Structural econometric modelling in Australia's livestock production and marketing systems: the potential benefits of model integration for industry analysis

Abstract

Structural econometric models are often used in the analysis of economic issues that affect the agricultural industries because of their rigour in modelling the behavioural nature of the relationships between the major economic variables in the industries of interest. The value of such models for economic analyses depends on how accurately they represent an industry's economic activity. In the Australian livestock industries, model applications have often been in a single industry context which does not adequately capture the supply and demand relationships that exist between the related industries. Model integration offers the opportunity to rectify this deficiency but it also has the poten..