IRMA A. GOMEZ, DIANA M. BURTON AND H. ALAN LOVE
Gathering information on natural resource inventories is expensive, but lack of data inhibits resource sector modeling and policy analysis. Most work has focused on drawing broader inventory estimates from small survey samples. Other studies have used simple forward forecasting equations to project missing values. This research develops a method to impute missing inventory and growth observations when annual survey observations are not available. A one-way error component model is estimated and missing inventory values are imputed using an optimally weighted combination of forward and backward projections. This method ensures conformity of imputed observations with beginning and ending inventories. Confidence intervals for imputed inventory estimates are formed using the bootstrap method. Empirical results for estimated softwood and hardwood inventories in Louisiana are presented.