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Efficiency analysis of Emater local units in Goiás, Brazil: a quantitative approach

Abstract:

This study aimed to analyze the technical efficiency of Emater's local units in the State of Goiás. The methodological approach consists of a two-stage procedure. The first stage was carried out by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). In the second stage, Tobit regression and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) were used to assess the sources of efficiency. The results of the first stage showed that the average level of technical efficiency at Emater's local units in Goiás was 0.4013, which means that the use of inputs could be reduced by 59.87% keeping production constant. It was also identified that the average scale efficiency was 81.67%, which means that issues related to scaling reduces the VRS efficiency by 18.33%, which indicates that local units are operating with increasing returns to scale and with diminishing returns to scale. Only 15 local units are efficient for the model with variable returns to scale. In the second stage, variables such as the distance from the municipal unit State capital, municipal dependency, cattle herd, proportion of employees with higher education and technical level, among others, were statistically significant to explain the efficiency of the local units of Emater in Goiás.

Keywords:
rural extension; public policies; DEA

Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural Av. W/3 Norte, Quadra 702 Ed. Brasília Rádio Center Salas 1049-1050, 70719 900 Brasília DF Brasil, - Brasília - DF - Brazil
E-mail: sober@sober.org.br