In this paper, a decomposition method for Tobit-models is derived, which allows the differences in a censored outcome variable between two groups to be decomposed into a part that is explained by differences in observed characteristics and a part attributable to differences in the estimated...

Contrary to accepted belief, the standard Tobit maximum likelihood estimator produces inconsistent parameter estimates, when the constant censoring threshold c is non-zero and unknown. Unfortunately the recording of a zero rather than the actual censoring threshold value is typical of economic...

This paper develops an econometric model that can provide predictions of fire suppression costs (per acre and in total) for a given large fire before final fire acreage is known. The model jointly estimates cost per acre and acreage equations via Maximum Likelihood, accounting for sample...

Many estimation methods of truncated and censored regression models such as the maximum likelihood and symmetrically censored least squares (SCLS) are sensitive to outliers and data contamination as we document. Therefore, we propose a semiparametric general trimmed estimator (GTE) of truncated...

This paper investigates the dynamics between key regulatory and supervisory policies and various aspects of commercial bank efficiency and performance for a sample of 22 EU countries over 2000–2008. In the first stage of the analysis we measure efficiency by employing the Data Envelopment...