Accompanied by steps towards market liberalisation, dairy farmers in the European Union have been confronted with increased price risk in recent years, which might affect their innovation behaviour. We examine technological change and technical efficiency of specialised dairy farms in West Germany before and during a phase of volatile milk prices. Additionally, we compare the results with mixed dairy farms, which might have an advantage by diffusing price risk through diversification. Our results indicate a slowdown in technological change in specialised as well as in mixed dairy farming coinciding with the start of a volatile market phase.

中文翻译：

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价格波动加剧的奶牛养殖技术变化

伴随着市场自由化的步伐，近年来，欧洲联盟的奶农面临着不断增加的价格风险，这可能会影响他们的创新行为。在牛奶价格波动阶段之前和期间，我们研究了西德专业奶牛场的技术变化和技术效率。此外，我们将结果与混合奶牛场进行了比较，这可以通过分散价格风险来获得优势。我们的结果表明，随着动荡的市场阶段的开始，专业奶牛场和混合奶牛场的技术变革步伐有所放缓。