Are economic selection indices always superior to a desired gains index?

Conclusions

The comparison of different selection indices is justified only if the indices are constrated to achieve the same profit function, even when each index is not optimized with respect to that profit function.

When a profit function is known and is non-linear, the desired gains index may be more efficient than the economic index. The optimum desired gains index should be determined by iterative techniques over several generations to compare the genetic progress with the economic index, because gains by the economic index are not linear and the changes observed in the initial generations of selection are not the same rates in future generations, although those changes are linear in the case of the desired gains index.