This paper develops a methodology for estimating structural time-allocation models for self-employed households and applies it to peasant family labor supply behavior in the Peruvian Sierra. The oppurtunity costs of time, or shadow wages, of household workers are explicitly estimated from an agricultural production function. Using an instrumental variables procedure, the household's structural labor supply parameters are recovered from variation in these shadow wages. The empirical results are robust to a number of alternative specifications and diagnostic tests and lend support to the rational allocation of time by peasant households.

This paper studies the process of entry, dumping, and shakeout and the properties of the free-trade equilibrium that results in a world in which countries differ in their stock of technological knowledge, but not necessarily in their stock of technological capability. The model can account for the dumping of products by newly industrializing countries and technological newcomers at a price that fails to cover average cost in the face of a surge in world demand for the dumped product, a phenomenon that has not been uncommon in recent years.

Double moral hazard in continuous time generates the familiar warranty pattern with full coverage for an initial block of time. The more complete the warranty, the better the producer's durability incentives and the worse the consumer's maintenance incentives. Using continuous time highlights the need for some warranty bound to avoid reaching the first-best as an unreasonable limit. Early in the paper, an exogenous bound is used, while later the bound arises endogenously from the possibility of abuse and repair. A quadratic example shows that the warranty's duration depends on the relative severity of the two moral hazard problems.

Reviews the book "Financial Reporting in the Nineties: Regulation and Innovation at a Crossroads," edited by Martin N. Hoogendoorn and Lilliane B. Bijl.

There is substantial evidence that insider trading is present around corporate announcements and that this insider trading is motivated by private information. Using real estate investment trusts that choose to reappraise themselves as our sample, we establish that the appraisals contain information, but find no market response to the public announcement of this information in these appraisals. We consider two possible explanations for this inconsistency: the first that the appraisal information is not highlighted in earnings reports and hence remains unobserved; and the second that insiders trade on the appraisal information in the time that elapses between the appraisal and its public announcement. We find strong support for the second hypothesis, with insiders buying (selling) after they receive favorable (unfavorable) appraisal news, especially for negative appraisals. We also find that positive (negative) appraisals and net insider buying (selling) elicit significant positive (negative) abnormal returns during the appraisal period.

Many households in developing countries rely on seasonal agriculture for their incomes. This paper investigates whether household consumption expenditure tracks income across seasons. Using data from Thailand, I contrast the seasonal consumption patterns of households with different seasonal income patterns and estimate the responsiveness of seasonal consumption to seasonal income. I find little evidence that consumption tracks income over the course of the year. The findings suggest that observed seasonal consumption patterns are the result of seasonal variations in preferences or prices, common to all households, rather than an inability of households to use savings behavior to smooth consumption.

Many households in developing countries rely on seasonal agriculture for their incomes. This paper investigates whether household consumption expenditure tracks income across seasons. Using data from Thailand, I contrast the seasonal consumption patterns of households with different seasonal income patterns and estimate the responsiveness of seasonal consumption to seasonal income. I find little evidence that consumption tracks income over the course of the year. The findings suggest that observed seasonal consumption patterns are the result of seasonal variations in preferences or prices, common to all households, rather than an inability of households to use savings behavior to smooth consumption.