Vol. 1 No. 1 (2012)
Reviews Articles

Positive Mathematical Programming Approaches – Recent Developments in Literature and Applied Modelling

Thomas Heckelei
University of Bonn Institute for Food and Resource Economics
Wolfgang Britz
University of Bonn
Yinan Zhang
Bonn University

Published 2012-03-23

Keywords

  • Positive Mathematical Programming,
  • estimation of programming models,
  • farm and sector models,
  • policy impact assessment

How to Cite

Heckelei, T., Britz, W., & Zhang, Y. (2012). Positive Mathematical Programming Approaches – Recent Developments in Literature and Applied Modelling. Bio-Based and Applied Economics, 1(1), 109–124. https://doi.org/10.13128/BAE-10567

Abstract

This paper reviews and discusses the more recent literature and application of Positive Mathematical Programming in the context of agricultural supply models. Specifically, advances in the empirical foundation of parameter specifications as well as the economic rationalisation of PMP models – both criticized in earlier reviews – are investigated. Moreover, the paper provides an overview on a larger set of models with regular/repeated policy application that apply variants of PMP. Results show that most applications today avoid arbitrary parameter specifications and rely on exogenous information on supply responses to calibrate model parameters. However, only few approaches use multiple observations to estimate parameters, which is likely due to the still considerable technical challenges associated with it. Equally, we found only limited reflection on the behavioral or technological assumptions that could rationalise the PMP model structure while still keeping the model’s advantages.

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