Adult Outcomes for Children of Teenage Mothers

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, this study examines the relationship between several outcomes in early adulthood (e.g. education, inactivity, earnings and health) and being born to a teenage mother. Besides standard cross‐sectional multivariate regression estimates, we also present evidence from non‐parametric estimates and from estimates that account for unmeasured family background heterogeneity by comparing siblings born to the same mother who timed their births at different ages. Regardless of the econometric technique, being born to a teenage mother is usually associated with worse outcomes. An important channel of transmission of this adverse effect is childhood family structure, which plays a more powerful role than childhood family poverty. Albeit smaller, some of the detrimental effects are also found for children of mothers who gave birth in their early 20s.     

Uniform and Non-Uniform Second-Best Input Taxes

We investigate second-best, input-based taxes foragricultural nonpoint pollution control when marketprices are endogenous and production isheterogeneous. Theoretically, we derive the optimalforms of taxes which take account of heterogeneity(non-uniform taxes) and a tax which does not (auniform tax). Empirically, we use a multi-factor,market-equilibrium simulation model to determineoptimal tax rates and associated equity effects,particularly differences in landowner gains/lossesacross a heterogeneous region. When market prices areendogenous, second-best tax policies result inpecuniary externalities that affect existingenvironmental externalities. In particular, thepecuniary externalities amplify the effect of producerheterogeneity on determination of sub-regionaldifferences in tax rates and returns to land,particularly for the uniform policy. With endogenousprices, the uniform tax rate is considerably higherthan any of the non-uniform rates and, ironically, thenon-uniform taxes result in less dispersion oflandowner gains across sub-regions than the uniformtax.     

对普适性生产函数模型的一些改进

普适性生产函数方法为使用横截面数据估计时,由于各地区生产函数的不同所导致的不可估算问题,提供了很好地解决办法,但其参数的估计需用差分模型,这将产生严重的缺陷.文章放宽其基本假设,得到更一般的可估计模型——异方差模型,经验证据亦表明,改进后的模型优于原有模型.     

Tests of Representative Firm Models: Results for German Manufacturing Industries

Many studies of producer behavior consider cost and input demand functions derived from microeconomic theory and estimate them on the basis of aggregate data. If the characteristics of the firms differ, the negligence of heterogeneity can lead to estimation bias. An alternative is to restrict individual behavioral functions to being linear in the firm specific parameters. The aim of this paper is to describe aggregate producer behavior without placing too strong restrictions on functional form and to explicitly account for firm heterogeneity. Estimation for German manufacturing sectors confirms that neglected heterogeneity is an important source of bias in representative firm models.     

中国城镇居民家庭异质性与风险金融资产投资

运用2011年中国家庭金融调查（ CHFS）数据,研究了中国城镇居民家庭风险金融资产投资情况,实证中系统考虑了家庭异质性影响因素。主要的发现有：风险性金融资产比例在家庭资产净值达到约170万后开始下降,样本家庭的平均资产净值远离下降点;信贷约束的存在降低了风险资产的投资比例;家庭房产和风险金融资产之间是互补关系而非替代关系;健康状况、家庭医疗支出对医疗保险计划的影响至关重要;风险性金融资产比例在户主年龄达到约58岁后开始下降,样本家庭户主的平均年龄接近下降点。这些实证结论为政府提供了更具针对性的政策含义。     

Location choices under strategic interactions

We explore a fundamental aspect of firms' location choices largely overlooked in the literature: strategic interaction. We formalize the notion that strategic interaction renders collocation less appealing by fostering competition, which erodes firms' profits. Strategic interaction also impacts location choices across time. Specifically, because firms learn by doing in markets, location choices are shaped by two novel effects: entrenchment benefits from entering early in a market and improving capabilities relative to rivals, and opportunity costs from postponing entry to other markets where rivals enter and learn. When learning is local, firms collocate more: rivals are preempted from improving relative capabilities in higher‐value markets. However, when learning is global, firms collocate less: they can transfer capabilities from lower‐value to higher‐value markets, blocking rivals from achieving entrenchment benefits. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

居民风险态度与社会保险参与:来自CHFS的经验证据

利用中国家庭金融调查(CHFS)的微观调查数据,从居民特征的异质性出发,系统地分析了两个问题:居民风险态度的影响因素、居民风险态度对社会保险参与的影响。从个体基本差异、资产、家庭规模、背景风险、安全因素、金融市场了解程度、幸福因素、流动性约束、地区因素、经济信息因素等方面对居民的风险态度进行了分析,特别是首次考察了安全因素、幸福因素和经济信息因素对居民风险态度的影响。结果表明:有安全防范意识、认为社会治安较好、幸福感较强、关注经济信息以及信息来源渠道较多的居民为风险偏好者的概率较大。风险偏好与养老保险、医疗保险参与的可能性呈负相关,与失业保险参与的可能性呈正相关。而风险厌恶则有着相反的影响。     

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions vs. greenfield foreign direct investment: The role of firm heterogeneity

We develop a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms to address two sets of questions: (1) what are the characteristics of firms that choose the various modes of foreign market access (exporting, greenfield FDI, and cross-border M&A), and (2) how does the international organization of production vary across industries and country-pairs? We show that the answers to these questions depend on the nature of firm heterogeneity. Depending on whether firms differ in their mobile or immobile capabilities, cross-border mergers involve the most or the least efficient active firms. The comparative statics on industry and country characteristics display a similar dichotomy.     

A Micromodel of New Product Adoption with Heterogeneous and Forward-Looking Consumers: Application to the Digital Camera Category

We develop an empirical model for the adoption process of a new durable product that accounts for consumer heterogeneity as well as consumers forward-looking behavior. Accounting for heterogeneity is important for two reasons. As the mix of consumers with different preferences and price sensitivities could change over time, firms need to update their marketing strategies. Further, it allows for a variety of shapes for the aggregate adoption process over time. As prices for durable and technology products fall over time with firms continually introducing enhanced products, consumers may anticipate these prices and improvements and delay their purchases in the product category. Forward-looking consumers optimize purchase timing by trading off their utilities from buying the product and their expectations on future prices, quality levels, and brand availability. Such forward-looking behavior will result in price dynamics in the marketplace as price changes today influence future purchases. And it results in different shapes of the new product sales pattern over time by influencing the time to take-off. We show how the parameters of our model can be estimated using aggregate data on the sales, prices, and attributes of brands in a product category. We apply our model to market data from the digital camera category. Our data are consistent with the presence of both heterogeneity and forward looking behavior among consumers. At the product category level, we are able to decompose the effects of the entry of Sony into primary demand expansion and switching from other brands. At the brand level, we find that there exist several segments in the market with different preferences for the brands and different price sensitivities leading to differences in adoption timing and brand choice across segments. For a given brand, we show how the changing customer mix over time has implications for that brands pricing strategies. We characterize how price effects vary across brands and over time and how price changes in a given time period influence sales in subsequent periods. Model comparison and validation results are also provided.