Allocative efficiency measurement revisited—Do we really need input prices?

The traditional approach to measuring allocative efficiency exploits input prices, which are rarely known at the firm level. This paper proves allocative efficiency can be measured as a profit-oriented distance to the frontier in a profit-technical efficiency space. This new approach does not require information on input prices. To validate the new approach, we perform a Monte-Carlo experiment providing evidence that the estimates of allocative efficiency employing the new and the traditional approach are highly correlated. Finally, as an illustration, we apply the new approach to a sample of about 900 enterprises from the chemical manufacturing industry in Germany.     

中国审计体制改革观点的比较与选择

国家审计体制改革必须遵循三方面的原则:改革应适应中国政治经济发展要求,改革应能提高审计的独立性,改革应具有现实可能性。用这些原则来衡量,尽管各种改革观点均有缺点,但立法论符合大部分原则的要求,可作为改革的目标模式。鉴于这一方法在可行性上在若干方面受到质疑,建议采用双轨制作为过渡模式。     

Rational inattention and revealed preference: The data-theoretic approach to economic modeling

Beliefs have as pervasive a role as utility functions in economic models of choice, and are no more visible to the naked eye. This suggests the value of a data-theoretic approach to imperfect information along the lines of Samuelson's “revealed preference” approach to utility maximization. I introduce a recently developed approach of this nature (Caplin and Martin, 2013a, Caplin and Dean, 2013a, Caplin and Dean, 2013b). I highlight the broader potential of the data-theoretic approach to answer questions of an inter-disciplinary nature and to discipline an oncoming flood of behaviorally-relevant data.     

A Syntactic Approach to Knowledge in Finite Games of Perfect Information

In this paper I present a syntactic approach to modeling the interactive knowledge of rationality in finite games of perfect information. This approach allows for a more transparent interpretation. In particular, we have the intuitive picture of viewing knowledge as the input and decisions as the output of a player’s deliberation. This distinction is blurred in the semantic state-space approach.     

A systems approach to the relationship between consumption and wealth

The single-equation approach to the determination of consumption, due to Hendry and von Ungern-Sternberg (HUS), is extended to a multi-equation system which links decisions on consumption and the components of wealth. The original HUS approach has proved to be a very durable one, being applicable to a number of countries and macroeconomic models. This approach is extended to allow a role for rates of return as well as income, and it is shown how this extension results in an error correction system. The empirical analysis used is based on Johansen's maximum likelihood extension of the co-integration approach of Engle and Granger.     

On Estimating the Size of the Shadow Economy

As long as it is employed cautiously enough, the model approach is a useful tool to estimate simultaneously the size and the development of the shadow economy in several countries. However, a second method is necessary to calibrate the model. The currency demand approach can lead to highly implausible results; the size of the shadow economy might be largely overestimated. An alternative is the survey method. For real tests of whether a variable has an impact, procedures are necessary that do not use the same variables as those used to construct the indicator. Thus, to make progress in analysing the shadow economy, the model approach has a role to play, but it has to be complemented by other methods employing different data. The currency demand approach cannot be used as long as it employs the same variables for its constructions.     

MONETARISM AND THE USE OF MARKET PRICES AS MONETARY POLICY INDICATORS

Recently proposed strategies for employing market price indicators as guides to monetary policy embody many key propositions of monetarism. Moreover, market price advocates' prescribed policy instruments and operating procedures for conducting monetary policy are not inconsistent with a monetarist perspective and fully incorporate the incentive structure of the money creation process. The market price approach differs from monetarism in three key areas: the data employed to measure intermediate indicators, the environments in which the approach works, and the policy role of the dollar. More specifically, the market price approach employs data that are readily available in unrevised form and that make better use of limited information than do monetary or reserve data. The approach produces the same results as does a monetarist approach when money demand is stable, and it produces monetarists' desired stable price results when money demand is unstable. Finally, the approach embodies a policy role for the U.S. dollar and (implicitly) recognizes the policy implications of the dollar as a reserve currency.     

Alternative econometric approaches for studying the link between economic systems and economic outcomes

Econometric studies on the link between economic systems and economic outcomes have relied on two approaches. In the forecasting approach an estimated relationship for Western countries is used to generate hypothetical outcomes for Eastern countries, which are then compared to actual outcomes. In the dummy-variable approach a single relationship is estimated for Eastern and Western countries, using dummy variables to test for differences in Eastern and Western performance. The forecasting approach is shown as flawed; a more complete version of the dummy-variable approach is shown as far superior. A study of energy consumption in some Eastern and Western countries illustrates these approaches.     

Monopoly Power and Stagflation

Post Keynesian economists have followed Joan Robinson's criticism of general equilibrium theory as abolishing history by allowing all contracts to be executed today for all future contingencies. This was the justification for the support of financial innovation to provide for the completeness of futures markets. The recent crisis has shown that force of history. Instead, many evolutionary and Keynesian economists have suggested the approach of cumulative causation as an approach that includes history and eschews equilibrium. This approach may provide a way to take history seriously in economic analysis.     

Expenditure on children: A Rothbarth-type method consistent with scale economies and parents' bargaining

We suggest a new methodology to estimate the share of household income accruing to children. The household behavior is represented according to the collective approach. That is, each household member is characterized by specific preferences. Following the principle of the Rothbarth approach, the identification of the children's share requires the observation of adult-specific goods. Our method differs from this traditional approach in that it is compatible with economies of scale as well as with parents' bargaining. We illustrate the method with an application to the French Household Budget Survey.     

