We show how to use security market data to restrict the admissible region for means and standard deviations of intertemporal marginal rates of substitution (IMRSs) of consumers. Our approach (i) is nonparametric and applies to a rich class of models of dynamic economies, (ii) characterizes the duality between the mean--standard deviation frontier for IMRSs and the familiear mean- standard deviation frontier for asset returns, and (iii) exploits the restriction that IMRSs are positive random variables. The region provides a convenient summary of the sense in which asset market data are anaomalous from the vantage point of intertemporal asset pricing theory.

Abstract Reviews the book "Expert Systems in Accounting," by Alex Edwards and N.A.D. Connell.

This paper devises an empirical methodology for discriminating between the median voter model and the oligarchy choice model when applied to the collective provision of a public good. In particular, an empirical methodology is engineered so that a nested test procedure can evaluate competing models. The authors apply this methodology to examine the demand for military activities of ten members of the NATO alliance. A two-stage least squares procedure, corrected for autocorrelation, is used to estimate the demand equations. Test results vary: some allies abide by the median voter model, others by the oligarchy model, and still others by neither. Copyright 1991 by MIT Press.

The authors show how to use security market data to restrict the admissible region for means and standard deviations of intertemporal marginal rates of substitution of consumers. Their approach (1) is nonparametric and applies to a rich class of models of dynamic economics; (2) characterizes the duality between the mean-standard deviation frontier for intertemporal marginal rates of substitution and the familiar mean-standard deviation frontier for asset returns; and (3) exploits the restriction that intertemporal marginal rates of substitution are positive random variables. The region provides a convenient summary of the sense in which asset market data are anomalous from the vantage point of intertemporal asset pricing theory. Copyright 1991 by University of Chicago Press.