A CLASS OF SEPARABILITY FLEXIBLE FUNCTIONAL FORMS

Quadratic flexible forms, such as the translog and generalized Leontief, are separability inflexible. That is, separability restrictions render them inflexible with regard to separable structures. A class functional forms is proposed that is flexible with regard to general production structures and remains flexible regarding weakly separable structures when separability restrictions are imposed, thus permitting tests of the separability hypothesis. Additionally, the restricted forms are parsimonious; that is they contain the minimum number of parameters with which flexibility can be achieved.