IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/ajagec/v47y1965i1p1-16..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Critical Appraisal of Agricultural Economics in the Mid-Sixties

Author

Listed:
  • M. M. Kelso

Abstract

In spite of the many developments that have occurred in agricultural economics, it is only barely a science and will have difficulty improving its scientific standing. Science is characterized by an ability to predict real world occurrences with an acceptable degree of warrantability. Agricultural economics cannot do this now primarily because the actors in its models are endowed with a greater portion of omniscience than living man can claim and because they are clothed by their analysts with a rationality defined too simply as maximization of an uncomplex criterion. To prescribe for decision makers in the real world demands large elements of the artist in the counselor, calling on him to analyze and advise with experience, knack, ingenuity as well as with empirically verifiable knowledge. Agricultural economics is as much or more an art as it is a science in the service of unquestionable value it renders to policy.

Suggested Citation

  • M. M. Kelso, 1965. "A Critical Appraisal of Agricultural Economics in the Mid-Sixties," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 47(1), pages 1-16.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:47:y:1965:i:1:p:1-16.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2307/1236148
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rudd, Robert W., 1978. "Discussion: Agricultural Economics: A Critical Review Of The State Of The Science," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 10(1), pages 1-4, July.
    2. Brandow, George E., 1977. "Policy for Commercial Agriculture, 1945-71," A Survey of Agricultural Economics Literature, Volume 1: Traditional Fields of Agricultural Economics 1940s to 1970s,, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    3. Leitch, Jay A., 1984. "Resource Economists at Land Grant Universities: An Applied Perspective," North Central Region Archives 307724, North Central Region - North Central Cooperative Extension Association (NCCEA).
    4. Polopolus, Leo C., 1969. "The Industrial Demand For Agricultural Economists," Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 1, pages 1-5, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:ajagec:v:47:y:1965:i:1:p:1-16.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.