Projection of Farm Numbers for North Dakota With Markov Chains

The Markov process was first applied in economics to problems of relative structure, as for example in the analysis of income and wage distributions. The extension of such distributions over time was an initial step in projection. The analysis in this paper takes a further step by developing a method for making projections of absolute numbers from an appropriately modified Markov base. This new departure represents both a weakness and a strength; weakness because the modifying assumptions abstract considerably from reality, but strength because the technique covers a broader area of obvious need