Academic literature on the topic 'Microeconomics – Econometric models'

James Heckman is one of the most important and influential scholars to have graced the economics profession. His work is deeply rooted at the intersection of economic theory and empirical microeconomics, and he has made significant contributions to the study of labor economics, microeconometrics, and the use of micro data in macroeconomic analysis. Heckman's work is motivated by the scientific method, in which theory is held up to the scrutiny of the data and empirical analysis is informed by economic theory. During the course of his work, he has made lasting contributions to the study of sample selection bias, duration analysis, heterogeneity, and treatment effects in microeconometrics. In labor economics, he has applied these econometric methods to the study of labor supply and life-cycle dynamic models of unemployment, wage growth, and skill formation. In addition, he is the leading scholar on the evaluation of active labor market programs. As an applied microeconomist, one cannot do research on labor supply, sample selection, duration models, or life-cycle dynamics without encountering Jim Heckman's work.

<p class="Textoindependiente21"><span lang="EN-US">The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) involves changing traditional methods to promote innovative teaching experiences. This paper has two main aims: a) to show evidence of the use of Interactive Response Systems (IRS) to identify gaps in the understanding of the course contents and b) to investigate factors influencing students’ attitudes towards the use of IRS. The experience was developed through a collective tutoring session in the subject of Economics using IRS. Economics is a first-year subject in the Degree of Business Administration and Management offered by the University of Cadiz, which includes contents of Microeconomics and Macroeconomics and uses economic models to explain the function of the economy and the behaviour of economic agents. Results show that IRS technique allows detecting gaps in learning and comprehension. From our econometric estimations, we also identify two strongly significant variables affecting students’ attitudes towards IRS: gender and received explanations regarding the use of IRS. Variables such as first enrolment in the subject and the number of hours devoted to studying have a positive and significant effect on the attitude to IRS, but at a lower level of significance (from 5% to 10%).</span></p>

The article examines the situation of appearance of a non-optimal capital-labor ratio on the basis of a comparison of the relative speed of the dynamics of indicators of labor productivity, capital productivity and capital-labor ratio in machine building industry of Ukraine in recent years. Mathematical determination of the optimal capital-labor ratio is substantiated on the basis of production functions taking into account dynamics of the most important indicators of economic activity, presented in value terms. Methodological and applied aspects of the use of the equimarginal principle from microeconomics are discussed to determine the optimal capital-labor ratio within the limits of substitutional production functions. It is proved that at the point of optimal capital-labor ratio, the marginal rate of replacement of production factors’ substitution is equal to one. The resulting conclusion is used as a basis for development of a procedure for finding optimum capital-labor ratio using econometric models, which adequately describe the relationship of time series of product sales, basic productive assets and labor costs based on substitutional production functions. The use of the proposed procedure for determining the optimal capital-labor ratio is carried out on the example of the Cobb-Douglas-Tinbergen production function, the dynamised CES-function and the linear function. The methodological recommendations on calculation of unknown parameters are presented for these functions, as well as the formulas of optimal capital-labor ratio with indicated extreme values of products sold and the total costs for basic production assets and labor payment. The obtained theoretical results are tested according to the data of Ukraine’s machine building. The hypothesis about non-optimal capital-labor ratio in 2007-2015 is confirmed in terms of volumes of sales of the industry production. It turns out that for the analyzed period of time, the basic production assets of machine building were relatively abundant compared with the payment of labor. In 2016-2017, a positive trend begins in dynamics of the capital-labor ratio in the industry to a certain reduction and a gradual approach to the optimal value.

Resumo Neste artigo, sugiro o uso de modelos não convencionais de escolha e produção, para sustentar a construção e o emprego de números de índice. Recomendo o uso do modelo de produção proposto por Georgescu-Roegen e um modelo de escolha que reconheça a existência de critérios irredutíveis. Também se destacam a distinção entre fluxo e estoque e entre serviços e fluxos de bens dos fundos, produzidos ou consumidos em atividades de transformação. Os fluxos podem frequentemente ser associados a atividades de produção. Portanto, pode-se aplicar princípios derivados da teoria da produção. As implicações correspondentes, com relação à escolha dos números de índice, são discutidas. Outra conclusão deste artigo é a necessidade de considerar números de índices, associados à satisfação de necessidades básicas, no desenho de programas sociais. Os índices de pobreza também são discutidos para ilustrar alguns dos pontos levantados no artigo.

