Quantifying Price Liberalization in Russia

We seek to quantify the success of Russia's attempt to achieve price-liberalization initiatives as part of the reforms established under the Big Bang of January 1992. We do so by studying the time-series behavior of commodity prices between 1992–1995 and focusing on the relationship between the behavior of prices of similar goods within and across cities. We supplement this analysis by examining city-level surveys that seek to quantify the extent to which firms are currently able to set and adjust commodity prices in accordance with market conditions. Our evidence suggests that price liberalization gradually gained momentum following the Big Bang and that prices generally reflected market conditions by the first quarter of 1995. However, regional pockets of resistance to price-reform efforts continue to persist, indicating that Russia has yet to achieve full market integration.J. Comp. Econom.,December 1998, 26(4), pp. 735–760. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260.     

A Survey of Textbooks for Industrial Organization and Public Policy

All teachers of economics will be interested in the author's dissection of the industrial organization course into its components. Teachers of this specialty will find this survey particularly useful for its examination of how the major texts treat each of the components.     

The Effect of Respondent Experience/Knowledge in the Elicitation of Contingent Values: An Investigation of Convergent Validity,Procedural Invariance and Reliability

Tests of convergent validity and procedural invariance were used to investigate whether individuals lacking direct experience with a commodity can provide valid responses to contingent-valuation questions eliciting ex post use values. Convergent validity between samples with and without experience was shown to hold for dichotomous-choice responses, but not for open-ended responses.     

The Endogeneity Problem in Applied Fisheries Econometrics: A Critical Review

Environmental and Resource Economics - The purpose of this essay is to bring attention to some serious problems that exist in econometric application of fisheries economic models. These problems in...     

The financial implications of ACOs for providers

To prepare for a future in which more and more patients will receive care in ambulatory settings, and acute care service capacity will likely need to be considerably downsized, hospitals should pursue five near-term strategies: Convert primary care practices to medical homes, Develop the IT capabilities required to manage and report on clinical and financial processes and outcomes, Integrate the clinical and financial interests with those of their physicians in improving value, Reduce cost per episode of care through bundled payment initiatives, Nurture key relationships with other providers.     

Understanding forecast failure of ESTAR models of real exchange rates

The forecast performance of the empirical ESTAR model of Taylor et al. (2001) is examined for 4 bilateral real exchange rate series over an out-of-sample evaluation period of nearly 12?years. Point as well as density forecasts are constructed, considering forecast horizons of 1 to 22 steps head. The study finds that no forecast gains over a simple AR(1) specification exist at any of the forecast horizons that are considered, regardless of whether point or density forecasts are utilised in the evaluation. Non-parametric methods are used in conjunction with simulation techniques to learn about the models and their forecasts. It is shown graphically that the nonlinearity in the conditional means (or point forecasts) of the ESTAR model decreases as the forecast horizon increases. The non-parametric methods show also that the multiple steps ahead forecast densities are normal looking with no signs of bi-modality, skewness or kurtosis.     

Tests of Hypotheses Arising In the Correlated Random Coefficient Model

This paper examines the correlated random coefficient model. It extends the analysis of Swamy (1971), who pioneered the uncorrelated random coefficient model in economics. We develop the properties of the correlated random coefficient model and derive a new representation of the variance of the instrumental variable estimator for that model. We develop tests of the validity of the correlated random coefficient model against the null hypothesis of the uncorrelated random coefficient model.