Comparison of Cobb-Douglas and Translog frontier models in the analysis of technical efficiency in dry-season tomato production

Abstract

There has been contradiction among researchers regarding similarity or otherwise of technical efficiency estimate obtained from Cobb-Douglas and Translog frontier models. While some researchers believe that results obtained from the two functional forms, given the same data, were essentially similar, others disagreed. This study compared both functional forms to analyze technical inefficiency in dry-season tomato production in Jos-South Area of Plateau State. Data were collected from 60 dry-season tomato farmers sampled through three-staged random sampling technique. The analyses of the data were done using both Cobb-Douglas and translog frontier models. The results showed that the estimated elasticities, efficiency scores and inefficiency effects from Cobb-Douglas and Translog functional forms differ significantly. Therefore, the choice of functional form for efficiency analysis should be based on convenience, meeting selection criteria premise on the value of variance-parameters and objective of the study.

Keywords: Efficiency, comparison, Cobb-Douglas and Translog models