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Technical Efficiency, Managerial Ability and Farmer Education in Guatemalan Corn Production: A Latent Variable Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

N.G. Kalaitzandonakes  and
E.G. Dunn
N.G. Kalaitzandonakes
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia MO 65211
E.G. Dunn
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia MO 65211
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Abstract

In this study it is argued that conflicting empirical results on the relationship between technical efficiency and education may be in part attributable to difficulties in the measurement of key variables. Calculation of technical efficiency with three alternative frontier methods for a sample of Guatemalan corn farms resulted in significant differences both in the average technical efficiency of the sample and the efficiency rankings of individual farms. Furthermore, following two-step procedures where technical efficiency is regressed against a set of explanatory variables, it is shown that the choice of efficiency measurement technique can alter the importance of education as a contributing factor to increased technical efficiency. An alternative approach is presented for investigating the relationship between education and efficiency while accounting for difficulties in the measurement of conceptual variables and measurement errors.

Type
Articles
Information
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , April 1995 , pp. 36 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

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