Author : Sison, Jerome F.

Summary : The study aims to test for possible changes in the pattern of response of rice farmers to price fluctuations resulting from the closing of available frontier areas, together with the improvements in rice technology during the most recent years. For analytical purposes, analysis was done for the whole country and two selected regions, namely, Central Luzon and Southwestern Mindanao. In order to test for structural change in the supply relation for rice, an attempt was made to estimate regression equations for two separate periods (1950-1960) and 1961-1974). Further, the observations of the whole period, 1950-1974 were combined in estimating the regression coefficients with the use of the dummy variable technique. The major findings of this study were : (1) the price elasticity of rice area declined from the first period to the second period and (2) the price elasticity of yield increased from the 1960's to the 1970's. These findings were consistent with the hypotheses of the study.