Multi‐Criteria Analysis of Input Use in Agriculture
提出一个多准则理论模型来分析农业投入使用，以灌溉用水为例，通过对52名灌溉者的多属性效用函数分析，解释了同质农业系统中用水差异的原因。
In this paper we present a methodology for the analysis of input use in the agricultural sector. The novelty of the theoretical model described here is that it has been developed considering a multi‐criteria environment. Thus, the optimal input use condition is determined by evaluating “multi‐attribute utility” and “multi‐attribute marginal utility”. We show how the approach adopted in this paper is a generalisation of the single‐attribute expected utility theory. The theoretical model developed is thereafter implemented in an empirical application that studies water for irrigation use as a particular case. The results show how multi‐attribute utility functions elicited for a sample of 52 irrigators explain differences in irrigation water use in relatively homogeneous agricultural systems, albeit exhibiting dissimilar partial utility functions for water use. We conclude that these differences come from the dissimilar weights that farmers attach to each attribute in the aggregate utility function.