A general approach to the evaluation of nonmarket goods

The paper considers the evaluation of a nonmarket good on the basis of a complete conditional demand system. It introduces two conditions allowing to identify a generally unique underlying preference ordering which can be employed for evaluation. The functional structure of the corresponding expenditure/indirect utility function and the demand system is described. The conditions proposed turn out to be equivalent to the property of base level independence in the equivalence scale literature. The approach is operational.     

A COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE MEASURES OF ECONOMIC WELL-BEING FOR GERMANY AND THE UNITED STATES

This paper, using six waves of data (1984-89) from the United States Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), compares economic well-being using single year income, multi-year income, and wealth as measures. We find inequality to be greater in the United States than in Germany regardless of the measure used. However, the relative degree of inequality varies across measures. When we disaggregate our data by age and gender categories, in general we find greater inequality in the United States, but wealth inequality among older Germans is greater than it is among older Americans.     

Firm size,firm age and job duration

Review of Industrial Organization - Using panel data for all manufacturing firms in the German Federal State of Lower Saxony in this paper the age distribution of jobs existing in 1992 is analyzed....     

Discrete choice modelling in airline network management

The task of airline network management is to develop new flight schedule variants and evaluate them in terms of expected passenger demand and revenue. Given the industry's trend towards global cooperation, this is especially important when evaluating the potential synergies with alliance partners. From the econometric point of view, this task represents a discrete choice modelling problem in which one has to account for a large number of dependent alternatives. In this paper we discuss the applicability of recently proposed approaches and introduce a new multinomial probit specification designed for the airline network management task. The superior performance of the new model is demonstrated in a real‐world application using airline bookings data. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exports,firm size,and firm dynamics

This paper explores the relationships between exports, firm size, and firm dynamics. It is based on a unique longitudinal data set collected at the establishment level, covering some 7000 manufacturing German firms. We present stylized facts on exports and firm size, showing that the probability that a firm is an exporter increases with firm size; however, there are many successful exporters among small firms, and non-exporters among larger firms, too, while most of the exports are from the top size groups of firms. An econometric study shows a picture that is consistent with theoretical considerations: The impact of firm size on exports is positive but decreasing, while human capital intensity, domestic market share, and advanced technology all have a positive influence on the export performance of a firm. Firm growth and export performance are positively related, as is expected from a model of a price-discriminating monopolist.     

Firm size,firm growth,and persistence of chance: Testing GIBRAT's law with establishment data from Lower Saxony, 1978–1989

Using data for some 7000 manufacturing establishments from Lower Saxony for 1978–1989 we tested for the validity of GIBRAT's Law of Proportionate Growth. We found that the law is only valid for very few groups of firms in some of the periods covered. However, we did not find that small firms grew systematically faster or slower than larger firms, or vice versa. On the other hand, we found persistence of chance in the sense that a firm grows faster if it happened to grow faster in the past, too.This paper is part of the research project Production, Employment Growth, and Exports by Lower Saxonian Firms. The computations based on the establishment level data from the official surveys of the manufacturing sector were made possible by a special arrangement between the Ministry of Economics, the Statistical Office, and the Labour Research Group at the Department of Economics, Hannover University. I am grateful to Uwe Rode for preparing the data base, to Wihelm Lorenz for writing a program that makes it possible to use these large data set on a PC, and to an unknown referee for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Firm Size and Job Quality: A Survey of the Evidence from Germany?

Small Business Economics - Small firms provide and create a large proportion of jobs in Germany. Are these jobs worse than jobs in larger firms? The mosaic picture that emerges from a review of...