Premium
Extension and Matching Grants for Improved Management: An Evaluation of the Uruguayan Livestock Program
Author(s) -
Mullally Conner,
Maffioli Alessandro
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.1093/ajae/aav050
Subject(s) - matching (statistics) , extension (predicate logic) , production (economics) , livestock , business , impact evaluation , agricultural economics , economics , public economics , marketing , computer science , microeconomics , forestry , medicine , statistics , mathematics , pathology , programming language , geography
Offering matching grants along with extension services is a common tool of agricultural development policy and has the potential to address some of the shortcomings of purely private or public extension. Yet the evidence for the effectiveness of programs that combine extension with matching grants is quite thin. We add to this evidence by evaluating the Uruguayan Livestock Program (ULP), a program that promoted the adoption of intensive management practices by small and medium‐sized cattle producers by offering extension from private providers combined with matching grants for investments. Using inverse probability weighting as applied to an eight‐year panel data set of cattle producers, we find that the ULP had large impacts on net sales and production of calves, but that program impacts on production and sales translated into modest net economic impacts overall. We examine the mechanisms that may have driven ULP impacts, and conclude that program impacts were likely caused by improved management practices rather than by loosening liquidity constraints on producers.