor-intensive sectors can counteract the inhibiting effect of aging on TFP growth,and service outsourcing to technology-intensive sectors can counteract the inhibiting effect of low education level on TFP.Therefore,agricultural machinery service outsourcing can not only realize ―circuitous production‖ and ―circuitous investment‖,but also realize ―circuitous utilization of human capital‖.The substitution effect of technology learning is mainly reflected in the production mode of agricultural machinery service outsourcing is beneficial to reduce the learning cost of farmers.The agricultural machinery service market expands the source channel of Information Neighbors,and farmers learn from each other in the outsourced knowledge transfer and sharing function.The analysis framework of the influence of agricultural machinery service outsourcing on farmers’ technical learning indicates that the production mode of service outsourcing can reduce the learning cost of farmers and even replace the learning process of farmers.There is a complementary relationship between the degree of service outsourcing in the production link and the behavior and intensity of farmers’ technology learning,and a substitute relationship between the degree and the time and cost of farmers’ technology learning.The empirical results show that the saving of technical learning time can motivate farmers to improve food TFP by service outsourcing,and the reduction of technical learning cost can motivate farmers to improve food TFP by service outsourcing.The innovations of this paper are as follows:(1)Based on the perspective of service economy,this paper constructs the theoretical framework of the impact of agricultural machinery service outsourcing on food TFP,and broadens the research scope of the sources of food TFP growth.Most of the existing studies have discussed the sources of TFP growth from the perspective of material factor input,ignoring the contribution of mechanical factor input in service to TFP growth.In fact,the "glue" function of service outsourcing can not only improve the efficiency of resource allocation to a certain extent,but also reduce the threshold for capital and technology to enter the household management of small farmers.Exploring the sources of grain TFP growth from the perspective of agricultural machinery service outsourcing is actually emphasizing the contribution of agricultural producer services to TFP.This paper makes a breakthrough in the existing research on agricultural TFP,which ignores the impact brought by the change of production mode of smallholder farmers adopting service outsourcing,and makes some innovations in academic perspective and analytical framework.(2)By analyzing the impact of agricultural machinery service outsourcing on factor scarcity and input structure,this paper expands the model of inducing technological change.Meanwhile,based on the relative price of factors of service outsourcing,this paper explores the mechanism of how agricultural machinery service outsourcing affects TFP through technological progress bias.The theory of induced technological change only considers the prices of material factors(labor,machinery,land)and does not consider the prices of services.Under the background of imperfect land market and small-scale operation,restricted by the economy of using machinery or the break-even point,the decline of the relative price of service outsourcing is the main inducement factor for farmers to replace labor with machinery.The agricultural machinery service outsourcing mode induces the formation of mechanical bias technology progress by changing the factor input structure and promotes the growth of food TFP.In this paper,from the perspective of agricultural machinery service outsourcing demonstration technology progress towards formation mechanism,analytical framework will be induced technological change from focus on elements of relative prices to focus on services,the influence of relative prices for different land resources endowment conditions promote the technological progress of abundance elements instead of scarce policy design provides a theoretical reference.(3)From the perspective of human capital complementarity and learning cost saving,this paper studies the micro-mechanism of agricultural machinery service outsourcing promoting the improvement of food TFP in the background of “big country with small farmers”.On the one hand,it makes up for the lack of existing literature,and on the other hand,it provides academic reference for improving the effectiveness and pertinence of policies.The negative effects of the outflow of young and middle-aged labor force on the improvement of agricultural technology and efficiency may be offset to some extent by the knowledge sharing and technology spillover of service outsourcing.Small farmers lack the motivation and ability to learn and adopt new technologies.If small farmers can get outsourcing services in the production link,the learning cost of farmers can be reduced,resource allocation can be optimized and productivity can be improved.The economics of technological innovation points out that excess profit is the driving force of technological innovation.Therefore,for small farmers with low profit margins,the problem of insufficient incentive caused by difficulty in obtaining excess profit can be avoided by replacing the technological learning process of farmers with outsourcing services. |
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