THE FORMAL LOGIC OF TESTING STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN MEAT DEMAND: A METHODOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

In the past two decades, the profession has expended valuable resources testing structural change in meat demand with mixed results. Overlooked to date is a fundamental methodological problem that transcends all of the methods of testing for structural change. In this study, a formal logic framework is utilized in which methodological problems associated with any hypothesis test can be analyzed. Within this framework, it is proven that there is no valid test of any single hypothesis, including structural change. Because of this result, additional criteria from the methodology literature are then used to evaluate the literature on structural change in meat demand.