This paper extends prior valuation literature by offering a new dimension to the economic analysis of differential earnings/price behavior. Specifically, a measure of firm performance, estimated using stochastic frontier methodology, is introduced to reexamine this relation. Results provide...

This paper develops finite mixture models with fixed effects for two families of distributions for which the incidental parameter problem has a solution. Analytical results are provided for mixtures of Normals and mixtures of Poisson. We provide algorithms based on the expectations-maximization...

We use information from Social Security earnings records to examine the accuracy of survey responses regarding participation in tax-deferred pension plans. As employer-provided defined benefit pensions are replaced by voluntary contribution plans, employees’ understanding of the link between...

One of the most basic principles in economics is that competitive pressure promotes efficiency. However, this pressure can also have a dark side because it makes firms reluctant to act on private information that is unpopular with consumers. As a result, firms that possess superior information...

This paper proposes a simple general equilibrium theory of agrarian production organization to explain the emergence and persistence of latifundia - minifundia type patterns of agrarian production organization such as have prevailed historically in many parts of Latin America. When land...

We use the 1992 to 2000 waves of HRS and town-level fiscal data from the Census of Governments, to examine whether moves by households near retirement age are motivated by local fiscal policy. The data show some evidence that movers lower their fiscal burden. Households that move across states...

Measurement of quality changes has proven to be an especially difficult aspect of calculating unbiased rates of inflation. We propose a new methodology of capturing quality improvements based on consumer focus groups and apply this methodology in an environment where quality changes might be...

It is widely believed that expanding prenatal care should improve infant health; yet research typically finds weak effects of prenatal care on infant health. We argue that there are two kinds of pregnancies, 'complicated' and 'normal' ones, and that combining these pregnancies, as past research...

We develop a model specification and estimation framework that is applicable to many microeconometric models which fall into a treatment-outcome framework. We apply our methodology to examine the causal effect of man-aged care on the utilization of health care services. Specifically, we jointly...

We develop a semi-parametric latent class random effects multinomial logit model to distinguish between observed and unobserved household characteristics as determinants of child labor, school attendance and idleness. We find that much of the substitution between activities as a response to...