Download or read book Three Essays on the Role of Information in Farming Decisions and Outcomes written by Joanna Noelia Kamiche Zegarra and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation contributes to the literature on the role of information in farming decisions and performance by answering three related questions: (i) How does the use of market information contribute to agricultural productivity?; (ii) What factors explain the access to and/or the actual use of information in farming?; and (iii) What kind of specific information do farmers need when choosing the market in which to sell their crops? The first chapter provides an overview of the dissertation. In the second chapter, we use a three-step procedure to measure technical efficiency (TE) gains when farmers use information in their decision making. First, we use propensity score matching techniques to obtain comparable samples for information users and nonusers. Next, we apply the selectivity corrected stochastic production frontier model to examine TE for users and nonusers. Third, we implement two recently developed stochastic metafrontier approaches to compare TE between the two groups. Our results show that information users are more efficient than nonusers, regardless of gender, age, or education level. In the third chapter, we examine the factors that influence farmers' decisions to access information and to use information when choosing what crops to grow, considering them as two separate decisions. The difference is important because information will be beneficial only if farmers use it to make better choices. Employing a bivariate probit model, we find that general education has a higher marginal effect on the decision to obtain information, but its marginal effect is smaller on the decision to use information for selecting what crops to grow. On the other hand, neighbors' decisions have a significant marginal effect on farmers' decisions to use information. Finally, based on observed patterns of decisions made by small-scale farmers, the fourth chapter develops a theoretical model to examine the key determinants of market choice. The model shows that this choice depends not only on transportation costs but also on price differences per crop between markets and the crop share out of the total weight of the products the farmer plans to sell. Our findings may help in the design of extension services that provide price information.