Forecasts of economic variables is very important for planning and policy making purposes. Forecasts is an important input in decision making processes because obtaining reliable forecasts of some relevant macroeconomic variables is necessary for efficient management of funds, time and resources.Business has always recognised the need for a view of the future and has used explicit forecasts in the design and execution of their economic andJor business policies. For example, a firm trying to decide upon its investment programme will have to take into account not only the current known set of circumstances but also the unknown economic and business conditions in the future. The firm has to form a view about the future, such as the likely sales, costs, prices, competitors' reactions, labour requirements, government regulations and so on. These views about the future values of economic variables are frequently referred to as 'expectations', that is, what the firm expects to happen in the future.In recent years the performances of many microeconomics and macroeconomics series have been erratic. For example, rate of inflation, price of crude oil, prices of primary commodities, rate of interest and other pertinent economic variables have been fluctuating widely and have caused concern among the public, politicians, economists and also the businessmen. According to Mayes (l 981), with such non-uniformity of economic variables observed in the last two decades, the role of expectations has become more relevant in the economic agents' decision making process. Mayes (1981) further states that under the present conditions it has become more important to consider what expectations actually are and how they are formed.The value of economic forecasts of certain macroeconomic variables can be derived from several methods. The three main methods for deriving economic forecasts are (i) time series, (ii) econometric models, and (iii) survey of intentions of concerned agents and organizations. Time seriesanalysis and econometric modeling are the two most widely used methods in economic forecasting, but Holden and Peel (1983) had noted their drawbacks. Recently, economists have turned their direction of interest in evaluating the rationality of economic forecasts from surveys of market participants. The empirical literature on the direct tests of the rational expectations hypothesis is vast and growing. Holden et al. (1985), Lovell (1986), Wallis (1989), Maddala (1991) and Pesaran (1991) had reviewed some of these studies. The aim was to determine whether survey data on economic forecasts are accurate in the Muth's (1961) sense, that is, whether participating economic agents used all available information at the time forecasts are made. in other words, the rational expectations hypothesis of the economic forecast was put to test. In general, the empirical studies do not support the rational expectations hypothesis.Most of the studies carried out to evaluate the rationality of business firms' forecasts of economic variables were conducted on developed nations. Madsen (1993) studies the formation of output expectations in manufacturing industry in Japan, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. He found that the rational expectations hypothesis was weakly rejected. Williams (1988) and Chazelas (1988) found investment forecasts biased predictors of the actual investment value for firms in the United Kingdom and France. Meganck et a!. (1988) have concluded that investment forecasts of the manufacturing firm in Belgium were unbiased predictors of the actual values. However. Daub (1982) failed to find any rationality of the Canadian capital investment intention survey data. On the other hand. a study by Leonard (1982) on employment forecasts by the United States services sectors found that the forecasts were biased and the rationality of these employment forecasts rejected.The purpose of this paper is to present some empirical evidence on the rationality of agricultural firm managers' expectations using survey data. This study is important because it adds to the current literature on the testing of rationality of survey data, in particular, it provides empirical evidence from the perspective of a developing country. As for the country under study, the finding of the study could establish whether the forecasts documented by such survey are accurate or not; and if not, ways to produce more accurate forecasts must be found. 'Rationality' in this paper means that managers in agricultural firms have unbiased expectations and efficiently utilised available information at the time the forecasts are made.

