Identification and nonparametric estimation of a transformed additively separable model

Let r(x,z)$r(x,z)$ be a function that, along with its derivatives, can be consistently estimated nonparametrically. This paper discusses the identification and consistent estimation of the unknown functions H$H$, M$M$, G$G$ and F$F$, where r(x,z)=H[M(x,z)]$r(x,z)=H\left[M(x,z)\right]$, M(x,z)=G(x)+F(z)$M(x,z)=G\left(x\right)+F\left(z\right)$, and H$H$ is strictly monotonic. An estimation algorithm is proposed for each of the model’s unknown components when r(x,z)$r(x,z)$ represents a conditional mean function. The resulting estimators use marginal integration to separate the components G$G$ and F$F$. Our estimators are shown to have a limiting Normal distribution with a faster rate of convergence than unrestricted nonparametric alternatives. Their small sample performance is studied in a Monte Carlo experiment. We apply our results to estimate generalized homothetic production functions for four industries in the Chinese economy.     

Management control systems in inter-agency collaboration: a case study

This paper explores the nature of management control systems in an inter-agency collaborative arrangement. A Western Australian case study (the PECN project) highlights strategies for successfully providing services to people with highly complex needs, which could not be achieved by siloed attempts by individual agencies. This paper makes a significant contribution by providing evidence on multiple control systems which combine both horizontal and vertical controls to achieve better outcomes. The authors found strong evidence of trust-based relationships among the agencies which appeared to have a positive effect on inter-agency working.     

The Impact of American Politics on Perceptions of Women's Golfing Abilities

We examine the relationship between political environments and perceptions of women's physical abilities. Using a sample of 496 golf courses located in the United States, we find a significant relationship between state political affiliations, ratings of senators and congressional representatives on a liberal to conservative continuum, and perceptions of gendered physical abilities. Institutional theory is presented as an explanation for the regional variation in perceptions of women's golfing abilities. Implications and results are discussed. Suggestions for further research are presented.     

Measuring technological change: Aircraft turbine engines

Recent Rand research indicates that improved estimates of costs and schedules might be obtainable for the development and procurement phases of the system acquisition cycle if techniques were available to assess the technological advance being sought. This report describes the development and testing of such a technique using the technology of aircraft turbine engines as an example. The measure of technological advance developed in this study is intended to capture mainstream trends. It is not able to identify fine differences among turbine engines or to distinguish small differences in contractor proposals. It is intended to provide a broader understanding of the technological advance being sought in an engine development program and to provide information for use in making decisions concerning development policy. Multiple regression analysis is used to estimate a multidimensional tradeoff surface of the parameters characterizing engine technology and to trace out the movement of the tradeoff surface over time. The equation with the best statistical properties contained parameters thought to be important in turbine engine development and had coefficients consistent with a priori notions of technological change.The data base included the first model of a given turbine engine to pass the Model Qualification Test required of all American production engine types of the past 30 years. Examination of the history of turbine engine progress suggests very strongly that single parameter analysis cannot capture the richness of the development process. The data were divided into a number of subsamples covering various time periods to test whether the shape of the tradeoff surface changed over time. When divided into equal halves, the subsamples were indistinguishable. Divided by thirds, the most recent period showed a slight increase in the rate of technological advance, but the increase was barely significant statistically. In nine out of ten cases, the rate of increase of technology of growth versions of engines was less than the average trend of technology for new engines. This result indicates that when design features are frozen in hardware, technology growth cannot take full advantage of newly developed techniques.     

On designing economic agents that behave like human agents

This paper explores the idea of constructing theoretical economic agents that behave like actual human agents and using them in neoclassical economic models. It does this in a repeated-choice setting by postulating artificial agents who use a learning algorithm calibrated against human learning data from psychological experiments. The resulting calibrated algorithm appears to replicate human learning behavior to a high degree and reproduces several stylized facts of learning. It can therefore be used to replace the idealized, perfectly rational agents in appropriate neoclassical models with calibrated agents that represent actual human behavior. The paper discusses the possibilities of using the algorithm to represent human learning in normal-form stage games and in more general neoclassical models in economics. It explores the likelihood of convergence to long-run optimality and to Nash behavior, and the characteristic learning time implicit in human adaptation in the economy.