Knowledge that Transforms

Glenn W. Harrison, H. D. Vinod, The Sensitivity Analysis of Applied General Equilibrium Models: Completely Randomized Factorial Sampling Designs, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 74, No. 2 (May, 1992), pp. 357-362

This paper examines existing methods of estimating the translog production function and provides a general framework that allows for variable returns to scale. The model is based on the inverse input demand function and embeds a nonhomothetic production technology. Previous estimation methods are valid only for homogeneous technologies with fixed scale effects. Estimation results for U.S. manufacturing show that neither homotheticity and homogeneity nor constant returns to scale is a proper characterization of the underlying structure of production, thereby vindicating the empirical relevance of the inverse demand framework that entails a nonhomothetic technology.

A restricted equilibrium framework is utilized to estimate the contribution of public investment in infrastructure to private sector profitability. A restricted cost function in translog form which treats labor and materials as variable inputs and private capital and public sector capital stock in transportation, communications and electricity as quasi-fixed inputs is specified. A system of non-linear equations comprising variable cost function and derived input demand equations is estimated using data from 1970 to 1987 for twenty-six Mexican three-digit manufacturing industries. The divergence of private and public capital stocks from their static equilibrium levels is estimated. The net rate of return to fixed factors is also calculated. Estimates of allocative efficiency are derived. The study further provides estimates of short-run and long-run scale economies, output elasticity of factors, measures of productivity growth and technical change. Economic significance and policy implications of the findings are also presented.

Mark C. Berger, Dan A. Black, Child Care Subsidies, Quality of Care, and the Labor Supply of Low-Income, Single Mothers, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 74, No. 4 (Nov., 1992), pp. 635-642

This paper attempts to distinguish empirically real versus nominal sources of fluctuations in real and nominal exchange rates. The distinction is obtained by imposing the following restriction on the bivariate vector autoregression of real and nominal exchange rates over the current flexible rate period: nominal shocks are required to have no permanent effect on the level of the real exchange rate. Given this identification scheme, the author analyzes the dynamic effects and relative importance of real and nominal shocks with regards to exchange rates. The findings indicate that real shocks dominate nominal shocks for both exchange rate series over short and long frequencies.

The composite cost function the authors propose combines a quadratic output structure with a log-quadratic input price structure and is well suited for examining economies of scope, subadditivity, and other important properties of multiproduct firms. To compare the composite model with an appropriate set of alternative functional forms, they develop a parsimonious--but general--specification that nests the standard translog cost function, the generalized translog cost function, a separable quadratic cost function, and the composite cost function. An application to economies of scope in banking confirms the advantages of the composite model.

The impact of the stock of public capital on costs of production in the private sector is examined using annual data over the period 1958-89. A translog cost function is estimated and public capital is found to be a significant input. The estimates indicate that public capital has positive marginal product and that private and public capital are complements in production, rather than substitutes.

This paper investigates if young internal migrants in the United States experience economic assimilation as they adapt to their new residential location. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the authors examine how the hourly earnings of interstate migrants are affected by the number of years they have spent in their destination state. Their study indicates that internal migrants initially earn less than natives but that this wage differential disappears within a few years. Moreover, the initial wage disadvantage of internal migrants depends upon the distance moved and economic conditions in the destination labor market.

This paper shows a simple method of approximating the exact distribution of the Durbin-Watson Test Statistic for first-order autocorrelation in a nonlinear model.The proposed Approximate Nonlinear Durbin-Watson (A.N.D.) test has good size and power when compared to alternatives.

Exports from Britain to the United States from 1900 to 1940 are examined to ascertain the effect of exchange-rate volatility on the volume of trade. In addition to using a rolling standard deviation measure of exchange-rate uncertainty, the conditional variance of the exchange-rate series modeled.as a generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic process is used to generate an alternative measure of exchange-rate uncertainty. The results of estimation using the two measures of exchange-rate volatility suggest that increases in the volatility of the real exchange rate reduce the volume of trade.