An econometric application of the theory of the farm-household

Employing a Cobb-Douglas specification for the production function and a modified linear expenditure system, the paper presents an econometric model of household production, consumption and labor supply behaviour for a semi-commercial farm with a competitive labor market. The model, estimated from primary, cross-sectional, Malaysian data, is used to analyse the impact of migration, output price intervention and technological change on the agricultural sector. In doing so, the wage-rate is treated as an endogenous variable to be determined by the interaction of aggregate labor demand and supply curves obtained from the estimated micro functions.     

Relative efficiencies of some simple Bayes estimators of coefficients in a dynamic equation with serially correlated errors - II

Generalized least squares estimators, with estimated variance-covariance matrices, and maximum likelihood estimators have been proposed in the literature to deal with the problem of estimating autoregressive models with autocorrelated disturbances. In this paper we compare the small sample efficiencies of these estimators with those of some approximate Bayes estimators. The comparison is done with the help of a sampling experiment applied to a model specification. Though these Bayes estimators utilize very weak prior information, they out-perform the sampling theory estimators in every case we consider.     

Landsat: A tool for development

A major problem for many decision-makers is the lack of reliable information on which to base decisions. This is particularly true for the extent and location of as well as changes in such natural resources as forests, rangeland, agricultural fields and water bodies. A very useful data source in providing such information is the Landsat orbiting satellites. These satellites have been repetitively collecting images of essentially the entire earth's surface since 1972. These images are readily available, inexpensive, useable and can provide exceptional resource information. Examples are presented on the use of this data for a variety of resource analyses.