Comparing the True Cost of Living Indices of Demographically Different Households

The comparison of true cost of living indices between demographically different households (relative equivalence scale) is argued to be sensitive to the way demographic characteristics enter demand analysis. In particular, parameters reflecting the cost of demographic characteristics at base prices, though themselves do not have welfare (equivalence scale) interpretation, can alter the benchmark from which demographically varying inflation effects are measured. The empirical analysis, based on a rank‐3 demand system applied to UK individual household data, shows that the inflation adjustment of child benefits can vary with the way demographic costs at base period prices are specified.     

Testing separability of public consumption in household decisions

In this paper we propose a sequential strategy, based on the microeconomic approach of the demand theory, in order to test for separability between private and public consumption. The aim of the present work is to verify, using a conditional almost ideal demand system, whether the different components of public consumption exert conditioning effects on the allocative structure of private spending. The empirical estimation of the model and the separability tests are developed for both a demand system in five functional categories of private spending, and for a demand system in six categories, where the private expenditures on those goods and services which can also be offered by the public sector are enclosed in a single functional category. The results of the separability tests, obtained using UK data for the 1974–2000 period, show that public individual consumption plays an important role in modifying consumer choices, while public collective consumption does not affect private consumption behaviours. The relationships between the different components of private spending and public individual consumption are both of substitutability and complementarity; in particular, we find that public individual consumption and the corresponding private expenditures on ‘Health, education, recreation and social protection’ are complements.     

有界灰数空间的完备性可分性与局部紧性

本文首先指出有界灰数对于四则运算不具备封闭性。证明了有界灰数所构成的空间(G(?),D)是可分的,局部紧的完备度量空间。     

The geometry of voting power: Weighted voting and hyper-ellipsoids

Suppose legislators represent districts of varying population, and their assembly's voting rule is intended to implement the principle of one person, one vote. How should legislators' voting weights appropriately reflect these population differences? An analysis requires an understanding of the relationship between voting weight and some measure of the influence that each legislator has over collective decisions. We provide three new characterizations of weighted voting that embody this relationship. Each is based on the intuition that winning coalitions should be close to one another. The locally minimal and tightly packed characterizations use a weighted Hamming metric. Ellipsoidal separability employs the Euclidean metric: a separating hyper-ellipsoid contains all winning coalitions, and omits losing ones. The ellipsoid's proportions, and the Hamming weights, reflect the ratio of voting weight to influence, measured as Penrose–Banzhaf voting power. In particular, the spherically separable rules are those for which voting powers can serve as voting weights.     

On Some Characteristics of Gaussian Covariance Functions

The concepts of isotropy/anisotropy and separability/non‐separability of a covariance function are strictly related. If a covariance function is separable, it cannot be isotropic or geometrically anisotropic, except for the Gaussian covariance function, which is the only model both separable and isotropic. In this paper, some interesting results concerning the Gaussian covariance model and its properties related to isotropy and separability are given, and moreover, some examples are provided. Finally, a discussion on asymmetric models, with Gaussian marginals, is furnished and the strictly positive definiteness condition is discussed.     

BOOK REVIEW

Tourism Planning and Development. By Charles Kaiser, Jr., and Larry E. Helber. Boston, CBI Publishing Co., 1978. Pp. x + 238, indexed. Hardcover, $13.50.

Essentials of Recreational Services. By Jay S. Shivers. Lea &; Febiger, Philadelphia, 1978. Pp. x + 348. Hardcover, $15.75.

The Process of Recreation Programming. By Patricia Farrell and Herberta M. Lundegren. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1978. Pp. xii + 313, index. Hardcover, $12.95.

YV88: An Eco‐Fiction of Tomorrow. By Christopher Swan and Chet Roaman. San Francisco, Sierra Club Books, 1977. 248 + viii, illustrated. Paperbound, $7.95.

Tourism Multipliers: The State of the Art. By Brian H. Archer. Bangor Occasional Papers in Economics (General Editor: Jack Revell), No. 11. Bangor: University of Wales Press, 1977. Pp. ix + 85.

A Good Age. By Alex Comfort. New York City, Simon and Schuster (Fireside Books), 1978. Pp. 224, indexed and illustrated. Paperbound, $5.95.     

Comparative Statics of Money-goods Specifications of the Utility Function

The introduction of real-cash balances into the neoclassical model of the consumer wrecks havoc, in general, on the empirically observable refutable comparative statics properties of the model. We provide the most general solution of this problem to date by deriving a symmetric and negative semidefinite generalized Slutsky matrix that is empirically observable and which contains all other such comparative statics results as a special case. In addition, we clarify and correct two aspects of Samuelson and Sato's (1984) treatment of this problem. Received March 9, 2001; revised version received September 3, 2001     

The Impact of Negativity on Separability Testing

During separability testing, it has not been common practice to verify if the data satisfy the negativity condition. The impacts of imposing negativity on separability test results are examined for two groups of commodities using Barten's generalized demand system and with Monte Carlo simulations. Results indicate that imposing negativity did not alter model estimates when negativity was spontaneously satisfied. Also, imposing negativity rarely altered separability test results when the data did not spontaneously satisfy negativity.     

An Empirical Assessment of Endogeneity Issues in Demand Analysis for Differentiated Products

This article explores the issue of price and expenditure endogeneity in empirical demand analysis. The analysis focuses on the U.S. carbonated soft drink market. We test the null hypothesis that price and expenditures are exogenous in the demand for carbonated soft drinks. Using an almost ideal demand system (AIDS) specification, we strongly reject exogeneity for both prices and expenditures. We find that accounting for price/expenditures endogeneity significantly impacts demand elasticity estimates. We also evaluate the implications of endogeneity issues for testing weak separability.     

Local versus Global Separability in Agricultural Household Models: The Factor Price Equalization Effect of Land Transfer Rights

Commonly employed global tests for separability between production and consumption decisions are theoretically inappropriate when the market failures creating non–separabilities differentially constrain some, but not all households. Simulated maximum likelihood estimates using Chinese panel data reject the restrictions implied by a global separability test in favor of regime–specific or local separability tests. The estimates also show that a global approach to separability obscures the significant effect that less–encumbered land transfer rights would have on shadow factor price equalization across households and allocative efficiency. The findings on transfer rights suggest a resolution to the debate in China on further property rights reform.