In the introduction to the special issue, we discusses the important role of economic theory in drawing inferences about behavior from data. The papers in the special issue represent several different approaches to theory-based empirical analysis, ranging from "full solution" methods to the...

Much research sponsored by the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) has evaluated the effects of the Food Stamp Program (FSP) and other food and nutrition programs on outcomes of interest (e.g., dietary intake or food expenditures). Of course, the problem of...

We describe how to recursively simulate choice probabilities in the multiperiod multinomial probit model using the GHK algorithm. We also provide GAUSS code to implement the method.

This paper contains commentary on the chapter “Simulation and Estimation of Hedonic Models” by Heckman, Matzkin and Nesheim that appeared in the volume "Frontiers in Applied General Equilibrium Modeling," Kehoe, Srinivasan and Whalley (eds.), Cambridge University Press, 2005. I explain in...

This chapter gives an overview of the male labour supply literature, focusing on what that literature implies for the design of the tax-transfer system. According to conventional wisdom, male labour supply is rather insensitive to tax rates. This, in turn, implies that the welfare losses from...

Using Confidential Data on 1300 U.S.-based multinational corporations (MNCs), we examine whether MNCs that moved jobs out of Canada between 1983 and 2003 systematically moved the jobs elsewhere within the MNC. We also look at whether trends in the movement of jobs within MNCs differ for...

This paper describes how state-of-the-art methods of choice modeling can be used to analyze consumer choice behavior in "competitive" health insurance markets. I use the insurance choices of senior citizens in the U.S. as an example. I then consider the issue of whether consumers benefit when we...

Recent advances in "simulation based inference" have made it feasible to estimate discrete choice models with several alternatives and rich patterns of consumer taste heterogeneity. These new methods have important potential application in health economics. One important application is the...

In recent years, major advances have taken place in three areas of random utility modeling: (1) semiparametric estimation, (2) computational methods for multinomial probit models, and (3) computational methods for Bayesian stimation. This paper summarizes these developments and discusses their...

I highlight some of the key econometric problems facing the literature on FDI spillovers. For the most part, the existing literature takes the approach of estimating production functions in which the total factor productivity (TFP) of the domestic firms in a particular industry/country is...