The effects of tax policy on agricultural investment are investigated by estimating a dynamic interrelated input demand system. Net investment is specified to give rise to increasing internal costs of adjustment, resulting in capital inputs being quasi-fixed. The system of demand equations is derived by incorporating a quadratic normalized restricted cost function into a long-run dynamic optimization framework.

Industrial energy demand is estimated for each Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) two-digit manufacturing industry using flexible cost functions to derive the systems of demand equations. Industries are found to vary significantly in the characteristics of their energy demand. The price and quantity consumed of electricity, fuel oil, natural gas, and coal are included in the model. Electricity demand is found to be the least responsive and fuel oil demand the most responsive to price. The results show a significant cross price as well as own price elasticity for all types of energy. Policy considerations should keep in mind that short-run responses of demand to price will be smaller than long-run effects. The effect of price changes on fuels used for power generation will also be reflected in the demand for oil, natural gas, and coal. 19 references. (DCK)

A serious impediment to the design of appro,A-IL priate public policies with regard to the ''energy crisis is the lack of general agreement concerning the determinants of energy demand. This paper considers the determinants of residential demand for electric energy. The results indicate that the long-run own-price elasticity of demand is equal to at least unity, contrary to the common assumption that demand is not responsive to price.

Using hedonic regression techniques, estimates of the willingness-to-pay for changes in the risks of dying can be inferred from actual behavior in market situations involving risk-dollar tradeoffs. Thaler and Rosen (1975) pioneered this approach, obtaining estimates of the value of a statistical life using labor market data, in this paper we use the hedonic technique to obtain the first estimates of the value of a statistical life from data on the market for automobiles. Our estimated value of a statistical life for the sample as a whole is $3.357 million 1986 dollars.

Scott E. Atkinson, Robert Halvorsen, A New Hedonic Technique for Estimating Attribute Demand: An Application to the Demand for Automobile Fuel Efficiency, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 66, No. 3 (Aug., 1984), pp. 417-426

A model for testing all types of relative price inefficiency expands the Averch-Johnson effect and makes it possible to test for absolute price efficiency, which exists if the value of the marginal product for each factor is equated to factor price and implies both cost minimization and production of the optimal quantity of output. Duality theory is used to derive the empirical model using 1973 data for electric utilities. The results indicate that relative and absolute price efficiency were generally not achieved by electric utilities in that year. 36 references, 1 table.

A translog normalized restricted profit function is used to study the characteristics of the production function for electric energy. The results indicate that fuel choice in existing steam electric plants responds to changes in fuel prices. The production function is also tested for separability of fuels from capital and labor, homotheticity, returns to scale, and embodied technical change.

Robert Halvorsen, Tim R. Smith, Substitution Possibilities for Unpriced Natural Resources: Restricted Cost Functions for the Canadian Metal Mining Industry, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 68, No. 3 (Aug., 1986), pp. 398-405

In nonrenewable resource industries, the existence of a markup of price over marginal market cost may reflect the existence of an implicit user cost for the resource rather than market power. We show that valid estimates of market power can be obtained by the joint estimation of a restricted cost function and an inverse supply relation. Estimation of the model with data for the largest firm in the international nickel industry indicates that output price substantially exceeded marginal market cost, with most of the difference due to the exercise of market power rather than the user cost of the resource.