Estimating the factors determining the demand for induced abortions among married women in Taiwan

This paper purports to estimate the characteristics of women who had experiences of abortion in 1991 based on an economic model of fertility. The study makes use of a national survey on the knowledge of, attitude towards, and practice of family planning and reproductive health among married women in Taiwan. The results show that older women with higher family income and who live in urban areas were more likely to have the pregnancy terminated. In addition, the decision to have an abortion was negatively correlated with prior pregnancy loss, but positively associated with the number of previous live births. On the other hand, the availability of abortion services as measured by the number of legal abortion providers at city and county levels had a negative effect on the demand for abortions. The local female unemployment rate was found to be positively correlated with the woman's decision to have an abortion.     

旅游需求函数的研究

由于旅游区价格具有一定的刚性和稳定性，采用直接观察法不易得出旅游需求函数。文章通过对旅行成本法的研究，首次提出试用旅游复合成本的变化来替代旅游区价格的变化，综合考虑收入、时间的机会成本等因素，使用出游率和旅游复合成本2个指标，建立旅游需求函数，揭示旅游需求规律，探索出一种简易可行计算旅游需求函数的方法。     

DO PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT LAWS REDUCE ADOLESCENT ABORTION RATES?

This study assesses the impact of parental involvement laws on adolescent abortion rates and pregnancy rates. The analysis estimates abortion rate and pregnancy rate models using state-level data pooled over time for adolescents aged 15–17 compared to older teens aged 18–19 and adults aged 20–44. The results indicate that parental involvement laws reduce adolescent abortion rates and may, to a lessor degree, reduce adolescent pregnancy rates. Thus, the findings imply that enforcement of parental involvement laws will increase adolescent fertility rates.     

A Modest Proposal for a Two‐Sided Market Clearing Institution under Asymmetric Supply Constraints with Skewed Pricing: The Market for Adoption and Abortion in the United States

This paper presents a theoretical model matching the potential supply of terminated pregnancies with the total demand for children within certain modeling constraints. First, the demand and supply of pregnancies should be studied within the theoretical framework of a market with economic incentives. Second, a theoretical model for the demand for abortion must incorporate the total market for children, which implies the market for pregnancy, abortion, and adoption. Third, there exist in the overall market for procreative goods and services certain unique characteristics that need to be carefully considered. Producers and suppliers within the procreative goods and services market have radically different price and cost elasticity functions and unique production asymmetries that create a potential net benefit for buyer and seller alike. The market for abortion and adoption, while seemingly related and similar, suffer from a fundamental disconnect, preventing a simple exchange of goods and services: abortion implies potential supply that does not flow to potential consumersthose seeking to adopt. Studying this market inefficiency will benefit from a two‐sided market analysis used in situations where an intermediary business must attract both producers and suppliers. There are two key findings. First, I find that the producer decision to supply the good depends primarily on exogenous preference formation and not on consumer‐provided incentives. Second, I find that the market would benefit from legal framework for a market clearing institution using the market for real estate as the blueprint.     

EFFECTS OF PRICE AND AVAILABILITY ON ABORTION DEMAND

Over 1.5 million legal abortions were performed in the United States in 1988. State-level regulation affecting the price or availability of abortion services may expand given recent Supreme Court decisions. This paper uses state-level data pooled over time to estimate abortion demand. Using single cross-sections of state data, past studies find abortion demand per 1,000 pregnancies to be price inelastic and find income elasticity to be positive and significant. The analysis here shows that price elasticity estimates in a single cross-section are sensitive to the choice of state characteristics used to control for "abortion attitudes" within a state. Ajixed-efects model design with pooled data gives more robust abortion demand price elasticity estimates. The results suggest that any new state regulations that increase the costs of obtaining abortions will reduce abortion use and increase unintended fertility .     

旅行社价格战的博弈分析

旅行社是旅游产品设计、组织和销售的渠道商以及消费者之间的桥梁.旅行社对旅游业具有重要影响，旅行社之间的价格竞争日益严重，盈利率低。随着我国加入世贸组织，越来越多的外国旅行社进入我国、针对我国旅行社如何走出困境，本文从博弈角度分析旅行社的价格竞争及其对策。     

The effects of preferred provider organizations on costs and utilization of hysterectomy

In this study, the costs and service utilization of preferred provider organizations (PPOs) were compared against traditional indemnity plans with similar benefits and utilization review for hysterectomy, a potentially overused procedure. PPOs were associated with significant cost savings, achieved primarily through lower utilization rates.     

