This book was mainly written while I stayed at the Catholic University of Louvain. Professor Anton P. Barten was the one who did not only give me a warm welcome in Louvain, but also supported my research with most
valuable comments and constructive criticisms. In addition I benefitted from dis­ cussions with Erik Schokkaert, Denis de Crombrugghe and Jo Baras on various subjects, such as the small-sample correction of Chapter 9. The
arduous task of transferring my neat handwriting into a readable typescript was excellently taken care of by Brs. E. Crabbe and notably Brs. F. Duij sens, even after working hours. Mrs. A. Molders prevented me of making
serious abuse of the English language. My admiration for Carien, finally, is an exponential function of the patience and enthusiasm with which she sup­ ported my research. Chapter I is a general introduction to the subject of
linkage models, and it contains few mathematical elaborations. Chapters 2 to 4 use more, but elementary, mathematics, and treat several aspects related to the deriva­ tion, interpretation and estimation of linkage models.
Chapter 2 deals vii tll the theory of import allocation models, Chapter J treats the problem of defining and interpreting elasticities of substitution, while Chapter 4 is concerned with the econometric problems related to the
estimation of mul­ tivariate models with linear restrictions, such as import allocation models.