Innovative Estimation Practices for the Analysis of Regional or Structural Changes of Scale: Specific Costs and Gross Margins

This chapter presents the regionalized estimation and structural analysis of specific costs and gross margins, based on the European Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN). The steering of public policies requires the generation of central estimates of the distribution of the parameter of interest but also the lower or upper quantiles to select appropriate regulation thresholds. Taking into account individual heterogeneity and asymmetry of observations, it introduces the methodology of conditional quantile estimation, dual estimation, and pseudo-barycentric imputation of partial estimates. The factorial projection into supplementary elements allows for a regional and structural analysis, through the comparative study of the results. In order to test its relevance, this procedure is applied to the analysis of specific costs and gross margins for the regions of the main producing countries in the European Union.