STOCHASTIC PRODUCTION FRONTIER AND TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN AGRILULTURE
Júnia Cristina P.R. da Conceição, Paulo F. Cidade de Araújo
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to estimate the technical efficiency of a sample of representative producers in the Brazilian commercial agriculture, based on a stochastic production frontier model. The average technical efficiency obtained was 73 .08% and, although this is a high ratio, it indicates that there it is still a possibility to increase productivity by improving technical efficiency. At the farm level, technical efficiency ranged from 4 I .4 7% to 93.09%. Tobit's model was used to investigate the influence of some human resources variables on the levels of technical efficiency. The results indicated that the most important variables were experience, private extension and alternative sources of information (radio).
Keywords
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