This paper estimates a translog stochastic frontier production function in the analysis of all 48 contiguous U.S. states in the period 1970-1983, to attempt to measure and explain changes in technical efficiency. The model allows technical inefficiency to vary over time, and inefficiency effects to be a function of a set of explanatory variables in which the level and composition of public capi...

This paper analyses price elasticities in the Austrian market for mobile telecommunications services using data on firm specific tariffs in the period between January 1998 and March 2002. Dynamic panel data regressions are used to estimate short-run and long-run demand elasticities for business customers and for private consumers with both postpaid contracts and prepaid cards. We find that busi...

The point of empirical work is commonly to test a very small number of crucial null hypotheses in a linear multiple regression setting. Endogeneity in one or more model explanatory variables is well known to invalidate such testing using OLS estimation. But attempting to identify credibly valid (and usefully strong) instruments for such variables is an enterprise which is arguably fraught and i...

We propose a novel estimator for the amount of international risk sharing that depends exclusively on asset returns data. In particular, our estimator has a nonparametric flavor in that it makes no parametric assumption on preferences and on the stochastic process that governs the dynamics of asset returns. This is in contrast with the existing estimators in the literature that either assume a ...

Willingness to Accept Equals Willingness to Pay for Labor Market Estimates of the Value of Statistical Life Our research clarifies the conceptual linkages among willingness to pay for additional safety, willingness to accept less safety, and the value of statistical life (VSL). We present econometric estimates that in the important case of workers’ decisions concerning exposure to fatal injury ...

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the efficiency with which Australian universities utilise their teaching resources. The study estimates the cost efficiency of 36 universities over the period 1995-2002 using stochastic frontier analysis. The present study differs from previous cost and efficiency studies of Australian universities in two respects. First, it employs stochastic frontier a...

Gender Differences in Sickness Absence and the Gender Division of Family Responsibilities This study investigates possible reasons for the gender difference in sickness absence. We estimate both shortand long-term effects of parenthood in a within-couple analysis based on the timing of parenthood. We find that after entering parenthood, women increase their sickness absence by between 0.5 days ...

Using the Helmert-Transformation to Reduce Dimensionality in a Mixed Model: Application to a Wage Equation with Worker and Firm Heterogeneity A model for matched data with two types of unobserved heterogeneity is considered – one related to the observation unit, the other to units to which the observation units are matched. One or both of the unobserved components are assumed to be random. This...

This paper focuses on the macroeconomic management of large inflows of foreign aid. It investigates the extent to which African countries have coordinated fiscal and macroeconomic responses to aid surges. In practice, we construct a panel dataset to investigate the level of aid ‘absorption’ and ‘spending’. This paper departs from the recent empirical literature by utilising better measures for ...