1178 PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARVM SCRIPTA VARIA - 28
situations, land reforms, governmental measures to improve
and expand credit facilities, subsidization of specific production
practices as a means of speeding their adoption (including the
creation of the capacity to produce such items as fertilizer),
special measures to bring new lands into cultivation through
irrigation, drainage, clearing or through provision of roads and
other facilities that would make it possible to settle new areas
or price supports at moderate levels as a means of encouraging
the expansion of commercial production merit appraisal and
consideration.
The underdeveloped areas are primarily concerned with
achieving an increase in the rate of growth of agricultural
output. This must be accomplished in a setting in which the
resources under the control of the government are relatively
limited. The funds that can be invested and the trained per-
sonnel available for carrying out a plan or policy are clearly
very limited. In many countries there are not enough trained
economists and other specialists to develop the analyses and
estimates required for the formulation of a detailed develop-
ment plan or policy. In some cases, foreign specialists can
assist in such formulations, but the value of foreign experts can
de easily overestimated.
One of the most important contributions that econometric
analysis can make to the underdeveloped economies might well
be a series of studies that will aid in the decisions involved in
the allocation of trained personnel. Will such personnel have
a higher marginal product in establishing a research and exten-
sion program or in organizing an irrigation project? Will the
marginal product be greater in developing a series of invest-
ment priorities in the agricultural sector or in analysis of the
tenure system and other factors affecting incentives? These,
and similar questions are extremely difficult to answer and
are generally not the type of problems tackled by econometric
methods. But such questions may be more important than
some of the questions that we are ordinarily interested in.
16] Johnson - pag. 38