Intertemporal data and travel cost analysis

This paper considers the use of multi-year data in travel cost analysis. To exploit the information embedded within intertemporal data, two broad approaches are examined: multiple year cross sections and panel models. Multiple year cross sections can be used to detect trends, and to test for stability of behavior. Panel models can be used to control for unobservable factors that are individual specific. Unfortunately, the low intertemporal variability of travel cost data sets weakens the power of panel estimators. Using aggregate data from the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the stability of demand processes over the 1980–1986 period is investigated, as well as the problems inherent in using panel estimators in travel cost analysis.     

Still waiting for Mister Right? Asymmetric information,abortion laws and the timing of marriage

Previous studies have suggested that more liberal abortion laws should lead to a decrease in marriage rates among young women as ‘shotgun weddings’ are no longer necessary. Empirical evidence from the United States lends support to that hypothesis. This article presents an alternative theory of abortion access and marriage based on the cost of search which suggests that more liberal abortion laws may actually promote young marriage. An empirical examination of marriage data from Eastern Europe shows that countries that liberalized their abortion laws saw an increase in marriage rates among nonteenage women.     

Inter-factor Substitution,economies of scale and technical change: Evidence from Canadian industries

This paper explores the causes of inter-temporal variations in factor intensities and total factor productivity (TFP) in Canadian industries. For this purpose, we estimated translog cost function at the sector level allowing for non-homotheticity and non-neutral technical progress. Our empirical results suggest that about 15 to 20 per cent of the post-1973 slowdown in TFP is due to the inter-industry shifts in factor inputs. The remaining productivity slowdown could be attributed to the world wide slowdown in aggregate demand (lower capacity utilization rates) and the substantial increase in the relative price of energy and raw materials.     

Determinants of International Trade Flows in Travel and Passenger Services*

In the past decade there has been a great increase in interest in trade in services. This paper estimates the determinants of trade flows for two service industries, travel and passenger transportation services, for 16 OECD countries Traditional and more recent models of import demand and demand for export functions are utilized The empirical results indicate similarity between trade in goods and trade in services. Price competitiveness is an important factor in determining the trade flows in travel services and like trade in manufactured goods, exchange rate variations have some influence on the volume of travel and passenger transportation services     

What is a farecard worth?

In this paper wer use the duality approach to demand theory to evaluate the value to a consumer of a farecard which allows travel at zero marginal pecuniary cost. The analysis is extended to networks with two modes of travel (bus and underground).Illustrative figures are calculated for farecards on the London Transport network.     

Regulating prices for shifting between service providers

The price that a regulated access provider charges for shifting customers between service providers has significant welfare implications. Typical regulatory approaches to pricing, such as pricing based on fully allocated cost or incremental cost, ignore the characteristics of consumer demand. A theoretical alternative, Ramsey pricing, considers only the elasticity of demand for given products. This paper directs attention to the competitive process. Using US long-distance telephone services as an example, this paper shows how empirical evidence concerning customer acquisition costs, customer switching costs, and churn among service providers can help to inform price regulation.     

Peak load pricing under periodic and stochastic supply

The paper extends to the supply side previous work on peak load pricing embodying periodic and stochastic variations in demand. In a first step it introduces into the problem of periodic demand the additional problem of periodic capacity availability. Then it considers the general case where stochastic fluctuations enter both the demand and capacity availability sides. Welfare-maximising results suggest that off-peak consumers should be charged with capacity costs according to the loss-of-load probability in any period. This probability depends on periodic and random fluctuations in capacity availability. The optimal level of capacity is also affected by such fluctuations.     

Measures of capacity utilization and its determinants: a study of Indian manufacturing

We estimate Capacity Utilization (CU) rates in for selected industries in Indian manufacturing for the 20-year period 1976–1996. We estimate a generalized Leontief variable cost function, with capital as a quasi fixed input, to derive our CU measures, using error-component techniques. We note substantial variations in CU both across industries and over time. In general, we find that CU rates were higher in the earlier time-period, dropped in the mid-80s and started rising again in the early 90s. CU rates in our analysis are sensitive to input prices with the sole exception of the price of labor. We also confirm the standard result that variations in demand are a significant driving force for variations in CU. We find that CU is positively related to the magnitude of labor intensity in production. This holds for both between-industries and within-industries. Empirical results also indicate that traditional measures of CU such as minimum capital output ratio and peak-to-peak are not appropriate proxies for the short-run decision making of the firm regarding CU. As compared to the estimates derived from the choice-theoretic framework, we find that the traditional measures exhibit substantial bias.     

