Knowledge that Transforms

The present study examines the determinants of two aspects of occupation which have been found to have important influences on female wages: the skill level associated with the occupation and the sex composition of the occupation (typically female versus male or integrated). Using a log-linear probability technique and data from the National Longitudinal Surveys, Young Women Cohort, hypotheses drawn from the economic and sociological literature are tested.

Abstrac t-This note empirically examines the issue of real interest rate equalization across countries. The equality of real interest rates is implied by two frequently employed concepts of equilibrium in international asset (capital) and commodity markets and imposes certain time series restrictions on ex post real interest rates. Statistical tests of these restrictions strongly reject the hypothesis that real interest rates have been equal across countries.

This paper presents a theoretically consistent and tractable two-stage decision-making model that does not rely on the restrictive assumption that group aggregator functions are homothetic. By assuming that within-group cost functions satisfy the almost ideal demand system form, the model incorporates flexible expenditure effects, yet allows within-group prices to be aggregated into two indices that fully capture movements in those prices that are relevant for determining group demands. Thus, the model provides a more flexible alternative to the standard two-stage budgeting models. An empirical application to U.S. manufacturing demands, including an energy aggregate, is provided.

This paper presents a partial equilibrium model of the labor market that allows the real wage, the expected real wage, and the level of employment to be expressed as functions of unexpected inflation, inflation uncertainty, and supply shocks. Regression equation estimation using U.S. data from 1948 to 1980 suggests that inflationary surprises and uncertainty cause countercycical movement in real wages. Various supply shock variables are introduced. The findings suggest the importance of oil shocks as compared with measures based on food or imports, but only after 1973.

William R. Schriver, Roger L. Bowlby, Changes in Productivity and Composition of Output in Building Construction, 1972-1982, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 67, No. 2 (May, 1985), pp. 318-322

This paper addresses empirically the issues of selecting the appropriate opportunity cost and scale variables of the money demand function in the presence of alternative nonnested hypotheses. As part of the process of model specification, the role of currency substitution in the demand for money function in an open economy is examined. The tests are carried out with quarterly data from the open economy of Greece over the floating exchange rate period 1975-82.

Real money balances as a factor input in the production function of the large-scale manufacturing sector in Pakistan has been examined in a multi-equation framework. Besides labor and capital, real money balances turned out to be an important factor of production. Our results are in accordance with the pioneering work of Sinai and Stokes in this area.

Douglas B. Stewart, Yiannis P. Venieris, Sociopolitical Instability and the Behavior of Savings in Less-Developed Countries, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 67, No. 4 (Nov., 1985), pp. 557-563