In this essay, we discuss the emerging literature in macroeconomics that combines heterogeneous agent models, nominal rigidities, and aggregate shocks. This literature opens the door to the analysis of distributional issues, economic fluctuations, and stabilization policies—all within the same framework. In response to the limitations of the representative agent approach to economic fluctuations, a new framework has emerged that combines key features of heterogeneous agents (HA) and New Keynesian (NK) economies. These HANK models offer a much more accurate representation of household consumption behavior and can generate realistic distributions of income, wealth, and, albeit to a lesser degree, household balance sheets. At the same time, they can accommodate many sources of macroeconomic fluctuations, including those driven by aggregate demand. In sum, they provide a rich theoretical framework for quantitative analysis of the interaction between cross-sectional distributions and aggregate dynamics. In this article, we outline a state-of-the-art version of HANK together with its representative agent counterpart, and convey two broad messages about the role of household heterogeneity for the response of the macroeconomy to aggregate shocks: 1) the similarity between the Representative Agent New Keynesian (RANK) and HANK frameworks depends crucially on the shock being analyzed; and 2) certain important macroeconomic questions concerning economic fluctuations can only be addressed within heterogeneous agent models.

Defence date: 10 June 2022
Examining Board: Prof. Thomas Crossley (EUI, Supervisor); Prof. Alessandro Tarozzi (EUI, Co-Supervisor); Prof. Nadia Campaniello (University of Torino and Collegio Carlo Alberto); Prof. Emilia Del Bono (ISER, University of Essex)
This thesis is composed of three independent essays in applied microeconomics. The first contributes to the field of labor and health economics and analyzes the effect of local unemployment rates on fertility rates, abortion rates, and the abortions to pregnancies ratio. The second chapter speaks to health and development economics literature, evaluating the impact of agricultural price spikes on farmers’ nutrition, considering the case study of quinoa in Peru. The topic of the final chapter lies within the fields of gender and political economics and discusses the effect of gender representation within local governments on expenditure in social services. Even though the three chapters seem separate, all of them share my interest in gender and health economics, as well as causal estimation. In Chapter 1, I analyze the effect of local unemployment rates on fertility rates, abortion rates, and the abortions to pregnancies ratio, combining population statistics and administrative data on induced abortions performed in Italy between 2004 and 2016. This is the first paper to causally investigate the effect of local economic conditions on abortion choice. Using a shift-share instrument measuring labor demand, I exploit demand-driven shocks to unemployment. A one standard deviation (sd) increase in unemployment induces a 0.9 sd decrease in the fertility rate, a 0.27 sd increase in the abortion rate, and a 0.35 sd increase in the abortion ratio. In percentage terms, these changes mean that a 1 percentage point increase in the unemployment rate brings about a 1.7% decrease in the general fertility rate, a 1.4% increase in the abortion rate, and a 1.8% increase in the abortion ratio. These effects are driven by women above 25 years old, and are particularly large in the 35-49 age group. In Chapter 2, I consider the impact of food price changes on farmers’ particular nutrition, as part of a discussion of the effect of preference shifts in the global North on welfare in the global South. Previous research has yielded contrasting results, while this question is increasingly relevant. The case of quinoa provides an ideal event study, where quinoa prices steeply increased from 2008 onwards, led by increasing international demand. I study the effect of this price shock on the nutrition of Peruvian households in a difference in differences framework. Results point to a limited effect on nutritional outcomes: in the short- term, neither caloric intake nor diet quality significantly increases in quinoa-farming households and districts. Chapter 3 investigates the effect of executive female representation on the provision of different social services, in the context of Italy. While Italy is a high-income country, many families still rely on women to take care of children, the elderly, and family members in need of assistance. We exploit a 2014 reform that mandated 40% gender quotas in the executive committees of municipalities with more than 3000 inhabitants. To account for confounding policies introduced at the same cutoff, we employ a difference-in-discontinuities empirical strategy. We find that while the policy was effective in increasing female representation, it did not have an impact on any category of social services expenditures.
1 Not the right time for children: unemployment, fertility, and abortion 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Institutional framework 1.3 Data and descriptive statistics 1.3.1 Data and construction of the sample 1.3.2 Dependent variables 1.3.3 Descriptive statistics 1.4 Empirical strategy 1.5 Results 1.5.1 Age heterogeneity 1.6 Robustness checks 1.7 Conclusion -- References -- Appendix 1.A Additional results 1.A.1 Age heterogeneity - response to the aggregate unemployment rate 1.A.2 Geographic heterogeneity 1.A.3 Robustness checks -- Appendix 1.B Bartik instrument 1.B.1 Industry sectors 1.B.2 First stage relationship 1.B.3 Alternative Bartik instruments -- Appendix 1.C Descriptive analysis of the recessio 1.C.1 The recession in Italy . 1.C.2 North and South -- Appendix 1.D Data appendix 2 Do food price shocks affect farmers’ nutrition? A study on rising quinoa prices in Peru 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Quinoa: history, characteristics, production 2.3 Data and sample selection 2.4 Empirical strategy and sample selection 2.4.1 Pre-treatment characteristics 2.4.2 Parallel trends 2.5 Results 2.6 Conclusion -- References -- Appendix 2.A Descriptives 2.A.1 Summary statistics 2.A.2 Sample selection - balance of characteristics 2.A.3 Quinoa - production and consumption -- Appendix 2.B Parallel trends -- Appendix 2.C Other results -- Appendix 2.D Nutrition estimation 2.D.1 Estimation of food and nutrient consumption 2.D.2 Estimation of diet quality 2.D.3 Diet index and caloric intake -- Appendix 2.E Institutional initiatives 3 Executive Gender Quotas and Social Services: Evidence from Italy 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Institutions and Data 3.2.1 Institutional Framework 3.2.2 Data Sources and Sample Selection 3.2.3 Descriptive Statistics 3.3 Conceptual Framework 3.4 Empirical Strategy 3.4.1 Confounding Policies and Treatments’ Definition 3.4.2 Potential Outcomes, Assumptions, and Estimator 3.4.3 Estimation 3.5 Results 3.5.1 Share and Number of Women in Municipal Executive 3.5.2 Effect on Social Spending 3.5.3 Internal Validity 3.6 Robustness 3.7 Conclusion -- References -- Appendix 3.A Empirical Strategy: Diff-in-disc in Our Setting 3.A.1 Local Parallel Trends, Expenditure Subgroups 3.A.2 Results on Total Accrued Expenses Appendix 3.B Pre-existing policies and potential confounders 3.B.1 Changes in Council and Executive Size 3.B.2 Joint Provision of Childcare

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Sócio-Econômico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Economia.
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Tendo em vista a completa transformação do mercado de vinhos no Brasil ocorrida nos últimos 10 anos, e o seu ainda enorme potencial de crescimento, esta dissertação se propõe a identificar, através da Metodologia de Preços Hedônicos, os preços implícitos de características de rótulo, sensoriais e informativas de vinhos no mercado brasileiro. A análise destes preços, que não são isoladamente transacionados nos pontos de venda, mas que são indiretamente praticados em equilíbrio de mercado, é de fundamental importância para o entendimento dos critérios de decisão e do comportamento do consumidor. O modelo mostra, entre outras conclusões, que o mercado brasileiro valoriza vinhos mais encorpados, com longa permanência em barris de madeira, que têm como sugestão de uso a guarda (e não o consumo imediato) e que são procedentes, nesta ordem, da França, Itália, Portugal e Espanha.
Given the complete transformation that the Brazilian wine market has gone through in the last decade, and its still great growth potential, this work intends to identify, using the Hedonic Prices Methodology, the implicit prices of label, sensory and informative characteristics of wines in the Brazilian market. The analysis of such prices, which are not individually practiced, but that are indirectly negotiated in market equilibrium, is of great importance for the understanding of the consumers‟ decision criteria and behavior. The model shows, among other conclusions, that the Brazilian consumer values wines that are full-bodied, which stayed for long period in oak barrels, which have cellaring potential (as opposed to those which are to be consumed immediately), and that were produced in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain, in this order.

The research performed throughout this dissertation aims at implementing quantitative methods in order to assess economic and technological performances of firms, i.e. it tries to assess the impacts of the determinants of technological activity on the results of this activity. For this purpose, a representative sample of the most important R&D firms in the world is constituted. The micro-economic nature of the analysis, as well as its international dimension are two main features of this research at the empirical level.

