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Incorporating Multiple Goals into the Decision-Making Process: A Simulation Approach to Firm Growth Analysis*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

Roy E. Hatch
Affiliation:
National Economic Analysis Division and the Commodity Economics Division, respectively, of the Economic Research Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Stationed at Oklahoma State Universityand in Washington, D.C.
Wyatte L. Harman
Affiliation:
National Economic Analysis Division and the Commodity Economics Division, respectively, of the Economic Research Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Stationed at Oklahoma State Universityand in Washington, D.C.
Vernon R. Eidman
Affiliation:
Oklahoma State University

Extract

Although the importance of multiple goals in the decision-making process has been recognized for years by economists, economic analyses typically are based on the assumption of maximization or minimization of a single goal. Some firm growth analyses have considered two or more goals by maximizing one goal subject to constraints on the remaining goals. In other cases, utility functions that incorporate expected income and income variability have been estimated for individual farm operators. Although these approaches are an effort to incorporate more than one goal in the decision process, firm growth research in general has not been based on multiple-goal decision models.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 1974

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Footnotes

*

Oklahoma State University Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Article J-2801. This paper is based on a cooperative research project of the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station and the National Economic Analysis Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

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