Análise de Economias de Escala na Produção de Leite

Abstract

This study analyzes the production system of dairy farming in Minas Gerais, identifying the ability of producers to stay in business in the long run, by estimating the translog cost function. The study showed that the producers still have high costs per unit, suggesting low efficiency of facilities and mismanagement of the enterprise. The econometric results show the existence of economies of scale in relation to allocation and better utilization of resources. However, increasing returns to scale are not compatible with the existence of competitive markets, indicating that producers face constraints generated by market imperfections. Knowledge of these shortcomings is essential to the formulation of economic policies and private organizations that address the economic development of this market, which is currently the sixth largest in the world. In addition, the results show that elasticities of the producer is more sensitive to price changes in labor than to changes in other factors, reducing the use of a higher proportion of labor in production, as its price increases. This highlights the main feature of the regional dairy production in the country, which is the intensive use of labor. The study has also identified that the use of selected inputs, such as medication, food and energy, identified in the study as expense factor, are the most difficult to replace due to peculiarities in the use of components of this material. Finally, the positive values founds for the partial Allen elasticities of substitution confirm the substitutability between factors.