The second chapter illustrates the importance of R&D investments, patenting activities and other measures of technological activities performed by firms over the last 10 years.

The third chapter describes the main features as well as the construction of the database. The raw data sample consists of comparable detailed micro-level data on 2676 large manufacturing firms from several countries. These firms have reported important R&D expenditures over the period 1980-1994.

The fourth chapter explores the dynamic structure of the patent-R&D relationship by considering the number of patent applications as a function of present and lagged levels of R&D expenditures. R&D spillovers as well as technological and geographical opportunities are taken into account as additional determinants in order to explain patenting behaviours. The estimates are based on recently developed econometric techniques that deal with the discrete non-negative nature of the dependent patent variable as well as the simultaneity that can arise between the R&D decisions and patenting. The results show evidence of a rather contemporaneous impact of R&D activities on patenting. As far as R&D spillovers are concerned, these externalities have a significantly higher impact on patenting than own R&D. Furthermore, these effects appear to take more time, three years on average, to show up in patents.

The fifth chapter explores the contribution of own stock of R&D capital to productivity performance of firms. To this end the usual productivity residual methodology is implemented. The empirical section presents a first set of results which replicate the analysis of previous studies and tries to assess the robustness of the findings with regard to the above issues. Then, further results, based on different sub samples of the data set, investigate to what extent the R&D contribution on productivity differs across firms of different industries and geographic areas or between small and large firms and low and high-tech firms. The last section explores more carefully the simultaneity issue. On the whole, the estimates indicate that R&D has a positive impact on productivity performances. Yet, this contribution is far from being homogeneous across the different dimensions of data or according to the various assumptions retained in the productivity model.

The last empirical chapter goes deeper into the analysis of firms' productivity increases, by considering besides own R&D activities the impact of technological spillovers. The chapter begins by surveying the alternative ways proposed in the literature in order to asses the effect of R&D spillovers on productivity. The main findings reported by some studies at the micro level are then outlined. Then, the framework to formalize technological externalities and other technological determinants is exposed. This framework is based on a positioning of firms into a technological space using their patent distribution across technological fields. The question of whether the externalities generated by the technological and geographic neighbours are different on the recipient's productivity is also addressed by splitting the spillover variable into a local and national component. Then, alternative measures of technological proximity are examined. Some interesting observations emerge from the empirical results. First, the impact of spillovers on productivity increases is positive and much more important than the contribution of own R&D. Second, spillover effects are not the same according to whether they emanate from firms specialized in similar technological fields or firms more distant in the technological space. Finally, the magnitude and direction of these effects are radically different within and between the pillars of the Triad. While European firms do not appear to particularly benefit from both national and international sources of spillovers, US firms are mainly receptive to their national stock and Japanese firms take advantage from the international stock.

Doctorat en sciences économiques, Orientation économie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD theses
Defence date: 3 July 2007
Examining board: Prof. Andrea Ichino, Supervisor, (University of Bologna and the EUI) ; Prof. Hartmut Lehmann,( University of Bologna) ; Prof. Mark Edwin Schaffer, (Heriot-Watt University) ; Prof. Richard Spady, (EUI)
This thesis, which provides an account of research conducted at the European University Institute between 2002 and 2006, is an application of microeconometric analysis to testing models suggested by economic theory. It consists of three chapters which are selfcontained and can be read independently. While the chapters deal with different topics (two are 6 related to labour economics and one - to corporate finance and governance), it is the use of microeconometric methods - regression analysis of cross-sectional and panel data on the level of individuals or firms - that bring them together in this volume under this title.
-- Human capital externalities : evidence from the transition economy of Russia -- Firm size, wages and unobserved skills : evidence from dual job holdings in the UK -- The puzzle of dual class stock in Russia : explaining the price differential between common and preferred shares

Defence date: 20 January 2015
Examining Board: Professor Jérôme Adda, EUI & Bocconi University, Supervisor; Professor Juan Dolado, EUI; Professor Albrecht Glitz, Humboldt University of Berlin; Professor Tommaso Frattini, University of Milan.
This PhD dissertation discusses three important topics in labor economics. It consists of three chapters that inquire into the integration of migrants and their socioeconomic outcomes in the host country market by relying on an empirical framework combined with economic theory. The first chapter explores whether naturalization leads to faster occupational assimilation for immigrants in the labor market in Germany. In particular, the empirical analysis in this paper investigates whether immigrants become occupationally more mobile after naturalization and if this leads to better jobs in the labor market. Instrumental variable estimation is exploited to control for the time-invariant and -variant unobserved individual characteristics. In order to do so, changes in German immigration law in the 1990s is used as an instrument for naturalization. The results show that naturalization is not associated with an immediate increase in occupational mobility. Instead, the years following naturalization are associated with higher occupational mobility, which implies that immigrants use naturalization in the German labor market to pursue better occupation match and faster occupational assimilation. The second chapter exploits the September 11 as an exogenous event to explore whether September 11 decreased the exit rate from unemployment of immigrants from Muslim countries in the UK labor market. The empirical analysis exploits discrete time duration models. The results show that the exit rate from unemployment to paid employment decreases after the September 11 terrorist attacks for immigrants from Muslim countries compared to UK-born white population with similar socioeconomic characteristics. Moreover, a significant increase in the unemployment spell is found for the first generation immigrants from Muslim countries while no impact is found on second generation immigrants. The last chapter addresses issues related to religious identity which have been questioned more intensively in recent years. The first part of the empirical analysis answers the question about the extent to which religious identity is transmitted from one generation to the next by using longitudinal data from Germany. In addition, the empirical analysis investigates how socio-economic characteristics influence the transmission of religious traits across generations. Furthermore, the paper explores whether migration background plays a role in the transmission process. The results show that parents play an important role in the development of the religious identity of their children in Germany. The transmission or religious traits across generations varies according to the socio-economic characteristics of transmitter and religious groups. Finally, the empirical research shows that migration background is an important factor in the transmission process. The results reveal that vertical transmission is higher among immigrant families by using data from Indonesia and Turkey.

