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Reconciling the von Liebig and Differentiable Crop Production Functions
Author(s) -
Berck Peter,
Helfand Gloria
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.2307/1242630
Subject(s) - differentiable function , production (economics) , plateau (mathematics) , function (biology) , mathematics , crop , crop production , pure mathematics , economics , mathematical analysis , geography , forestry , ecology , biology , agriculture , microeconomics , evolutionary biology
Two commonly used forms for crop response to inputs are a smooth, differentiable production function and a linear response and plateau (LRP) model. This paper reconciles these two views by showing that smooth functions can be derived by aggregating the effects of heterogenous inputs on LRP functions. Data on corn growth are used to test two specific aggregations.