Desempeño económico de las empresas agropecuarias uruguayas: estudio sobre su evolución a través de la técnica de clústers longitudinales a partir de datos contables (Economic performance of uruguayan agricultural companies: study on their evolution through the longitudinal cluster technique based on accounting data)

ABSTRACT

The goal of this work is to measure and describe the evolution of the profitability of the
Uruguayan agricultural sector, within the theory of the firm framework, considering the
international and local antecedents regarding the performance of the sector. This theory
has historically reflected the multiplicity of factors acting as determinants of performance.
However, the empirical results obtained have been dissimilar for companies in general and
particularly scarce for agricultural companies, depending in many cases on the company’s
line of business and the region. The database used in this work is made up of Uruguayan
agricultural companies that are taxpayers of the Rural Heritage Tax and the Income Tax
on Economic Activities and presented their annual Financial Statements to the General
Tax Directorate (DGI) from July 2009 to June 2017, covering 8 exercises.
The size dimension of these companies is included in the study through the following
variables: volume of production and sales, level of assets and the number of employees
employed. The dimension of the financial economic performance of the companies is mea-
sured through the ROA (Return On Assets) indicator. To identify patterns of profitability
evolution, longitudinal clusters were used as a methodological strategy. The results of the
study show three groups of companies with similar internal ROA trajectories but very
different compared to each other, which serves as input to characterize their economic
structure, obtain indications about the determinants of financial economic performance
and observe their evolution in the period analyzed.