The Impact of Marine Use Rights System on the Technical Efficiency of Oyster Aquaculture

Ma Lina

Hainan Vocational University of Science and Technology

Abstract：

Using survey data from 509 oyster farmers in Shandong, we apply SFA and regression to estimate technical efficiency (TE) and examine the role of marine use rights. Mean TE is 0.955, with enterprise-held rights significantly outperforming cooperatives (0.958 vs. 0.953, p = 0.002). A suppression effect is identified: the institutional coefficient rises from 0.004 in the baseline to 0.0205 (p < 0.001) after controlling for scale and contract participation, indicating opposing indirect channels mask the true effect. Robustness checks (PSM, placebo, outlier exclusion) and heterogeneity (stronger for smallholders) confirm the findings. This paper provides micro-evidence linking property rights to aquaculture efficiency.

Key Words：

marine area usage rights; technical efficiency; stochastic frontier analysis; oyster farming; marine aquaculture policy