An Interpretive View of an Institutional Process: Measuring Effectiveness and Changeability of the Cooperative Extension Service

Abstract

variables may be impossible. In the present context, it was assumed that the rate of change in gross value of farm products sold and outputinput ratios in agriculture were dependent variables reflecting the effectiveness of extension; and the total extension budget per farm, the number of extension agents per farm, and the budget per agent were independent. Relationships between variables were first tested using nine pairs of states representing a wide range of values of farm products sold and a wide geographic dispersion.2 Intrapair comparisons from the 1935-40 period showed that high extension inputs yielded higher ratios of change in gross value of farm products sold in only three pairs of states. In three pairs, a lower input associated with a higher growth rate; and in three pairs, results were inconclusive. In the 1950-54 period, three pairs associated higher input with higher growth rates and six pairs associated higher inputs with lower growth rates. Perhaps, extension's effectiveness is declining. The 48 continental states were then ranked with reference to the rate of change in gross values of farm products sold as a percentage of the average rate for all 48 states. Quartiles within this distribution were com1 Agricultural Economics Contribution Number 373, Economics and Sociology Con