An index was developed to rank U.S. metropolitan areas according to overall similarities in their socio-economic characteristics to the U.S. average. This index is given as a solution to matching a representative city or market area to a target market as well as matching a group of cities which...

All farmers in one stratum of a wheat storage survey who failed to answer a mail questionnaire were personally interviewed. Answers obtained from the mail respondents and from non-respondents are compared to assess the extent of non-response bias. Five suggestions for planning "high return" mail...

As a guide to the reorganisation of resources, the MVP /MFC comparison can result in the adjustment of resources to new levels which are actually further away from their optimal levels than their original values. Duloy illustrated this paradox mathematically in the context of fitted agricultural...

Investment decision processes typically involve the selection of projects, the timing of their initiation and the determination of the amount to be invested in each time period. A linear programming model considered appropriate for solving such models is described, in which the multi-dimensional...

The paper provides a review of the objectives of forecasts and of the techniques for generating forecasts in the context of agriculture. Forecasts provide information to facilitate decision making. The techniques are evaluated in terms of assumptions about the processes generating the forecast...

Because methods of eliminating aggregation bias are impracticable, an alternative method is suggested for reducing aggregation bias which uses regression estimates of farm resonrce availabilities as functions of farm size. The estimates are incorporated in a parametric run of the LP problem in...

This paper will take a new look at budgeting. It will be argued that with the development of linear programming, budgeting can be seen to have several disadvantages as a research tool. The development of linear programming as an aid to farm management research will then be examined. This...

In this article attention is drawn to serious methodological weaknesses in Australian agricultural economics. It is frankly polemic in style and after a discussion of the philosophies of science of Popper and Kuhn the author argues that Australian agricultural economists ought to be more...