Weighting income ranks and levels: A Multiple-Parameter Generalization For Absolute and Relative Inequality Indices

This paper gives a general expression for a multiple parameter index of absolute or relative inequality and indicates that the indices suggested by Atkinson, Kolm and Gini are particular cases of the proposed generalized index.     

A simple proof of Blackwell's “comparison of experiments” theorem

This note presents a simple proof of Blackwell's well-known theorem on the equivalence of two orderings of experiments, one based on the statistical concept of sufficiency, and the other on the economic concept of the value to the decision makers.     

Abstracts

Quality & Quantity -     

Rawlsian pricing of access to public facilities: A unidimensional illustration

We consider a setting where citizens using a public facility face an idiosyncratic private access cost and must also contribute to the costs of facility. We show that if the population is uniformly spread over the real line, the cost of a facility is independent of location and access costs are linear in distance, the Rawlsian access pricing is the unique cost sharing solution that satisfies the “core property” of secession-proofness. The latter amounts to the voluntary participation principle under which no group of citizens should be charged more than the cost incurred if it had acted on its own.     

Optimal search auctions

We study the design of profit maximizing single unit auctions under the assumption that the seller needs to incur costs to contact prospective bidders and inform them about the auction. With independent bidders’ types and possibly interdependent valuations, the seller's problem can be reduced to a search problem in which the surplus is measured in terms of virtual utilities minus search costs. Compared to the socially efficient mechanism, the optimal mechanism features fewer participants, longer search conditional on the same set of participants, and inefficient sequence of entry.     

Fixed price equilibria in an overlapping generations model with investment

We study fixed price temporary equilibria (with rationing) and sequences of temporary equilibria in a three commodities (goods, labor, bonds) overlapping generations model with endogenous investment. Young consumers, living two periods, work, consume, and buy bonds for financing next period's consumption. New firms, existing for two periods, make a production plan for the next period, taking into account expected rationing, assumed similar to present rationing. The plan determines the amount of goods to buy as capital, financed by bonds. Old firms produce, using labor and the previously bought capital. Different regimes exist and expectations can be self-fulfilling and self-destroying.We are grateful to the referees for helpful comments.     

Tests und Konfidenzintervalle für exponentielle Verteilungen und deren Anwendung auf einige diskrete Verteilungen

Zusammenfassung Es werden Verteilungen betrachtet, die (bezüglich irgendeines Ma?es) eine Dichte der GestaltC(ϑ) exp [ϑ x] besitzen. Für solche Verteilungen werden (ein- und zweiseitige) Tests und Konfidenzintervalle mit gewissen Optimalit?tseigenschaften entwickelt, und zwar fürϑ, für die Differenzϑ ₁ −ϑ ₂, sowie für einige Versionen desk-Stichproben Problems. Sodann werden einige Hilfss?tze über den bedingten Erwartungswert und die bedingte Varianz von zweiparametrigen Verteilungen abgeleitet, die bezüglich des einen Parameters reproduktiv sind und eine bezüglich des zweiten Parameters ersch?pfende und vollst?ndige Funktion besitzen. Schlie?lich werden die allgemeinen Ergebnisse auf einige diskrete Verteilungen (Binomial, Poisson, negativ Binomial, Pascal) angewendet und der Zusammenhang mit verschiedenen bekannten Tests diskutiert.

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Summary Probability distributions are considered which (with respect to any measure) possess a density function of the typeC(ϑ) exp [ϑ x]. For distributions of this type (one and twosided) tests and confidence intervals with some optimal properties are given, namely forϑ, for the differenceϑ ₁ −ϑ ₂, and for several versions of thek-sample problem. Furthermore, some lemmas concerning the conditional expectation and the conditional variance are proved for two-parameter families of distributions which are reproductive in one parameter and possess a complete statistic, sufficient for the second parameter. Finally the general results are applied to some discrete distributions (binomial, Poisson, negative binomial, Pascal) and the relationship to several fairly known tests is discussed.