Knowledge that Transforms

We use a translog production function approach to examine the effects of medical staff physicians on hospital production, and how their effects differ in teaching and nonteaching hospitals. In teaching hospitals, we also focus on the special role of medical residents. We find that physicians have a strong positive influence on the productivity of other inputs, and that they are substitutes for other resources. Controlling for patient casemix causes significant changes in estimated marginal products; those of labor inputs increase and that of capital declines. The implications of our findings for policy are explored.

This paper examines the distribution fu nctions of elasticity estimators in translog demand models. The authors consider the normaland ratio-of-normals distributions and present confidence intervals for the elasticity estimators. The results suggest that only elasticity estimato rs based on the means of the actual cost shares are likely to follow either the normal or ratio-of-normals distribution function. Examination of three published empirical studies demonstrates that inferences regarding the values of elasticities cannot be made from point estimates alone and suggests a trade- off between the level of aggregation and the width of confidence intervals for the elasticit y estimators.

This paper tests hypotheses about the entry-deterring effects of advertising. The model isolates three separate effects of advertising on entry: the effect on the irrecoverable costs of entry, the effect on the uncertainty underlying the entry environment, and the effect on the measured rates of profit. We find that advertising impedes entry since necessary advertising expenditures give rise to a sunk cost which raises the risk of entry. However, we also find a countervailing force due to advertising, in that the entrant perceives a greater likelihood of success in markets where advertising is important. Our analysis shows that the overall impact of advertising on entry is positive.

A bstract-A lack-of-fit test of model specification used by experimental statisticians but mostly unknown to econometricians is presented.The test is applicable in situations in which there are replicated observations on the dependent variable.In this paper the test is modified to allow for heteroskedasticity usually encountered when dealing with cross-sectional observations, and illustrated by an application to an earnings function estimated from a sample survey of Norwegian women.

Ahstrat t-This paper evaluates electricity two-part tariffs with both efficiency and equity criteria. The efficiency of tariffs is analyzed by studying the relation between price and marginal cost for both customer connection and variable output. The equity of tariffs is addressed by an analysis of cross subsidization. To address these issues, this paper presents a multiproduct cost function that can provide information on output and connection marginal costs for each customer class. Using a 1980 cross section of electric utilities, it is shown that prices are not set in a first-best efficient manner, and least favor the commercial class.

The powers of Wu-Hausman endogeneity tests are related to the normalization d ecision in estimating demand equations. Power is not invariant to the choice bet ween quantity and price as the dependent variable. A theoretical result due to N akamura and Nakamura_(1984) is used to explore the dependence of power on parame ters of the supply and demand system. The theoretical result is corroborated wit h a Monte Carlo experiment. The power results are used to analyze the U.S. deman d for poultry meat wherein price, but not quantity, is found to be predetermined

L. F. Dunn, Stuart A. Youngblood, Absenteeism as a Mechanism for Approaching an Optimal Labor Market Equilibrium: An Empirical Study, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 68, No. 4 (Nov., 1986), pp. 668-674

Sequential estimation of a nested logit model is in general not an empirically desirable procedure, either as an alternative to full information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimation or as a source of param eter starting values for FIML estimation. Empirical studies which use varying ch oice sets across the sampled population create ambiguity in the link between seq uential and simultaneously estimated nested logit models. FIML estimation is now a computationally feasible strategy as illustrated herein.