The Economic Assessment of The Production and Technical Efficiency of Bakeries with A Focus on Social Factor Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis

Abstract

Determining the extent to which the bakeries of Gonabad, Iran have succeeded in the optimal use of certain resources and to explore the possibility of production increase with a certain set of production resources and factors, the technical efficiency of bakeries in this city was estimated. Data were collected from 98 bakeries in Gonabad using simple randomization in 2016. To accomplish research objectives, the stochastic frontier production function and technical inefficiency were simultaneously estimated by the Cabb-Douglas production function. The results showed that the average technical efficiency of the bakeries is 71.12% influenced positively and significantly by the variables of flour and labor. Also, bakers’ age and experience had a negative relationship with their technical inefficiency, but their educational level had no significant effect. On the other hand, the difference between the minimum and maximum technical efficiency was calculated to be 72.75%. According to the results, experience is a requirement to enhance production and efficiency.