Production economics : Worthwhile investment ?

89 Agricultural production economics research is examined within a broad framework of scientific development and utilization. Recent findings in selected areas of the subdiscipline are examined and opportunities for further fruitful inquiry are identified. A few 'stylized facts' emerge from recent work and suggest the need for much careful hypothesis testing, model exploration, and empirical sensitivity analysis in the future. "The secret of science is to ask the right question, and it is the choice of problem more than anything else that makes the man of genius in the scientific world." Sir Henry Tizard Research investment in the field of agricultural production economics has been extensive. In fact, the agricultural sector may well be the most analyzed sector of the economy and agricultural production the most analyzed part of this sector. With so many other important areas of inquiry not yet pursued to the same extent, one may legitimately ask whether a continuation of relatively heavy investment in the subdiscipline of agricultural production economics is warranted. Providing a reasoned response to such a question requires that we have a basis for judging among alternative research areas. Of all scientists, economists ought to have some clues about how to make such judgments. Certainly the marginal principle of economics should be relevant, at least Correspondence to: C. Richard Shumway, Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2124, USA. Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Article No. 25492. 0169-5150/93 j$06.00 © 1993 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved