The aims of the dissertation thesis are to provide the comprehensive economic-statistical viewpoint on the issue of estimating labour productivity and total factor productivity; to evaluate the quality of the available data sources and to test the usage of new inputs to the production function in the Czech Republic. The first chapter provides a theoretical basis for subsequent estimates of labour productivity and total factor productivity. The second and third chapters concentrate on a detailed definition of data sources and definitions of input and output indicators in the production function. Moreover, the second chapter introduces new approaches to the estimation of the input indicators to the production function (labour services, capital services). The fourth chapter deals with estimates of labour productivity. Specifically, the relationship of labour productivity and educational structures are examined as well as estimates for regions of the Czech Republic and estimates for non-market industry that do not allow the use of the traditional approach. The fifth chapter focuses on possible particularization and improvement of the estimation of total factor productivity using new input variables. The same chapter further compares the index number approach and econometric approach including the test of constant returns to scale. The estimation of total factor productivity in individual Czech regions is also part of the chapter.

MScAgric / ABSTRACT: Small dairy farms in South Africa are observed to have higher costs than larger farms, and whether those higher costs are due to technology or inefficiency has implications for policy. This research focused on finding the curve that best represents the relationship between average cost and level of output. That was done by relating average cost to actual output. However, it was found to be more appropriate to relate average cost to planned output on the basis that costs are more likely to reflect what the farmer expects output to be. As a result, a pragmatic two-step procedure was adopted. In the first step, the farmer’s planned output was determined by estimating a production function based on the farmer’s actual use of inputs, i.e., land, number of cows in the herd, labour, feed and veterinary costs. In the second step, the long-run average cost (LAC) curve was estimated where average cost is calculated as total cost divided by planned output and this is then related to the level of planned output. To identify the determinants of production cost thus the drivers of higher costs on small farms, the cost of milk production by farm size was decomposed into frontier and efficiency components with a stochastic cost curve and long run cost curve using data from dairy farms in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa). Financial data of 37 farms for the period 1999 to 2007 were used in econometrics estimation of long run average cost curve (LAC) function for different level of production (as a proxy of planned output). Results show that average cost curves exhibiting variation in unit cost with output thus suggesting the existence of economies of size with larger farms being able to produce any given level of output at lower costs compared to their smaller counterparts. The study found that long-run average cost curve (LAC) for the sample of dairy farms is L-shaped rather than U-shaped.