Abstract
This paper estimates the technical and marketing inefficiency of a sample of urban vegetable producers in Benin. Marketing inefficiency is defined as the failure of farmers to achieve better marketing output and is reflected in lower output price indices. The study proposes a Russell-type measure of inefficiency using a directional distance function that accounts simultaneously for the expansion of outputs and price indices and the contraction of variable inputs. A truncated bootstrap regression is used in the second stage to consistently analyze factors that underlie differences in inefficiency. The first-stage results suggest that vegetable producers are more inefficient with respect to marketing than production. The second-stage results indicate that technical inefficiency is affected by the production environment and private extension services. Marketing inefficiency is affected by the type of marketing arrangements.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 157-169 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Journal of Productivity Analysis |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 2 |
Early online date | 16 Apr 2014 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2014 |