Sequential numerical integration in nonlinear state space models for microeconometric panel data

This paper discusses the estimation of a class of nonlinear state space models including nonlinear panel data models with autoregressive error components. A health economics example illustrates the usefulness of such models. For the approximation of the likelihood function, nonlinear filtering algorithms developed in the time‐series literature are considered. Because of the relatively simple structure of these models, a straightforward algorithm based on sequential Gaussian quadrature is suggested. It performs very well both in the empirical application and a Monte Carlo study for ordered logit and binary probit models with an AR(1) error component. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Employment effects of the Football World Cup 1974 in Germany

This study demonstrates that the Football World Cup 1974 in Germany was not able to generate any medium to long-term employment effects that were significantly different from zero. It is the first work to examine the employment effects of Football World Cup tournaments. It is also the first work to undertake a multivariate analysis of the employment effects of a major sporting event outside of the USA. In addition, this study does not arbitrarily determine the time period for the potential positive effects of a major sporting event but instead examines several alternative periods. Furthermore, the study tests for method sensitivity by analysing the data set in parallel with the approaches used in the studies of sporting events in the USA as well as in a fourth modifying estimation approach. In contrast to the conclusions reached in comparable studies, the results are not regarded as a clear refutation of the positive effects of major sporting events.     

Consumer Information and Discrimination: Does the Internet Affect the Pricing of New Cars to Women and Minorities?

Using a large dataset of automobile transaction prices, we find that offline African-American and Hispanic consumers pay approximately 2% more than do other offline consumers; however, we can explain 65% of this price premium with differences in observable traits such as income, education, and search costs. Our estimates of unexplained race premia are smaller than previous estimates in the literature. Online, we find that minority buyers pay nearly the same prices as do whites controlling for consumers' income, education, and neighborhood characteristics. These results are consistent with the Internet facilitating information search and removing cues to a consumer's willingness to pay. Our results imply that the Internet is particularly beneficial to those whose characteristics disadvantage them in negotiating.     

Patent quality and incentives at the patent office

Patent examination is a problem of moral hazard followed by adverse selection: examiners must have incentives to exert effort, but also to truthfully reveal the evidence they find. I develop a theoretical model to study the design of incentives for examiners. The model can explain the puzzling compensation scheme in use at the U.S. patent office, where examiners are essentially rewarded for granting patents, as well as the variation in compensation schemes and patent quality across patent offices. It also has implications for the retention of examiners and for administrative patent review.     

Transferable Ageing Provisions in Individual Health Insurance Contracts

Abstract. We consider lifetime health insurance contracts in which ageing provisions are used to smooth the premium profile. The capital stock accumulated for each individual can be decomposed into two parts: a premium insurance and an annuitized life insurance, only the latter being transferable between insurers without triggering premium changes through risk segmentation. In a simulation based on German data, the transferable share declines in age and falls with an increasing age of entry into the contract. In spite of different benefit profiles, it is almost identical for women and men.     

Changing Vertical Integration Strategies under Pressure from Foreign Competition: The Case of US and German Multinationals

This study contributes to the emerging body of research into the influence of foreign competition on firm scope. Industrial organization economics, the resource-based view of the firm, and transaction cost economics consistently predict vertical de-integration in the face of intensifying pressure from imports and foreign direct investment. We show this was the case for 407 US firms between 1987 and 2003. Results for a panel of 95 German firms reveal a similar reaction to pressure from an increase in imports, but show no reaction to increased exposure to incoming foreign direct investment during the same time frame.     

Can Socialism Use Markets?

In Economic Affairs, January-March 1985, the Editor invited socialist writers of varying kinds to debate the extent to which markets are workable under socialism or capitalism. Two British commentators - the Political Editor of the New Statesman, and a Fellow of Ruskin College, Oxford - and the President of the Hungarian Economics Association discuss the compatibility of choice in the market with state.     

Die Messung des technischen Fortschritts innerhalb des gesamtwirtschaftlichen Wachstumsprozesses

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit 6 TextabbildungenSchluß aus Band XXV, Heft 1–2