Modern Rice Technologies and Productivity in the Philippines: Disentangling Technology from Managerial Gaps

Abstract

Using cross-sectional farm-level data from 3,164 rice-farming households in the Philippines, we measure the impact of modern rice technologies on farm productivity while disentangling technology gaps (the distance between production frontiers) from managerial gaps (differences in technical efficiency). To do so, we combine a recently developed stochastic production frontier framework with impact evaluation techniques to control for biases stemming from observables and unobservables. First, we find an adequate control group using propensity score matching to mitigate the effect of biases from observable variables. Then, we test for biases that might arise from unobserved variables using a stochastic frontier framework corrected for self-selection. Finally, we estimate meta-frontiers to assess productivity differences between adopters and non-adopters. The analysis shows that the adoption of certified seeds has a significant and positive impact on productivity, efficiency and net income in rice farming.