Modeling Farm Decisions For Policy Analysis

Book excerpt: Microeconomic modeling has been an important tool for agricultural economists for several decades and promises to be important for ad-dressing the research problems of the 1980s as well. This volume explores the possibilities for using micromodeling to analyze how individual farm businesses react to and are affected by farm policies. Although this purpose represents only one potential use of micro-modeling, effective modeling for policy analysis necessitates a broad look from several historical, analytical, and institutional perspectives. The Micromodeling Conference held November 18-20, 1981, at Airlie House, Virginia, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Agri-culture's Economic Research Service and the Farm Foundation reflected these concerns.