PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Chakir, Raja
TI  - Spatial Downscaling of Agricultural Land-Use Data: An Econometric Approach Using Cross Entropy
AID  - 10.3368/le.85.2.238
DP  - 2009 May 01
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 238--251
VI  - 85
IP  - 2
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/85/2/238.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/85/2/238.full
SO  - Land Econ2009 May 01; 85
AB  - We propose a spatial disaggregation tool to help researchers make the best use of aggregated data in studies of land use. The proposed approach uses parcel-level agricultural data in conjunction with biophysical processes to break down agricultural regional data to the pixel level. It is a two-step procedure. First, we estimate a land-use model using a multinomial logit model. Second, we disaggregate the observed regional data using a generalized cross-entropy approach, taking the first-step predictions as priors. This procedure is applied to the French Picardie region. Results indicate a significant correlation between observed and estimated land-use shares. (JEL C11, C81, Q12, R14)