Household characteristics and consumption behaviour: a nonparametric approach

In this paper we apply nonparametric methods in order to discuss sorne empirical aspects of household consumption behaviour. First, we study the differences in the consumption behaviour between household types. We find that, except for food, there are no elear significant differences. Secondly, we derive the functional form for the food Engel curve, using specification tests consistent in the direction of nonparametric alternatives. Finally, we use this specification to discuss the misleading conelusions that could be reached from a mechanic interpretation of the rejection of Hausman's test, when applied to test the exogeneity of expenditure. The data is obtained from the Spanish Expenditure Survey 1980-81 and 1990-91

Estimating complementarity among vertical restraints: Evidence from manufacturing firms

This paper uses a bivariate probit model to analyze firms' decisions to impose regimes of exclusive dealing and/or exclusive territories with their distributors. We employ a panel data set of manufacturing firms (from 1990 to 2005) that contains information about such vertical restraints. Firms report whether they impose vertical restraints on their distributors (retailers or wholesalers) and the type: resale price maintenance, full line forcing, exclusive dealing, and/or exclusive territories. Our results show that the likelihood of imposing exclusive dealing and/or exclusive territories varies widely by industry and that small size greatly reduces the likelihood of imposing exclusive dealing (but not exclusive territories). The results also show the existence of complementarities between exclusive territories and exclusive dealing but not with other types of restraint.vertical restraints, exclusive dealing, exclusive territories, manufacturing industry

ON THE PERFORMANCE OF NONPARAMETRIC SPECIFICATION TESTS IN REGRESSION MODELS

Some recently developed nonparametric specification tests for regression models are described in a unified way. The common characteristic of these tests is that they are consistent against any alternative hypothesis. The performance of the test statistics is compared by means of Monte Carlo simulations, analysing how heteroskedasticity, number of regressors and bandwidth selection influence the results. The statistics which do not use a bandwidth perform slightly better if the regression model has only one regressor; otherwise, some of the statistics which use a bandwidth behave better if the bandwidth is chosen adequately. These statistics are applied to test the specification of three commonly used Mincer-type wage equations with Uruguayan and Spanish data; all of them are rejected.

Learning about one’s relative position and subjective well-being

In this paper we show evidence which suggests that changes in an individual’s relative position affects his subjective well-being. In this sense, our findings are in line with those who argue that a felicity function should take into account both, absolute and relative position. Our result are based on a simple experimental design to discuss whether learning about one’s relative position affects subjective well-being. Additionally, using nonexperimental data we find a significant association between subjective well-being and relative wage.relative income, subjective well-being

Wage Inequality in Developing Countries: Market Forces or Government Intervention

Wage dispersion had increased significantly in developing countries, despite the openness to trade of these economies. Research on this issue, using approaches valid under the assumption of conventional demand-supply competitive framework, conclude that this observed increase in wage inequality is a consequence of an increase in skills premium. In this paper we show that this conclusion could be bias if governement intervention is not taken into account. Here we find that in Uruguay most of the increase in wage dispersion could be explain by a significant increase in public wages and a decrease of minimum wage. In addition, we observe that the the impact of these intervetions are different depending on the degree of concentration of population and economic activity.wage dispersion; returns to schooling; quantile regression.

Windage measurements in a rotor stator cavity with rotor mounted protrusions and bolts

This paper reports an experimental investigation of the windage associated with enclosed rotor-stator systems with superposed throughflow, as commonly found in gas turbine engines. The term windage is often used to describe the viscous heating that arises from the interaction of surfaces and fluids in rotating disc systems. Since the presence of circumferentially discreet geometric features strongly alters the magnitude of Windage measured, the physical mechanisms collectively referred to as windage in this paper are separately described as part of the discussion of results. Tests have been carried out to measure windage directly in the form of shaft torque and also rotor surface temperature. Non-dimensional flow parameters are used to expand the relevance of the data obtained, which encompasses the ranges 0.17 x 107 ≤ Reφ ≤ 1.68 x 107and 0.24 x 105 ≤ Cw ≤ 1.06 x 105 which corresponds to 0.058 ≤ λT ≤ 0.631. Data has been obtained for smooth disc geometry and also with rotor mounted protrusions of N = 3, 9 and 18; D = 10 mm, 13 mm and 16 mm diameter; H = 11 mm, high, hexagonal bolt shaped protrusions. Bi-hexagonal (twelve sided) bolts of D = 13 mm effective diameter, and height, H = 11mm, were also tested with conditions closely matched to the 13 mm hexagonal bolts. Finally, tests with 10 mm diameter, 6 mm deep, pockets were also carried out. Over the range of conditions and geometries tested, increasing the number of bolts increases the moment coefficient and windage heating. At low values of turbulent flow parameter, λT, which correspond to rotational speeds between 8000 and 10000 rev/min, increasing the diameter of the bolts shows a clear trend for both increased windage torque and average disc temperature rise. For these conditions, there also appears to be a clear reduction in windage and temperature rise with the bi-hexagonal shaped bolts compared to the equivalent diameter hexagonal bolt form. Variation in the moment coefficient with the number and diameter of bolts is attributed to variations in form drag between the different configurations. The introduction of the recesses onto the disc has very little effect on either windage heating or moment coefficient; this is attributed to the component of windage mechanism in operation and also the relatively small size in comparison to the protrusions studied here. This work contributes to the understanding of windage in gas turbines by introducing new low uncertainty data obtained at engine representative conditions and as such is of benefit to those involved with the design of internal air systems and disc fixture

Lot Size, Zoning, and Household Preferences: Impediments to Smart Growth?

The paper explores a number of issues related to lot size and urban density. First, trends in single-family residential lot size over the past 35 years are examined in eight counties in the state of Maryland. We find that there was a trend toward larger lot sizes in many suburban counties in the mid to late 1990s, and that there has been a general flattening of the density gradient in urban areas over the last few decades. We then examine the extent to which lot size is being constrained by regulation by comparing actual subdivision density to the allowable density under zoning rules. This analysis is done for three counties with different degrees of suburbanization. We find that only in the areas with the very large lot zoning does zoning seem to be constraining actual lots size. There is a good deal of excess capacity in the density that could be built, especially in the more densely zoned areas. Finally, recognizing that households have preferences for lot size and other housing characteristics, we provide some evidence about the strength of household preferences over lot size and their willingness to trade off lot size for other characteristics.land use, urban sprawl, density, lot size

Income Elasticity of Environmental Amenities

In this paper we are concerned with the estimation of income elasticities of environmental amenities. The novelty is the application of econometric methods that take into account the problem of measurement errors when estimating these elasticities, which are common in microeconomic data and are not usually considered in the applied literature related with this issue. Our aim is to discuss whether the measurement error has signi…cant e¤ects on the elasticities. Data from the Expenditure Budget Survey of Uruguay (1996) are used.

The probability of non-purchasing tobacco of a smoker

This paper addresses the problem of zeroes in tobacco expenditure. Generally, tobacco demand is estimated using limited dependent variable models, i.e. Tobit or Double Hurdle Models, which take into account the zero expenditure problem under the assumption that a relatively important number of smokers declared a zero in tobacco expenditure. Clearly, if all zeroes where from non-smokers then demand estimation could be done using traditional methods over the positive expenditure observations. Based on the Spanish Expenditure Survey we estimate the conditional probability of non-expenditure by a smoker, finding that such probability is extremely small. This suggests that smokers buy quite regularly and hence it is possible to estimate the tobacco demand using only the positive observations