Quebec's hog industry is supported by a revenue insurance program that guarantees a minimum price, but it also faces strict environmental constraints. Under price volatility, risk‐averse farms may contract their output enough to produce under increasing returns. We show that the subsidy and downside risk reduction effects of the revenue insurance program tend to stimulate output and increase the likelihood of production under increasing returns. Environmental constraints that raise the cost of manure management and limit areas under cultivation also increase the likelihood of decreasing returns. Scale efficiency and technical efficiency measures are obtained through a parametric decomposition of total factor productivity (TFP) obtained from the estimation of an output distance function. As in hog studies pertaining to other countries, we found a TFP average annual growth of 5.2% between 2004 and 2012. Scale efficiency is much lower than in other countries, as per our prior about the program's distortions and environmental constraints. Integrating annual TFP gains into the setting of the minimum guaranteed price could reduce program costs by $12 million per year. About $70–80 million per year could be saved by investing in extension activities that would bring increase the level of technical efficiency of inefficient farms to the provincial average. A metatechnology frontier approach allowing for an endogenous input was also implemented to assess the robustness of the scale efficiency results.

中文翻译：

---

生猪生产的全要素生产率变化和魁北克的收入保险计划

魁北克省的养猪业受到一项保证最低价格的收入保险计划的支持，但同时也面临严格的环境限制。在价格波动的情况下，规避风险的农场可能会收缩其产出，从而以增加的收益进行生产。我们表明，收入保险计划的补贴和降低风险的降低效应往往会刺激产出并增加收益增加下的生产可能性。环境方面的限制增加了粪便管理的成本并限制了耕作面积，也增加了降低收益的可能性。通过从输出距离函数的估计中获得的全要素生产率（TFP）的参数分解，可以获得规模效率和技术效率度量。与其他国家的猪研究一样，我们发现2004年至2012年期间，TFP的年均增长率为5.2％。根据我们先前关于该计划的扭曲和环境制约因素，规模效益远低于其他国家。将年度全要素生产率的收益纳入最低保证价格的设定，每年可以减少1200万美元的计划成本。通过投资推广活动，每年可以节省约70–80百万美元，这将使效率低下的农场的技术效率水平提高到全省平均水平。还采用了允许内源输入的元技术前沿方法来评估规模效率结果的鲁棒性。的扭曲和环境限制。将年度全要素生产率的收益纳入最低保证价格的设定，每年可以减少1200万美元的计划成本。通过投资推广活动，每年可以节省约70–80百万美元，这将使效率低下的农场的技术效率水平提高到全省平均水平。还采用了允许内源输入的元技术前沿方法来评估规模效率结果的鲁棒性。的扭曲和环境限制。将年度全要素生产率的收益纳入最低保证价格的设定，每年可以减少1200万美元的计划成本。通过投资推广活动，每年可以节省约70–80百万美元，这将使效率低下的农场的技术效率水平提高到全省平均水平。还采用了允许内源输入的元技术前沿方法来评估规模效率结果的鲁棒性。