Sampling Schemes for Policy Analyses Using computer simulation Experiments

摘要

Evaluating the environmental and economic impacts of agricultural policies is not a simple task. A sys- tematic approach to evaluation would include the effect of policy-dependent factors (such as tillage practices, crop rotations, and chemical use) as well as the effect of policy- independent covariates (such as weather, topography, and soil attributes) on response variables (such as amount of soil eroded or chemical leached into the groundwater). For com- parsion purposes, the effect of these input combinations on the reponse variable would have to be assessed under competing policy cenarios.