台灣戰前農業誘發性技術偏向之實證蠡測

Testing the Induced Technical Change Hypothesis for Prewar Taiwan Agriculture

本文利用Hayami 和 Ruttan (1985) 之兩階段CES 函數法，測定台灣農業在戰前時期之要素使用偏向，實證結果支持「誘發性技術變動或誘發性創新假說」，亦即要素相對價格之變動會誘發要素之使用偏向。而技術變動偏向之測度結果亦顯示，戰前臺灣農業屬勞動要素與變動投入（肥料）要素使用偏向，而固定投入為要素節省之方式，耕地之要素變動偏向則屬節省但呈波動變化。同時亦發現戰前台灣在1920 年代因蓬萊米稻種之大量推廣而有所謂「生物性創新」，導致耕地生產力與勞動生產力之提高。美國、日本和台灣在同一戰前時期之跨國比較結果亦顯示：誘發性技術變動均存在，但因各國之農業資源的豐富各殊，個別資源間的比例互有差異，因此要素使用偏向亦有不同。

This paper adopted the Hayami and Ruttan’s (1985) two-stage CESproduction function approach to measure technical bias of inputs inprewar Taiwan agriculture. Our findings have supported the existenceof the induced innovation hypothesis in that period. Empirical result oftechnical bias measurement indicated that the technical change inprewar Taiwan agriculture was biased in the labor-using, which isopposite to previous research by Shih(1980). While directions oftechnical change for other inputs were fertilizer-using and fix input-saving,the land input tended to be toward input saving but fluctuated over time.It is also noticed that substantial increase of land and labor productivitiesof Taiwan agriculture in 1920s can be regarded as a biological innovationof the yield-increasing type resulted from the successful diffusion of anew Japonica rice. Finally, results of the cross-country comparisonhave indicated that the induced technical change hypothesis were allevidenced for prewar Taiwan, Japan and the U.S. agriculture.