F. B. Renwick, Valuation Model Bias and the Scale Structure of Dividend Discount Returns: Discussion, The Journal of Finance, Vol. 37, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the American Finance Association, Washington, D.C., December 28-30, 1981 (May, 1982), pp. 573-576

An empirically grounded micro-simulation of saving, with bequests related negatively either in total to average children's income or separately to individual children's incomes, is constructed for a single generation in a steady growth economy. Behavioral parameters are set so that predicted bequests to the next generation are consistent with both the scale and assignment of inheritances (taken from a real-world source) for the simulation generation. The relative impact of inheritance and other factors on different aspects of economic inequality is assessed. While inheritance is a major cause of wealth inequality, its influence on annual income and lifetime resources is small, and in the latter case ambiguous. … Inheritance perpetuates and may intensify inequalities arising originally from other causes. In that sense, it is a secondary cause of inequality; but that is not, of course, to say that it is of secondary importance. The extent of its influence on distribution remains an open question, which cannot be decided merely by theoretical reasoning … but requires in addition something in the nature of a quantitative analysis of the relevant facts. -Wedgwood, 1929, pp. 60–61.

William J. Marshall, Jess B. Yawitz, Lower Bounds on Portfolio Performance: An Extension of the Immunization Strategy, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Mar., 1982), pp. 101-113

This paper examines the relative importance of timing and persistence elements in explaining cyclical fluctuations in labour supply. Data from the natural experiment provided by World War II and cross-sectional data on American local labour markets, as well as aggregate time-series data are used in the empirical work. We find little evidence that timing effects play an important role in labour market dynamics. The evidence suggests that views emphasizing persistence are more accurate, and that previous employment tends to raise the probability of subsequent employment.

[In the classical linear regression model the conflict between the W, LR, and LM tests is due to the tests not having the correct significance level. This paper shows that the probability of conflict can be substantial when the three tests are based on the asymptotic chi-square critical value. For this model some computable correction factors for the chi-square critical values are examined, including those derived from a second-order Edgeworth approximation to the exact distributions. It is shown that the probability of conflict between the Edgeworth size-corrected tests is of no practical importance over a wide range of conditions.]

In this paper we specify a model in which Congressmen, constituents, and campaign contributors simultaneously decide on behavior. Constituents and contributors desire to influence the voting behavior of Congressmen; Congressmen, on the other hand, want to be elected and vote accordingly. We empirically test this model using roll call voting on eight bills dealing with economic regulation and find support for the model. Our results indicate that part of the voting behavior of Congressmen may be explained by noneconomic factors. We also find that unions and businesses as campaign contributors are sometimes influential; unions are more often influential than is business. Ideological factors are also important in explaining voting.

Examples are given which show that:(i) normality is not Necessary for the consistency of the quasi maximum likelihood estimator in the nonlinear simultaneous equations model (nonlinear FIML) even when there are major departures from linearity; and (ii) the lemma which is used extensively by Amemiya [2] in the theoretical development of the properties of nonlinear FIML under the assumption of normality is, as presently stated, incorrect.