ENERGY INTENSITY DECOMPOSITION IN EU AGRICULTURE, USING A DEMAND ANALYSIS - Economics of Sustainable Energy in Agriculture - page 62

two assumptions. First, technologies are not fixed across countries,
meaning that the different countries are using different
technical/technological processes. Second, technologies are evolving in
time, meaning that the analysis is able to capture input-saving or input-
using technological progress, which may have occurred during the period
analysed.
The demand systems of four variable inputs in intensity form
derived from the variable generalised McFadden cost function, with
concavity imposed, were estimated using maximum likelihood. Table 5.3
includes a statistical summary of the estimated models. The results show
that the fits are fairly good with the exception of energy-based for France
and Italy. 1
4. INTENSITY ANALYSIS
The comparison of the decomposition of intensities clearly reflects the
dissimilarities. Table 5.4 shows the decomposition of changes in energy
intensity and energy-based intensity, measured as the values in 1996 (1993
for Germany) less the values in 1974 (1979 for Austria, Finland and
Sweden). Almost all possible combination of effects are presented.
The general decline in labour intensity leads to an important
decline in energy intensity for many countries, but with very important
increases in energy intensity for Spain, the Netherlands, and Denmark.