We propose a method of moment estimator for a stochastic frontier model in which one of the independent variables is measured with errors. The estimator requires only minimal distributional assumption on the measurement error, has no need for additional data, and is computationally inexpensive. A Monte Carlo study and an empirical example show favorable performances by this estimator. JEL Class...

We examine individuals’ distributional orderings in a number of contexts. This is done by using a questionnaire-experiment that is presented to respondents in any one of seven “flavours” or interpretations of the basic distributional problem. The flavours include inequality, risk, social welfare and justice. The issue of personal involvement in the distributional comparison is explicitly addres...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Tuberculosis (TB) poses a serious threat to public health throughout the world but disproportionately afflicts low-income nations. The aim of this study is to identify the high-risk areas in Mazandaran province (northern Iran) in helping the heath programmer for the best intervention. MATERIALS & METHODS This is an ecological study conducted from 1999 through 2008. The ...

I received Iranian Journal of Parasitology (Volume 6 (4), Oct-Dec 2011). I have seen an article in pages 51-58 titled "Molecular and Seroepidemiological Survey of Visceral Leishmaniasis among Humans and Domestic Dogs in Mazandaran Province, North of Iran ". I think this title needs to be revised, because this study was done in two limited districts of the central zone of Mazandaran (Semeskandeh...

Fusarium moniliforme (F. moniliforme) is one of the most frequent fungal pathogens found in rice. Samples of rice grown in three different zones of Mazandaran Province, Iran were collected and analyzed for the presence of fumonisin B (FB ). Mycological analysis revealed the presence of F. moniliforme-type isolates 1 1 in 65.1% of the rice samples. Average levels of FB per zones 1, 2 and 3 were ...

 Given that improvement in efficiency is a major resource to economic development, this can be applied to each domestic sector of an economy. The objective of this paper is to measure technical efficiency of the Iranian Post Company across the country’s provinces using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The ranking of technical efficiency has been calculated by using collected data on post offi...

This Paper describes a procedure for constructing theory restricted prior distributions for BVAR models. The Bayes Factor, which is obtained without any additional computational effort, can be used to assess the plausibility of the restrictions imposed on the VAR parameter vector by competing DSGE models. In other words, it is possible to rank the amount of abstraction implied by each DSGE mode...

We derive a closed form expression for the asymptotic distribution of the LIML estimator for the coefficients of both endogenous and exogenous variables in a partially identified linear structural equation. We extend previous results of Phillips (1989) and Choi and Phillips (1992) where the focus was on IV estimators. We show that partial failure of identification affects the LIML in that its m...

The paper suggests a CUSUM-type test for time-varying parameters in a recently proposed spatial autoregressive model for stock returns and derives its asymptotic null distribution as well as local power properties. As can be seen from Euro Stoxx 50 returns, a combination of spatial modelling and change point tests allows for superior risk forecasts in portfolio management. JEL Classification: C...

Canonical Correlation and Assortative Matching: A Remark In the context of the Beckerian theory of marriage, when men and women match on a singledimensional index that is the weighted sum of their respective multivariate attributes, many papers in the literature have used linear canonical correlation, and related techniques, in order to estimate these weights. We argue that this estimation tech...