Human Capital and Eco-Contractual Governance in Small Farms in Poland: Simultaneous Confirmatory Factor Analysis with Ordinal Variables

Bazyli Czyżewski, Agnieszka Sapa and Piotr Kułyk
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Bazyli Czyżewski: Department of Macroeconomics and Agricultural Economics, Poznan University of Economics and Business, al. Niepodległości 10, 61-875 Poznań, Poland
Agnieszka Sapa: Department of Macroeconomics and Agricultural Economics, Poznan University of Economics and Business, al. Niepodległości 10, 61-875 Poznań, Poland
Piotr Kułyk: Department of International Economics, University of Zielona Góra, ul. Licealna 9, 65-417 Zielona Góra, Poland

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Human capital (HC) plays an important role in modern agriculture. The difference in efficiency of assets explains only about a half of the economic performance of agricultural farms, while the other half relies on HC. Although education and training are the main components of HC, it may also be viewed from the perspective of behavioral theories that were taken under consideration in this study. The role of HC in sustainable farming has not been sufficiently explained when it comes to contractual governance (CG). In this study, the meaning of contractual governance was extended and the eco-contractual governance (ECG) concept was proposed, which stands for CG induced by agri-environmental contracts. The main objective of the article is to confirm the latent concepts of HC and ECG and to verify their correlation in view of the standards imposed by the agricultural policy. To achieve this goal, a structural equation model was developed and simultaneous confirmatory factor analysis with ordinal variables was carried out based on the sample of 674 small farms in Poland. The analysis has confirmed a relatively strong correlation between HC and ECG. It was revealed that training plays a crucial role in this relationship, while economic dependence on agricultural policy weakens the effectiveness of both HC and ECG.

Keywords: sustainable agriculture; human capital; small farm; SEM; CFA; polychoric correlation; ordinal variables; contractual governance; theory of planned behavior; TBC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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