Knowledge that Transforms

In this paper Lilien's (1982) hypothesis that sectoral shifts in employment raise aggregate unemployment is tested using Canadian quarterly data. Lilien's framework is extended to investigate regional labour market rigidities and to distinguish between industry shifts that are correlated with changes in aggregate activity, and those which are exogenous to the overall level of activity. The robustness of the results to various changes in model specification is also investigated. I find that in Canada exogenous shifts in employment between sectors do not have a significant effect on the aggregate unemployment rate. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Pooling consumption data from different countries for demand system estimation is attractive because it increases both sample size and therange of v ariation of relative prices and income. The major objection to pooling is that d ifferent countries may have different demand system parameters. This paper propo sed and estimates specifications that permit pooling while allowing both short-r un andlong-run demand systems to differ across countries. Using data from Belgi um, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the authors findthat, although p ooling was accepted for some pairs of countries and some specifications, it was rejected for most. They conclude that caution is appropriate in pooling internat ional consumption data. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.

Douglas W. Caves, Joseph A. Herriges, Kenneth E. Train, Robert J. Windle, A Bayesian Approach to Combining Conditional Demand and Engineering Models of Electricity Usage, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 3 (Aug., 1987), pp. 438-448

From a probit model of enrollments, estimates of the expected net present value of post secondary education are developed for a sample of high school graduates, based e xclusively on individual expectations of the relevant costs and benefits at the time of the enrollment decision. The results are very plausible and consistent w ith rate-of-return estimates from studies which rely on ex post income data. Thi s suggests that students have rational expectationsand relatively good informat ion about future employment opportunities and other factors which determine the returns to educational investment. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.

Using an effort-regulation type of efficiency wage model, it is demonstrated that a firm may respond to slackening labor markets by acting to increase the intensity with which workers work. The magnitude of this work intensity effect depends on the structure of employment relations. Where long-term employment relations are prevalent, the effect of labor market slack on work intensity may be diminished. These propositions are tested empirically by estimating the effects unemployment and long-term employment have on productivity growth in two-digit manufacturing industries. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.

James B. McDonald, Richard J. Butler, Some Generalized Mixture Distributions with an Application to Unemployment Duration, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 2 (May, 1987), pp. 232-240

Until recently, estimates of demand functions for public goods were obtained (either with aggregate or micro survey data) using single equation estimation techniques. However, demand estimates may be biased when in dividuals' choices of communities are dependent upon the quantity and quality of public good provided. This paper spells out the nature of this bias (called Tiebout bias) and suggests an improved maximum-likelihood estimation technique. The technique is applied to a data set involving local public education in Michigan. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.

W. Kip Viscusi, Michael J. Moore, Workers' Compensation: Wage Effects, Benefit Inadequacies, and the Value of Health Losses, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 69, No. 2 (May, 1987), pp. 249-261

Socialist enterprises in Yugoslav agriculture show higher levels of productivity than private producers. The author examines the sources of these differences with total factor productivity estimates based on sectoral aggregate Cobb-Douglas production functions which permit separation of environmental, policy, and organizational effects. The results support the following conclusions: cooperative socialist enterprises are not inherently inefficient and can even outperform private producers; both types of producers were responding to their environment and their differential rates of technological change reflect the different constraints they faced; and socialist enterprises exhibited technology adoption behavior similar to nonsocialist enterprises elsewhere. Copyright 1987 by MIT Press.