In this paper we compare classical econometrics, calibration and Bayesian inference in the context of the empirical analysis of factor demands. Our application is based on a popular flexible functional form for the firm's cost function, namely Diewert's Generalized Leontief function, and uses...

In this paper we estimate the business telecommunications demands for local,intra-LATA and inter-LATA services, using US data from a Bill Harvesting (R) survey carried out during 1997. We model heterogeneity, which is present among firms due to a variety of different business telecommunication...

In this note, we use the production-theory approach to immigration in an open-economy setting to investigate the role of nonresident workers in Swiss aggregate production. Unlike earlier work in this area, exports are explicitly taken into account. Indeed, a statistical test for global...

Empirical factor demand analysis is a topic in which a choice must be made among several competing non-nested functional forms. Each of the commonly used factor demand systems, such as Translog, Generalized Leontief, Quadratic, and Generalized McFadden, exhibits statistical inadequacy when...

We examine the estimation problem for shape-restricted functions that are continuous, non-negative, monotone non-decreasing, and strictly concave. A sieve estimator based on bivariate Bernstein polynomials is proposed. This estimator is drawn from a sieve, a set of shape-restricted Bernstein...

This paper reports, for the first time, empirical estimates of one of the most ingenious models of trade in intermediate products - the model of Sanyal and Jones. We show how the restrictions implied by the Sanyal and Jones production structure can be imposed and tested with the help of...

The authors examine the small sample properties and forecasting performance of estimators In models using the Box-Cox transformation via a Monte Carlo experiment They develop a simple,estimator for the expected value of the untransformed dependent variable They show that the sign and magnitude...

This note describes how a convex N-input-M -output production possibility frontier can be locally approximated by means of a flexible Nonseparable Nested Constant-Elasticity-of-Substitution/Constant-Elasticity-of-Transformation (NNCES-CET) restricted profit function. This technique yields a...

This paper reports the results of three experiments on the neoclassical theory of consumer behavior. All these experiments were performed with the aim to simulate as closely as possible the behavior of consumers in the real world. Real goods, real money and the same incentives as in the real...