The implications of alternative disturbance specifications in supply functions have been considered in recent theoretical work but little, if any, empirical evidence has been provided on such specifications. Any empirical investigation of the nature of a supply function disturbance is hampered...

Economics of size is an important but relatively neglected aspect of Australian agriculture. The theory and methodology for analysis of economics of size are summarized and a survey made of evidence for Australian agricultural industries. The conclusion is reached that economies of size exist,...

Twenty-one pastoralists in the West Darling region of New South Wales were interviewed to gain an understanding of the attitudes of managers in this high-risk pastoral area to uncertain prospects. It was found that pastoralists had no difficulty in specifying subjective probabilities but in...

Agricultural producers typically are faced with risk about the yields they will experience and the prices they will receive. Stabilisation schemes can spread risk and thereby reduce the risk faced by individual producers. The risk-reducing capacity of a scheme and the cost of risk reduction...

Some empirical problems which tend to receive inadequate attention in response analysis are discussed. These include the variation not explained by fitted production functions, the sensitivity of optima and profits to price changes, the cost of developing production functions and the value in...

In a recent reappraisal of evidence adduced for allocative efficiency in traditional agriculture, Dillon and Anderson employed a method based on a combination of traditional economic aspects and statistical aspects of estimated production functions. However, their reappraisal involved using...

Efficient allocation of resources has usually been couched in risk less terms, partly because statistical techniques did not exist for measuring the impact of varying levels of factors of production on risks associated with production. Now that such techniques are available, methods are required...

Analysis of actual observations of response processes is a routine procedure in applied econometrics but methods of dealing with purely subjective probability distributions as response 'data' have seemingly not hitherto been worked out. The models and methods developed here go some way to...

While the role of technical change in agriculture is seen differently by protagonists of different theories of development, the processes of technology generation and uptake are widely seen as progressive. In this vein, agricultural technology assessment is seen as contributing to research...

Interdependence has always been central to economics but assumes pressing importance for agricultural economists as they deal with industrialising agricultures. Continued unresolvable uncertainties, when properly recognised, also add to the challenge of relevant work in agricultural economics....