Parental Compensatory Behaviors and Early Child Health Outcomes in Cebu, Philippines()

A dynamic optimization model of parents choosing investments in their children's health motivates an empirical model of parents' choices of health inputs for their children and the impacts of these decisions on their children's subsequent health. Estimates of the child health input demand functions and the child health production functions from the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey accord with the prediction that optimizing behavior results in higher levels of aggregate child health. Observable parental behaviors respond to the physical developmental status of their children. These parental responses appear to yield large and statistically significant improvements in children's early physiological outcomes. However, because some health inputs choices are not observable, it is impossible to ascertain whether these measured effects are due solely to variations in the observed input choices.     

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.     

基于时变参数的我国全要素生产率估计

本文应用时变参数状态空间模型,利用1953~2005年中国宏观经济数据,估计了样本区间内我国的全要素生产率(TFP),并与传统的索洛残差方法的计算结果进行了比较。分析表明:时变参数方法得到的TFP增长率计算结果由于不包含方程误差,比索洛残差方法的结果精确;TFP增长率的变化趋势,基本和GDP的增长趋势相同,只是有所滞后,滞后期一般为一年。     

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.