本論文集收錄了三篇關於儲蓄的宏觀經濟學及其相關領域的文章。
第一篇文章討論儲蓄和跨期替代問題。在這篇文章中我們研究在新古典增長模型中，當採用不為1的要素替代彈性和非常數的跨期替代彈性時產生不同的儲蓄動態的問題。使用一般化的效用函數和生產函數，我們的結論覆蓋了現實中的各種儲蓄率變化形式，包括單調遞增、遞減、鐘形和U型。在此我們使用Stone-Geary效用函數和CES生產函數作為一個特例來說明問題。使用相點陣圖分析方法，我們得出了可以導致不同儲蓄率動態的充分和必要條件。我們的數量測驗支持理論的結果。作為一個擴展，接下來我們討論了連續時間OLG模型中的儲蓄率動態。當放鬆偏好和技術兩方面的假設時，我們依然得出了類似於新古典模型的豐富的儲蓄率動態。
第二篇文章是一個關於可變IES假設的經驗研究。在這篇文章中我們研究了跨期替代彈性的跨國差異，以及在某一特定國家的增長路徑中其可能的變化。在估計中我們使用了不同形式的歐拉方程模型，尤其是具有Stone-Geary效用形式的約束條件的模型。我們使用東亞和南亞國家面板資料的研究不能拒絶遞增IES的假設。使用兩個典型亞洲國家：日本和韓國的時間序列研究也得出了IES在經濟增長過程中遞增的結論。這一結果給第一章中的理論發現提供了經驗支持，與這些國家的儲蓄率動態變化情況也是相吻合的。
第三篇文章在一個具有不對稱生產技術的兩國開放經濟模型中採用數量方法探討了中國的高儲蓄率和經常帳戶不平衡問題。我們估計了中國和OECD國家的生產函數參數，發現中國生產函數中的要素替代彈性和資本份額都要明顯大於發達國家，其中中國的要素替代彈性大於1，而資本份額大于0.5，與文獻中的結論相近。在數量研究部分，我們發現在有中國式的高TFP增長之時，具有估計出的不對稱技術參數的模型能產生高得多的儲蓄和經常帳戶餘額，在2000年之前尤其與現實資料相吻合。而具有對稱技術參數的標準模型則得出了高經常帳戶赤字的結論，這與實際情況是矛盾的。
This thesis consists of three essays on the issue of macroeconomics of saving and its related areas.
The first essay is on saving and intertemporal substitution. In this essay we study the possibility to generate different saving dynamics with a standard neoclassical growth framework, when allowing non-unitary factor elasticity of substitution (EOS) and non-constant intertemporal elasticity of substitution (IES). When employing both generalized utility and production function, our results can encompass all the varieties of saving patterns that are possible in the evidence, including monotonically increasing, decreasing, hump-shaped and U-shaped. We use the model with Stone-Geary utility and CES production function as a special case for illustration. Following the phase diagram approach, we have derived the necessary and sufficient conditions for the different saving dynamics. Our numerical tests can also support the theoretical findings. We have also studied the saving dynamics in another workhorse model, the OLG model with continuous time as an extension. When relaxing the assumptions in preference and technology, we also find rich transitional dynamics of saving that are close to those in the neoclassical model.
The second essay is an empirical study on the variable IES assumption. In this essay we study the cross-country difference with the intertemporal elasticity of substitution, as well as its possible changes in one country's growth transition. We test different forms of the Euler equation model, especially one with an increasing IES restriction as is implied by the Stone-Geary style utility function. Our estimation with the east and south Asia country panel data can not reject the increasing IES assumption. A time-series study on two typical Asian Country, Korea and Japan's IES also indicates an increasing IES in their growth path. These results provide some support to the theoretical findings in Chapter I, and are consistent with the countries' saving patterns in history.
The third essay investigates China's high saving rate and current account imbalance problem quantitatively in a two-country open economy macroeconomic model when using asymmetric production technologies. We estimate the production parameters for China and the OECD countries, and find that China's elasticity of substitution (EOS) and capital share in production are both higher than those of developed countries. While the estimated EOS of China is above one, the capital share of it is above 0.5 and close to the literature value. In the quantitative study, when there is high TFP growth rate, the model with estimated EOS and capital share can generate much higher saving and current account balance for China, which match the real series very well especially before the year 2000, while the standard model with symmetric production parameters predicts large current account deficits and is contrary to the evidence.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Detailed summary in vernacular field only.
Luo, Gongshu.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references.
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts also in Chinese.
Abstract --- p.i
Contents --- p.iv
Chapter 1 --- Saving and Intertemporal Substitution --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- Saving in the Neoclassical Model --- p.6
Chapter 1.2.1 --- Model Specification --- p.6
Chapter 1.2.2 --- Equilibrium Saving Rate --- p.7
Chapter 1.2.3 --- Transitional Dynamics of Saving --- p.8
Chapter 1.2.4 --- A Numerical Study --- p.21
Chapter 1.3 --- Saving in the Perpetual Youth Model --- p.25
Chapter 1.3.1 --- Model Specification --- p.26
Chapter 1.3.2 --- Different Utility Forms --- p.28
Chapter 1.3.3 --- Saving Dynamics --- p.34
Chapter 1.3.4 --- A Numerical Study --- p.35
Chapter 1.4 --- Conclusion --- p.36
Reference --- p.38
Chapter Tables and Figures --- p.40
Chapter 2 --- An Empirical Study on Intertemporal Substitution --- p.49
Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.49
Chapter 2.2 --- Theory of Variable IES --- p.54
Chapter 2.3 --- Estimating IES --- p.59
Chapter 2.3.1 --- The Euler Equation Approach --- p.60
Chapter 2.3.2 --- Liquidity Constraint Model --- p.62
Chapter 2.3.3 --- Extensions on Estimating IES --- p.63
Chapter 2.3.4 --- On Testing Variable IES --- p.64
Chapter 2.4 --- Methodology --- p.67
Chapter 2.4.1 --- The Non-linear GMM Method --- p.67
Chapter 2.4.2 --- Model to be Tested --- p.69
Chapter 2.5 --- Data Issues --- p.71
Chapter 2.6 --- Estimation Results --- p.75
Chapter 2.6.1 --- Cross-country Panel Study --- p.75
Chapter 2.6.2 --- Single-country Time Series Study --- p.78
Chapter 2.7 --- Conclusion --- p.82
Reference --- p.84
Chapter Tables and Figures --- p.87
Chapter 3 --- Production Differences and Current Account Imbalance --- p.94
Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.94
Chapter 3.2 --- Estimation on Capital Share and EOS --- p.100
Chapter 3.2.1 --- Model Specification --- p.101
Chapter 3.2.2 --- Data Construction --- p.103
Chapter 3.2.3 --- Estimation Results --- p.104
Chapter 3.3 --- A Two-Country Open Economy Model --- p.107
Chapter 3.3.1 --- Model Setup --- p.107
Chapter 3.3.2 --- Competitive Equilibrium --- p.109
Chapter 3.3.3 --- Equilibrium conditions --- p.109
Chapter 3.4 --- A Quantitative Study --- p.110
Chapter 3.4.1 --- Calibration --- p.111
Chapter 3.4.2 --- Parameters --- p.112
Chapter 3.4.3 --- Initial and Steady-State Conditions --- p.112
Chapter 3.4.4 --- Basic Results --- p.113
Chapter 3.4.5 --- Some Special Features of the Model --- p.116
Chapter 3.4.6 --- Counterfactural Experiments and Sensitivity Analysis --- p.117
Chapter 3.4.7 --- A Discussion on the Role of IES --- p.119
Chapter 3.5 --- Conclusion --- p.121
Reference --- p.123
Chapter Tables and Figures --- p.125