Augmenting travel cost models with contingent behavior data

This paper proposes contingent behavior survey questions as a valuable supplement to observed data in travel cost models of non-market demand for recreational resources. A set of observed and contingent behavior results for each survey respondent allows the researcher to control for individual heterogeneity by taking advantage of panel data methods when exploring the nature of respondent demands. The contingent scenarios also provide opportunities to (a) test for differences between observed and contingent preferences and/or (b) assess likely demands under conditionsbeyond the domain of observed variation in costs or resource attributes. Most importantly, contingent scenarios allow the researcher to imposeexogenously varying travel costs. Exogenous imposition of travel costs together with panel methods reduces the omitted variables bias that plagues observed-data travel cost models of recreational demand. Using a convenience sample of data for illustrative purposes, we show how to estimate the demand for recreational angling by combining observed and contingent behavior data. We begin with simple naive pooled Poisson models and progress to more theoretically appropriate fixed effects panel Poisson specifications.The authors are at the University of Nevada and UCLA, respectively. We gratefully acknowledge the comments of both Scott Shonkwiler and participants in the W133 meetings in Santa Fe, New Mexico and for research material provided by Wayne Gray. The data were provided by Rang Narayanan. Research assistance was provided by Jerry McGraw and Natalie Tucker. Research partially supported by the Nevada Experiment Station. Any errors or omissions remain the authors' responsibility.     

Estimating the private benefits of vaccination against cholera in Beira, Mozambique: A travel cost approach

This paper reports the results of the first study that estimates households' private demand for cholera vaccines using the travel cost method. We take advantage of an unusual natural experiment. In January 2004, more than 41,000 residents from various locations in Beira, Mozambique received two doses of oral cholera vaccine free of charge during the first vaccination trial to test its effectiveness in an endemic cholera zone of Africa. About 30,000 people participated from outside the target zone, resulting in long queues and an average waiting time of about 85 min per dose.We estimated travel cost models of the revealed demand for cholera vaccines among households informed of the trial using information collected in in-person interviews conducted during the summer of 2005. To explore households' participation in the trial, we used standard and zero-inflated household count models for all household members and dichotomous choice models for the head of the household. Our analysis shows that the quantity of vaccines obtained by households and the likelihood of participation decreased as travel cost—in time and transport expenses—rose. Our best estimates of per capita willingness to pay for the two required doses of cholera vaccine are about 0.85 USD. These estimates are sensitive to the assumed value of time spent acquiring vaccines.     

Adolescent premarital childbearing: do economic incentives matter?

This paper develops and tests a three-stage nested logistic model of teenage childbearing that is influenced by economic incentives and costs created by US public policy. The modeling of teenage childbearing involves becoming pregnant, the choice to have an abortion or to bear the child, and the choice to bear the child premaritally or maritally. Data were obtained from a sample of 1718 Black and White women aged 14-16 years in 1979 from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. In 1990, the birth rate among unmarried youth was 29.5/1000 unmarried White women vs. 110.1/1000 unmarried Black women. In the sample, the pregnancy rate was 24% among White teenagers and 48% among Black teenagers. Miscarriages or stillbirths occurred among 11% of Whites and 12% of Blacks. Abortions were performed for 37% of Whites and 12% of Blacks. An incentive variable is the welfare guarantee. Cost variables include the cost of obtaining an abortion and the cost of obtaining contraceptive services and supplies. Access to family planning services is also accounted for in the model. Findings indicate that welfare, abortion, and family planning policy variables have a racially specific impact. For White teenagers, these variables have significant effects on pregnancy outcomes. For Black teenagers, the insignificance may reflect differences in sample size or important unmeasured racial differences in factors that influence fertility and marital behavior. The authors suggest that the rational choice perspective does not adequately explain premarital childbearing. It is also suggested that the specification of the variables on abortion, family planning, and adolescent sexual behavior may be fundamentally different and reflect differences in state attitudes and social customs. Only if the policy variables really change the costs of different pregnancy outcomes will changes in social policy change individual adolescent behavior. The authors state that focusing on only economic incentives did not rule out other influences on premarital childbearing.     

Comparing benefit estimates from travel cost and contingent valuation using confidence intervals for Hicksian welfare measures

An approach to determining whether benefit estimates derived from the travel cost method and contingent valuation method are statistically different is presented. Unlike past comparisons compensating variation is estimated for both methods. Benefit comparisons are made more rigorous by use of confidence intervals which are developed using the same Krinsky and Robb simulation technique for both valution mothods. The techniques are applied to deer hunting in California. While point estimates of benefits from both truncated and untruncated adjusted travel cost methods are lower than the contingent valuation method, the confidence intervals on the untruncated travel cost method do overlap the contingent valution method benefit estimates.