This is a prepublication version of J.M. Beddow, T.M. Hurley, P.G. Pardey, and J.M. Alston’s “Food Security: Yield Gap” chapter in N. Van Alfen, editor-in-chief, Encyclopedia of Agriculture and Food Systems, Vol. 3, San Diego: Elsevier, 2014, pp. 352-365.

Some studies have reported a slowdown in U.S. farm productivity growth, but the prevalent view among economists is to reject or downplay the slowdown hypothesis, implying that the rates of productivity growth experienced over the past half century can be projected forward. We set out to resolve...

This study examines the argument that farm size is associated with technical efficiency. A non-parametric, frontier analysis method is used, together with some additional statistical analysis. Although some gains in efficiency appear as we move toward larger farms, they do not seem to be...

The main purpose of this study is to measure, among commodities and among agro-economic zones, the economic efficiency and the real cost of earning foreign exchange through producing and exporting eight selected commodities by using the concepts of social profitability and domestic resource...

A number of very careful econometric studies have been interpreted as showing that publicly funded research and development conducted by private firms has had little discernable impact on firm level profits or productivity. In contrast historical studies have shown that military and...

Accurate estimates of returns to scale require that inputs and output are measured without error and that environmental and managerial differences among firms of varying sizes are taken into account. Measurement problems affecting estimates of returns to scale in agriculture include: (1)...