This thesis consists of two essays on applied microeconomics issues. The first essay presents a hedonic price econometric model of vacant commercial land. The second essay presents cost frontier analysis on the industry and firm's performance of the U.S. Motor Carrier industry. Our hedonic price econometric model includes two new developments in estimating land values in a multicentric urban area First, two composite indexes of market accessibility and highway accessibility are developed to account for the impacts of different characteristics of different regional nodes on land value at a particular site. Second, we use nonlinear least squares to estimate the decay parameters of the accessibility indexes within the model. We found that market accessibility is the dominant land value determinant. The estimated market accessibility decay parameter is different in value from the ones that are commonly assumed in hedonic models. The effect of access to highway interchanges is insignificant. Corner lots are of higher value. Finally, under Seattle's zoning policy, zoning classification of neighborhood commercial and community commercial land does not have significant effect on land value. The second essay uses the stochastic cost frontiers to analyze the performance of the U.S. motor carrier industry in the pre- and post-MCA periods. The average industry inefficiencies were between 14 and 27 percent during studied period. Our results indicate that the deregulation has no impact on industry efficiency. After a short adjustment period, the average industry inefficiency in the post-MCA years falls back to its pre-MCA level of around 14 to 16 percent. We analyzed the firm-specific inefficiencies by tobit regression. Our result shows that union firms are 1.5 and 4 percent less efficient than non-union firms in the pre- and post-MCA years, respectively. Firms located in the southern region are relatively efficient and the ones in the northern regions are relatively inefficient. Our result supports Stigler's Survivor Principle that survivor firms are relatively efficient.
Graduation date: 1998

Microeconomic datasets are usually large, mainly survey data. These data are samples of hundreds of respondents or group of respondents (e.g., households). The distributions of such data are mostly not normal because some responses/variables are discrete. Handling such datasets poses some problems of summarizing/reporting the important features of the data in estimations. This study concentrates on how to handle categorical variables in estimation/reporting based on theoretical and empirical knacks. This study used Ghana Demographic and Health Survey data for 2014 for illustration and elaborates on how to interpret results of binary and multinomial outcome regressions. Comparison is made on the different binary models, and binary logit is found to be weighted over the other binary models. Multinomial logistic model is best handled when the odds of one outcome versus the other outcome are independent of other outcome alternatives as verified by the Independent of Irrelevant Alternatives (IIA). Conclusions and suggestions for handling categorical models are discussed in the study.