A non-parametric analysis of technical efficiency in bulgarian farms using the fadn dataset

Abstract

The Bulgarian countryside has suffered a significant phenomenon of rural emigration since the early 1970s. The main consequence of rural depopulation has been a decline of investments in Bulgarian farms and in their own level of technical and economic efficiency. The aim of this research was to assess afterwards the enlargement of the European Union in 2007, the technical efficiency by a non-parametric approach such as the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), using some findings and variables investigated in the Farm Accountancy Data Network annual survey from 2007 till 2015. Farms have been stratified into functions of their typology of farming and their geographical localization. Research findings have pointed out that specialized farms as dairy farms and granivores ones have had the highest levels of technical efficiency compared to mixed farms and wine farms. To sum up, financial subsidies allocated by the Common Agricultural Policy have had a positive impact towards farmers, both increasing the technical efficiency and also in reducing the socio-economic marginalization of Bulgarian rural areas.