TIME VS. GOODS: THE VALUE OF MEASURING HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES

We take U.S. and Israeli household data on expenditures of time and goods, generate an exhaustive set of commodities that households produce/consume using them, and calculate their relative goods intensities. Leisure activities are uniformly relatively time intensive, health, travel and lodging relatively goods intensive. We demonstrate how education and age alter the goods intensity of household production. The results of this accounting can be used as guides to: understanding how goods and income taxation interact to affect welfare; expanding notions of the determinants of international flows of goods; generating models of business cycles and endogenous growth to include interactions of goods and time consumption; and obtaining better measures of the distribution of well being.     

Technological Change and the Production of Ocean Shipping Services

This paper presents results for the estimation of a translog variable profit function for the subsidized U.S. liner shipping industry. In a study of fifteen firms for the period from 1971 through 1982, the estimation results for a translog variable profit function indicate an industry characterized by input-saving technological changes in the cargo-handling input and important scale economies that increase in extent over the period. At the beginning of the period, the U.S. liner shipping industry included fifteen subsidized firms and several unsubsidized firms. At this writing, four subsizied firms and one unsubsidized firm remain. The technological changes examined here and the diffusion of that technology throughout the international shipping industry are major factors in explaining that dramatic restructuring.     

A note on principal components and morse theorem

We consider a real random vector X with cumulant generating function ψ_X, non-singular covariance matrix and zero expectation and prove that a principal component transformation of X is the Jacobian at the origin of a Morse-transformation for ψ_X. Subsequently, a similar result is stated removing the nondegeneracy assumption. Finally, we discuss the possibility to apply our results in a statistical framework.

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Riassunto Si considera un vettore aleatorio a valori reali X con funzione generatrice dei cumulanti ψ_X, matrice di varianza-covarianza non singolare e valore atteso nullo e si dimostra che una trasformazione delle componenti principali di X è lo jacobiano nell'origine di una trasformazione di Morse per ψ_X. Successivamente un risultato simile viene stabilito rimuovendo l'assunzione di non singolarità. Infine si discute la possibilità di applicare il nostro risultato in ambito statistico.

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Partially supported by M.U.R.S.T.     

Entrepreneurship and competitiveness dynamics in Latin America

This study analyses the relationship between entrepreneurial dynamics and the level of competitiveness in Latin American countries. Based on a stage of economic development model, we demonstrate that Latin American countries under the model followed different paths related to competitiveness. These different paths can explain the effect of specific competitiveness conditions on entrepreneurial dynamics in Latin America.

Do Global Trade Distortions Still Harm Developing Country Farmers?

We estimate the impact of global merchandise trade distortions and services regulations on agricultural value added in various countries. Using the latest versions of the GTAP database and the GTAP-AGR model of the global economy, our results suggest real net farm incomes would rise in developing countries with a move to free trade, thereby alleviating rural poverty—despite a terms of trade deterioration for some developing countries that are net food importers or are enjoying preferential access to agricultural markets of high-income countries. We also show, for several large developing countries, the contribution of their own versus other countries’ trade policies. JEL no. C68, D58, F17, Q17     

Freedom of Choice in the Production Sphere: The Capitalist and the Self-managed Firm

A formula for measuring freedom of choice in the production sphere is proposed. Then a capitalist firm and a worker self-managed firm are compared in terms of freedom distribution. It is shown that the workers have little freedom, if any at all, in a capitalist firm, whilst the capitalist enjoys a great deal of freedom. In a self-managed firm, on the other hand, the amount of freedom enjoyed by the workers is positive and often even greater than that of the capitalist. The analysis is further developed by the introduction of asymmetric information. It is argued that, based on plausible hypotheses of monitoring costs, the difference between the amount of freedom enjoyed by self-managed workers and that enjoyed by the capitalist increases.     

About a duration index for life insurance contracts

Abstract

In this paper, after having defined the duration for a “generic” life insurance contract, we bring out some of its properties. We also prove that, in some cases, duration is a natural extension of well-known duration indices.     

Regime uncertainty and optimal investment timing

We construct a real options model in which a regime change is expected at a pre-determined future time and study the effects of regime uncertainty on a firm's strategic investment decision, taking into consideration the remaining time to the regime change and the probability of each regime state. We show that just before the time of a regime change, firms should act as if the worst-case scenario was about to happen, even if a good state is highly possible.     

A QUASI‐NATURAL MEASURE OF CHOICE FREEDOM FOR BUDGET‐ AND TIME‐CONSTRAINED OPPORTUNITY SETS

In this paper I present a measure of freedom for opportunity sets which are bounded by both budget and time constraints. The proposed formula applies to the intersection of two different sets, one of which is bounded by the availability of purchasing power, while the other is bounded by the availability of leisure time. The necessity of considering both kinds of constraints stems from a definition of choice freedom in terms of capability to do rather than capability to have. A natural measure should be one that numbers all possible choice bundles making up an opportunity set. The one proposed here is quasi‐natural in the sense that it is generically so.     

TAXATION,SOCIAL GOODS AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF FREEDOM

The quantity of an individual's freedom is thought to coincide with the width of her opportunity set, and this is defined by taking account of budgetary, institutional and legal constraints to choices. A simple cardinal measure of freedom is proposed on the ground of which some exercises in comparative statics are worked out. It is shown that individual choice freedom may be widened when a new good is publicly provided free or at a low price. Furthermore, it is argued that progressive taxation redistributes freedom in favour of the poor, all the more so when public revenues are used to finance the public provision of goods, in which case overall freedom may be augmented.