CHARACTERIZING MANAGERIAL SKILL AND TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN A FISHERY

Researchers have long recognized that entrepreneurial or managerial sk ill is a major determinant of productivity or reason why production am ong firms varies. Yet, except for a few studies, differences in produc tivity and output levels are usually attributed to plant configuration or scale. More important, there appears to have been few attempts to relate technical efficiency to managerial skill. Utilizing a stochasti c production frontier: we examine the relationship between technical e fficiency and characteristics of skill such as experience and educatio n in a fishery. Although we can not determine threshold or essential l evels of experience and education, substitution possibilities are foun d to exist between years of experience and education levels. Additiona l analysis of efficiency for two captains of the same background and e xperience reveals that additional characteristics need to be considere d in the examination of skipper skill or the ''good-captain'' hypothes is.