The impact of regional and sectoral labor market conditions on wages and labor supply — An empirical analysis for married women using West-German Panel data

In this paper we examine the effects of regional and industry specific labor market indicators on wages and labor supply of married females. Based on the standard life cycle labor supply theory we derive a two equation censored panel model and estimate it using the Minimum Distance Method.For our empirical analysis we use four waves (1984–1987) of West German Panel data merged with regional indicators and industry specific demand side indicators. We obtain the result that, unlike industry specific indicators, regional demand side conditions have virtually no significant effect on market wages but that a direct effect of regional labor market conditions on labour supply remains. We conclude that regional labor market conditions can directly constrain the individual labor supply decision.     

Alcohol content and demand for alcoholic beverages: A system approach

This paper examines how alcohol content affects the consumption of alcoholic beverages in Finland. Three different quality hypotheses are studied and compared: Fisher and Shell, Theil, and an additive one. The comparison of the hypotheses is based on quality elasticities implied by the hypotheses. The results show that, under all hypotheses, alcohol content positively affects the demand for alcoholic beverages, and this effect depends negatively on income. The results of the comparison of the hypotheses show that the additive fits the data best. However, the other hypotheses are almost as good: Fisher and Shell's hypothesis better than Theil's.I would like to thank K. Koskela, A. Nyberg, M. Salo, M. Stenius, and I. Suoniemi for their useful comments and suggestions. The author bears sole responsibility for any remaining errors.     

A family of inverse demand systems and choice of functional form

Barten's (1992) analysis of choice of functional form for quantity-dependent demand systems is extended to price-dependent or inverse demand systems. Alternative inverse demand systems combining the features of the Rotterdam inverse demand and almost ideal inverse demand systems are examined. Choice of functional form is made through a synthetic model which under appropriate restrictions yields the different inverse demand systems. The synthetic model itself can also be considered a more flexible specification.     

A factor analysis approach to measure the biased effects of retail fruit juice advertising

This study presents a structural factor analysis approach to measure the impact of advertising on consumer demand. It is assumed that advertising affects the latent perception of consumers, which in turn influences their purchasing behavior. This study investigates the relationship between consumer purchases and retail store advertising (i.e., newspaper advertising, in-store display, and point-of-purchase display) of three fruit juices using an extended Rotterdam model. The results show that the demand for orange juice and grapefruit juice was affected by their own advertising, while the demand for apple juice was only affected by advertising of competitive juices.The authors are a Senior Econometrician, TRS Risk Management, American Express Company; and a Research Economist, Florida Department of Citrus, and Adjunct Professor, Food and Resource Economics Department, University of Florida, respectively.The authors thank B. Dixon, A. Reynolds, S. Shonkwiler, H. Theil, K. Young, editor, and other anonymous reviewers for comments and suggestions. The usual disclaimer applies. This study was partially supported by the McKethan-Matherly Eminent Scholar Chair at the University of Florida.     

Price determination and dynamic adjustments: An inverse demand system approach to meat products in the United States

In this study the process of retail meat price determination is depicted in the form of an inverse demand system taking into consideration the dynamic adjustments present in monthly consumption data. The general dynamic framework identifies both long run and short run effects in a systematic manner and allows direct estimation of the long run price and scale flexibilities that are consistent with theory. The empirical application based on monthly U.S. meat products data provides reasonable and promising results.The authors are senior econometrician, Department of Risk Management, TRS, American Express Co., Phoenix, and assistant professor, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, respectively. The work was performed when the first author was an assistant research scientist at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Department of Economics, Iowa State University, Ames. Journal Paper No. J-15784 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. Project No. 3109.     

The combined estimator approach to model transferability and updating

The idea of transferability is to employ in model estimation, fitted model parameters computed from a different data set. Thecombined estimator approach to the transferability problem is expressed as a linear combination of the unbiased direct estimators on the two data sets. The major gain is in variance reduction. The combined estimator is shown to have superior accuracy, in a Mean Square Error sense, to a unbiased direct estimator whenever the transfer bias is relatively small. A test that indicates if the combined estimator is superior to the direct estimator is provided. Variances of the direct estimators are assumed to be known. Monte Carlo experiments are performed to assess the quality of the approximations. The results show that the approximations used are highly conservative. An empirical example of the combined estimator applied to a discrete choice problem is presented.     

Generalized entropy measures of long-run inequality and stability among male headed households

This paper provides measures of short and long-run inequalities as well as income stability among households with male heads using the panel study of income dynamics for the period 1969–1981. It is found that short-run inequalities have been increasing over the time period examined. Moreover, some fluctuations around this increasing trend are of a transitory nature and appear to be smooth over time. Long-run measures are less subject to fluctuations and provide a better measure of inequality. They show a decrease in inequality in the early periods but increases after the mid-1970's. Several aggregator functions are used to compute permanent income variables for the long-run measures of inequality and stability. The measures are decomposed to reflect differences in age, education, and race. They are decomposed also into groups which are free of such group characteristics. Education has the most important influence on inequality. Stability profiles indicate, furthermore, most of the reduction in inequality in the early periods has been within particular groups. Reductions across groups are minimal.Helpful comments from Esfandiar Maasoumi, Joseph Craycraft, Kenneth Koford and two referees are acknowledged. The usual caveat as to remaining errors applies.