The error Components regression model is now widely applied in econometics and statistics. Given the potentially high costs of incorrectly excluding the component from the model, an error components test should have high power. In addition, if a test is to gain acceptance from practitioners, the test should be computed easily. To obtain improved critical-value approximations, we introduce a standardized Lagrange multiplier (SLM) test statistic, which is centered and scaled to have a zero mean and unit variance under the null hypothesis. We also examine the F test, which is easily computed and has a well-known exact distribution under the null hypothesis if the regression errors are normally distributed

Ordered-probit analyses of National Federation of Independent Business survey data show that individual firms generally conform to the stock adjustment model of inventory investment, with the predicted response more likely when inventories are perceived as excessive than when deficient. Contrary to inferences about slow adjustment speeds from aggregate data, inventory adjustments by individual firms do not tend to take more than three months to complete. There is no evidence that price is used to achieve desired inventory targets, but prices are sticky in that changes set in motion one quarter tend to continue into the next quarter. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.

The informational content of different forecasts can be compared by regressing the actual change in a variable to be forecasted on forecasts of the change. We use the procedure in Fair and Shiller (1987) to examine the informational content of three sets of ex ant. forecasts: the American Statistical Association and National Bureau of Economic Research Survey (ASA), Data Resources Incorporated (DRI), and Wharton Economic Forecasting Associates (UEFA). We compare these forecasts to each other and to quasi ex ante forecasts generated from a vector autoregressive model, an autoregressive components model, and a large-scale structural model (the Fair model).

Stephen C. Farber, Robert J. Newman, Regional Wage Differentials and the Spatial Convergence of Worker Characteristic Prices, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 71, No. 2 (May, 1989), pp. 224-231

Subal C. Kumbhakar, Basudeb Biswas, DeeVon Bailey, A Study of Economic Efficiency of Utah Dairy Farmers: A System Approach, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Nov., 1989), pp. 595-604

ABSTRACT This paper examines the turn‐of‐the‐year effect, the firm size effect, and the relation between these two effects for a sample of OTC stocks traded via the NASDAQ reporting system over the period 1973–1985. We find results similar to those based solely on listed stocks. The importance of these findings stems from the existence of nontrivial differences between the characteristics of the OTC/NASDAQ sample and the samples of listed firms examined previously in the literature. We also find that NASDAQ quoted bid‐ask spreads are highly negatively correlated with firm size, are not highly seasonal, and are large enough to preclude trading profits based upon a knowledge of the seasonality of small firms' returns.

This paper examines the turn-of-the-year effect, the firm size effect, and the relation between these two effects for a sample of OTC stocks traded via the NASDAQ reporting system over the period 1973–1985. We find results similar to those based solely on listed stocks. The importance of these findings stems from the existence of nontrivial differences between the characteristics of the OTC/NASDAQ sample and the samples of listed firms examined previously in the literature. We also find that NASDAQ quoted bid-ask spreads are highly negatively correlated with firm size, are not highly seasonal, and are large enough to preclude trading profits based upon a knowledge of the seasonality of small firms' returns.

Based on the decision to file an escape clause petition by a firm, a Poisson regression model of the macroeconomic determinants of the total number of these petitions yearly is developed and estimated. The Poisson specification conforms to the fact that the number of escape clause petitions is a non-negative integer with a skewed probability distribution. In addition, the number of potential petitioners is controlled for in the specification. The empirical results suggest that both domestic and international factors affect the decision to file an escape clause petition. The legal environment is found to be a determinant as well. Copyright 1989 by MIT Press.