AGRICULTURAL ECONOMISTS, RESPONSE FUNCTIONS AND LACK-OF-FIT TESTS

The significance of statistical lack-of-fit tests for hypothesized response functions describing experimental data is traced in some of the recent agricultural economics literature. The statistical test is reviewed in a regression framework and it is shown that the test is related to testing that some of the coefficients in a linear regression model have zero values. Comments are made on the relationship between the lack-of-fit test and the coefficient of determination.