Does anaerobic respiration lead to less ATP production?

Simply...yes. Normal respiration in cells, when aerobic, has 4 stages. These are: 1) Glycolysis (where sugar is broken down to pyruvate) 2) The Link Reaction (where pyruvate is converted to Acetyl CoA) 3) The Krebs Cycle (where acetyl CoA is oxidised, releasing electrons to use to make ATP) 4) Oxidative Phosphorylation (where the electrons are passed between some proteins, producing energy to make ATP). In aerobic respiration, all four stages can be completed. Most of the ATP is produced during the final stage, which requires oxygen as it is used to make water at the end. A full cycle of aerobic respiration with one glucose molecule can produce roughly 34-36 ATP Molecules. In anaerobic respiration, the lack of oxygen makes the cells stop the process after the first step, glycolysis. During glycolysis, two ATP molecules are used, but 4 are made (for one molecule of glucose). This makes a gain of two ATP molecules-1/18th of the molecules produced if the cell does aerobic respiration.