This paper calculates elasticities of demand for race groups in South Africa, government-revenue-maximizing tax rates, and excess burdens associated with taxes. A change in tax policy can be the political engine of income redistribution with appropriate taxes and subsidies on different commodities. This paper compares both semiparametric and parametric estimators with the censored least absolute deviation and censored maximum likelihood in calculating demand equations and elasticities. It is found that cigarettes and milk are the two commodities that generate the most government revenues from whites per unit of government revenues from blacks.

The demand for two custom calling services is investigated. The services may be bought individually or in a discounted package. A micro-theory based on discrete choice model is formulated that explicitly accounts for these purchase options. The model is estimated assuming both dependence and independence of the unobservable choice-influencing variables. The estimated parameters are used to simulate the revenue impact of price and discount changes.

This paper concerns the problem of properly specifying the dynamic structure of models of industry costs and factor demands. The paper compares three common frameworks: long-run costs with all factors assumed in equilibrium (Full Static Equilibrium), short-run costs with variable factors in short-run equilibrium (Partial Static Equilibrium) followed by computation of long-run costs, and short-run costs including internal capital adjustment costs (Partial Dynamic Equilibrium). The approach of the paper is to estimate a capital-labor-fuel-electricity model for six OECD countries (G7 less Italy) for the 1960-1989 period. Using the three different 'dynamic' specifications, we obtain substantially different results in terms of factor demand, cross-price effects and technical change. The implication is that proper dynamic specification is critical. The Partial Dynamic Equilibrium model appears to behave most consistently across the cross-section.

Theoretical and econometric models are developed to examine joint wage-labor participation and hours decisions of a husband and wife in farm households. The econometric model is multiple equation and recursive. The specification of the off-farm labor supply equation of the husband (wife) depends on whether his (her) wife (husband) does or does not work off the farm, and this structure is endogenous. The model is fitted to data for Iowa farm households. The main conclusion is that the off-farm labor supply equation of a married individual differs significantly depending on whether his or her spouse also works for a wage.

Andrew F. Daughety, Forrest D. Nelson, An Econometric Analysis of Changes in the Cost and Production Structure of the Trucking Industry, 1953-1982, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 70, No. 1 (Feb., 1988), pp. 67-75

This paper presents an approach to defining a market using the notion of instantaneous causality. The market for which the approach is empirically implemented is the flour market in the United States over the period January 1979 through October 1982. One anomaly over this period was the deregulation of railroad rates in October 1980. The empirical results based on three spatially diffuse cities suggest that the market is national in scope and that after railroad deregulation the price interrelationship between cities was strengthened.

The informational efficiency of econometric model forecasts made by Data Resources, Incorporated and Chase Econometrics is evaluated. The criterion tested is an implication of the rational expectations hypothesis. Statistically significant serial correlations are found for several series of one-period forecast revisions, indicating rejection of the efficiency hypothesis. The use of these one-period revisions avoids some problems that have plagued previous tests that employed different efficiency criteria. Alternative explanations of the empirical results are suggested and analyzed.

Eric A. Monke, Lester D. Taylor, International Trade Constraints and Commodity Market Models: An Application to the Cotton Market, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Feb., 1985), pp. 98-107