J. Aitchison, J. A. C. Brown; A Synthesis of Engel Curve Theory1, The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 22, Issue 1, 1 January 1954, Pages 35–46, https://

In this paper, I study the theoretical and econometric implications of agents' uncertainty concerning their future consumption when a monopolist offers them either a unique, mandatory nonlinear tariff or a choice in advance from a menu of optional two-part tariffs. Agents' uncertainty is resolved through individual and privately known shocks to their types. In such a situation the principal may screen agents according to their ex ante or ex post type, by offering either a menu of optional tariffs or a standard nonlinear schedule. The theoretical implications of the model are used to evaluate a tariff experiment run by South Central Bell in two cities in Kentucky in 1986. The empirical approach explicitly accounts for the existence of informational asymmetries between local telephone users and the monopolist, leading to different, nested, econometric specifications under symmetric and asymmetric information. The empirical evidence suggests that there exists a significant asymmetry of information between consumers and the monopolist under both tariff regimes. All expected welfare components failed to increase with the introduction of optional tariffs for the estimated value of the parameters.

This study builds on recent research giving the notion of capacity utilization clearer economic foundations. In this research optimal output Y* is defined as the minimum point on the firm's short-run average total cost curve, and capacity utilization is then computed as CU=Y/Y*, where Y is actual output. Here I extend these concepts to include adjustment costs due to changes in the stock of capital, and nonstatic expectations of future output demand and input prices. The more general notion of CU is shown to depend on the shadow values of the firm's quasifixed inputs, and is decomposed to isolate the effects of anticipatory expectations. An empirical comparison is then made between traditional indices and alternative economic CU measures, using annual U.S. manufacturing data 1954-80. The calculated indices exhibit plausible patterns, which can be interpreted as the effects of nonstatic expectations and adjustment costs.

This paper studies the consequences for the behaviour of aggregate output of the perception on the part of firms that changing prices is costly. The rational expectations equilibrium of an economy with many such firms is constructed. It is shown that in this economy nominal shocks have a persistent effect on aggregate output. Furthermore, the real wage is demonstrated to move procyclically in such an economy.

In order to describe an inflationary process it is necessary to have some knowledge of how prices and wages are determined. Conventional economic theory has regarded prices (and wages) as reacting to the level of excess demand or supply in the commodity (labour) market. Investigations have shown, however, that especially in manufacturing industries prices are often determined by applying a profit margin to variable costs., Some wages are also "cost determined", as for instance, in Australia where until recently the Commonwealth basic wage was adjusted quarterly to changes in the C. Series price index. A realistic analysis of inflation processes should allow for both cost and demand influences in price and wage determination. (First paragraph of Precis.)

We build a quantitative spatial model in which some workers can substitute on-site effort with work done from home. Ability and propensity to telecommute vary by education and industry. We quantify our framework to match the distribution of jobs and residents across 4,502 U.S. locations. Then, we simulate permanent increases in the attractiveness and productivity of telework that lead to greater adoption of hybrid and fully remote work. To validate our model, we show that our results are positively correlated with local changes in residents, jobs, and housing costs since 2019. The rise of telework results in a rich non-monotonic pattern of reallocations of residents and jobs within and across cities. Workers who can telecommute experience welfare gains, and those who cannot suffer losses. Broader access to jobs reduces wage inequality across residential locations, and heralds a partial reversal in the spatial concentration of talent and spending power known as the “Great Divergence”.

We consider a dynamic general equilibrium asset pricing model with heterogeneous agents and asymmetric information. We show how agents' different methods of gathering information affect their chances of survival in the market depending upon the nature of the information and the level of noise in the economy.

A seller with two objects faces a group of bidders who are subject to budget constraints. The objects have common values to all bidders but need not be identical, and may be either complements or substitutes. In a simple complete information setting we show: (1) if the objects are sold by means of a sequence of open ascending auctions, then it is always optimal to sell the more valuable object first; (2) the sequential auction yields more revenue than the simultaneous ascending auction used recently by the FCC if the discrepancy in the values is large, or if there are significant complementarities; (3) a hybrid simultaneous-sequential form is revenue superior to the sequential auction; and (4) budget constraints arise endogenously.

We derive a closed-form solution for Tobin's Q in a stochastic dynamic framework. We show analytically that investment is positively related to Tobin's Q and cash flow, even in the absence of adjustment costs or financing frictions. Both Q and investment move in the same direction as expected revenue growth, so changes in expected revenue growth induce Q and investment to comove positively. Similarly, shocks to current cash flow, arising from shocks to the user cost of capital in our model, cause investment and cash flow per unit of capital to comove positively. Furthermore, we show that this alternative mechanism for the relationship among investment, Q, and cash flow delivers larger cash flow effects for smaller- and faster-growing firms, as observed in the data. Moreover, the empirically small sensitivity of investment to Tobin's Q does not imply implausibly large adjustment costs in our model (since there are no adjustment costs). Calibrating the model generates values of Q similar to those in the data; investment is more sensitive to cash flow than it is to Q, and both responses are of empirically plausible magnitudes.

This paper examines postwar U.S. term structure data and finds that for almost any combination of maturities between one month and ten years, a high yield spread between a longer-term and a shorter-term interest rate forecasts rising shorter-term interest rates over the long term, but a declining yield on the longer-term bond over the short term. This pattern is inconsistent with the expectations theory of the term structure, but is consistent, with a model in which the spread is proportional to the value implied by the expectations theory.