[In this paper, the authors develop a simultaneous equation model of birth rates composed of four estimated equations. This work differs from past research in that it considers the simultaneous relationship between birth rates and income and includes the cost of fertility as an explanatory factor. This cost is measured by the female labor participation rate under the assumption that income foregone due to fertility is a significant opportunity cost.]

INFORMATION on patterns of structural change during modern economic growth is summarized in Kuznets (1967 and 1971). The use of secular data to identify such patterns, however, must be limited, for relatively few countries have compiled suitable long-term records. Thus, attention has focused upon an alternative data source, namely, intercountry data for evidence on past and future trends in industrial structure (Temin, 1967; Kuznets, 1967, pp. 431-436; Chenery-Taylor, 1968, p. 391; Houthakker, 1965, p. 277). Despite the frequent use of cross sections to infer intertemporal patterns, relatively little empirical and theoretical work has been devoted to the interpretation of cross-section patterns vis-a-vis intertemporal patterns. Exceptions to this rule are Kuh (1959), Houthakker (1965), Temin (1967), Maizels (1963), Kuznets (1971, chapter. 4), and Chenery-Taylor (1968). The strikingly different results obtained by Kuznets (1971) and Chenery-Taylor (1968) concerning the compatibility of intercountry versus intertemporal patterns raise the basic issue which this study addresses.'

Paul R. Gregory, John M. Campbell, Benjamin S. Cheng, A Simultaneous Equation Model of Birth Rates in the United States, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Nov., 1972), pp. 374-380

Micro data gathered by the Soviet Interview Project provide one of the first opp ortunities for Western researchers to investigate the determinants of Soviet earnings. The data show that Soviet labor markets operate in many respects like U.S. labor markets, yet institutional differences remain. The most striking institutional impact is that Soviet workers are rewarded and penalized for political behavior external to the firm. As in the U.S., education and experience are rewarded; men earn more than women. However the Soviet pattern of returns to education is different, returns to experience are lower and occupational segregation of women is less important.

We use a new independent survey of 4000 Russian households (the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey or RLMS) to study their saving behavior. The RLMS household saving rate (12%) is less than half the official figure (29%). Despite the massive changes of the transition, the Russian household saving rate of 1994 cannot be shown to be different from that of 1976. The patterns of Russian household saving differ from international experience: Its paradoxical U-shaped saving-age relationship may be explained by the dramatic deterioration of life expectancies of middle-aged Russians.

Results of earlier transcendental logarithmic (translog) production function are challenged on the basis of the limited time-series used. The same methodology is applied to a pool of international manufacturing data to test whether long-run price elasticities can be generated with intercountry samples. Both the time-series and international cross-section methods agree that there is some elasticity of substitution between energy demand and non-energy inputs and that energy forecasting should not be based on the assumption that substitutions between energy and nonenergy inputs are trivial. The international method finds, however, that capital and energy are substitutes rather than complements in the long-run and that there is a difference between short-run and long-run effects of substitution. 29 references. (DCK)