Breaking with the Notion of Social Contract: Constitutions as Based on Spontaneously Arisen Institutions

The newly emerging subdiscipline of constitutional economics is dominated by adherents to social contract theory although this approach has been severely criticized many a time. In recent years, an alternative approach in which constitutions are conceptualized as conventions has emerged. It is argued here that this alternative approach is a step in the right direction but still does not go far enough. The central hypothesis of the paper is that conceptualizing constitutions as based on spontaneously arisen institutions can help to solve some of the problems left unanswered by the constitutions-as-conventions view.     

Optimal Weights in a Check-List of Monetary Indicators*

A stylized representation of the check-list approach to monetary policy is developed. In order to examine this approach in a formal framework the literature on optimal money supply rules is extended with the check-list being interpreted as an optimal money supply rule that depends on many variables and attempts to keep the economy on a preplanned path despite unexpected shocks. The strengths and weaknesses of the check-list approach are then examined     

A new approach to modeling waste in physical input-output analysis

It is important to treat waste properly in physical input-output analysis and a series of publications discussed this topic in this journal recently. In this paper, we propose a new approach to deal with physical input-output table (PIOT) measured in a single mass unit, by which the structure of PIOT need not be changed. The new approach yields consistent and reasonable results. It not only is simpler than the existing approaches but also can reflect the physical reality of economic systems. We first discuss and clarify the concept of different kinds of inputs and outputs of economic systems. We then present the details of the new approach. During the process we define a new multiplier, which builds a bridge between the total input and the final demand in PIOT, just like the traditional Leontief inverse in MIOT. We select the three-sector PIOT for Germany 1990 as a case study to show the validity of the new approach. Finally, we prove the equivalence between the new approach, Suh's approach and Dietzenbacher's approach and the equivalence of non-waste part and waste part multiplier of the new approach and Dietzenbacher's approach.     

DEVELOPMENT AS EMPOWERMENT

Amartya Sen's capability approach to human welfare recognizes the impact of social institutions on human capabilities. But as an evaluative framework, it does not analyze the role of institutionalized power in causing or perpetuating inequalities in individual opportunities to achieve. Drawing on authors who are receptive to the capability approach and who have examined the political aspects of advancing human capabilities, this paper presents a view of social power and its exercise that is congruent with the capability approach. This examination of power continues the exploration of intergroup relationships that Sen has advocated, and it can be expected to yield new criteria for policy evaluation as well as new policy options.     

Quantifying nontariff barriers in Ukraine: a comprehensive trade cost approach

Great strides have been made recently in the theoretical approach to quantifying nontariff barriers. Modifying an approach proposed by Novy (2013), this article attempts to understand the extent of nontariff barriers between Ukraine and its major trading partners in goods by fashioning a new approach to trade in services as well. I provide the first comprehensive estimates of ad valorem equivalents of the nontariff measures that exist in Ukraine.     

An Intersection-based Approach to Genericity Analysis for the Equilibrium Set, with an Application to the Lindahl Equilibrium

A simple and systematic approach to characterizing the equilibrium set so as to facilitate genericity analysis is presented. The basic idea is to describe the equilibrium set as the intersection of two sets (manifolds), each of which is respectively dependent on each element of the economy parameters. After an expository introduction containing an application of the approach to the standard Walras equilibrium, we investigate some generic properties of the Lindahl equilibrium set under very weak conditions. The approach is also seen to reveal the relation between the benefit principle and the determinacy of the Lindahl equilibrium.
JEL Classification Numbers: D50, H41.     

Welfare economics and bounded rationality: the case for model-based approaches

In this paper, we examine the problems facing a policy maker who observes inconsistent choices made by agents who are boundedly rational. We contrast a model-less and a model-based approach to welfare economics. We make the case for the model-based approach and examine its advantages as well as some problematic issues associated with it.     

Optimal Provision of Public Goods: A Synthesis*

The standard approach to the optimal provision of public goods highlights the importance of distortionary taxation and distributional concerns. A new approach neutralizes distributional concerns by adjusting the income tax schedule. We demonstrate that both approaches are derived from the same basic formula. We also take the new approach further by deriving an intuitive formula for the optimal level of public goods, without imposing strong assumptions on preferences. This formula shows that distortionary taxation has a role to play, as in the standard approach. However, the main determinants of optimal provision are different, and the modified Samuelson rule is likely to lead to underprovision.     

Ingmar Prucha’s contributions to economics and econometrics

We study the link between two recent approaches to modeling emission-generating technologies: the by-production approach and the axiomatic approach. The by-production approach models these technologies as intersections of two independent sub-technologies reflecting (1) the relations between goods in intended-output production designed by human engineers and (2) the emission-generating mechanism of nature governed by material-balance considerations. The axiomatic approach proposes a set of axioms that a pollution-generating technology should satisfy. We show that the by-production technology satisfies these axioms and that, conversely, any technology satisfying the axioms can be decomposed into two sub-technologies satisfying the by-production properties. In either approach, the technology can be functionally represented by two radial distance functions with well-defined properties. These distance functions can also serve as measures of technological and environmental efficiency. We exploit the link between the by-production and axiomatic approaches to offer preliminary suggestions about suitable functional forms for the empirical estimation of the two distance functions.