Houthakker and Ville's contributions to demand theory: a new look at the debate on integrability conditions.

Jean Ville gave, independently of Houthakker, and prior to him, a general one page proof of the integrability of demand functions in a revealed preference scheme. It happens that this essential contribution has been largely ignored in the literature. The comparison between Ville and Houthakker’s proofs makes room for discussing the assumptions necessary to encompass the discrete version of the acyclicity into a continuous version.

How Large is Your Reference Group

We discuss how specifications of interdependent preferences found in the literature yield biased estimates of parameters of the underlying consumption or choice models. We present new specifications which alleviate this problem and permit an estimation of the size of the reference group. This last point, a key element affecting the estimation biases, has been overlooked in most studies. Using French individual data on the reported subjective poverty level, we show that the reference group is likely to be very small. L'interdépendance des préférences telle que spécifiée dans les études économétriques de consommation ou de choix individuel conduit à des estimateurs biaisés. Dans cette étude, nous présentons de nouvelles spécifications économétriques qui prennent en contre ce problème et qui permettent un estimé de la taille du groupe de référence. Ce dernier élément est ignoré dans les écrits actuels et s'avère très important pour juger des biais d'estimation. Nous montrons à l'aide de données françaises sur le niveau relatif et subjectif de pauvreté que ce groupe de référence est vraisemblablement de très petite taille.Interdependent preference, biased estimates, size of the reference group, Interdépendance des préférences, estimateurs biaisés, taille du groupe de référence

Polish Households' behavior in the Regular and Informal Economies

This paper analyzes characteristics of the informal economy in Poland in the context of transition, using a specific survey carried out in the framework of the classic Labour Force Survey, conducted by the Polish National Statistical office (GUS), in 1995. The participation probabilities of three types of informal activities (working, buying and hiring) are discussed. Their interdependencies are analyzed in the light of the hypothesis of network or neighborhood effects. The impact of a household's participation in informal markets on its regular consumption is estimated by imputing the probability of its informal activity in the consumption surveys and panels. Such participation does significantly influence more than half of household's expenditure on goods and services. Moreover, the participants of the informal economy distinguish themselves by higher individual full prices (integrating both monetary and non-monetary constraints and resources).Informal economy ; consumer behavior ; cross-section-panel estimation

Polish Households' Behavior in the Regular and Informal Economies

The paper analyzes characteristics of the informal economy in Poland in the context of transition using a specific survey carried out in the frame of the classic Labor Force Survey 1995 by the Polish National Statistical office (GUS). The participation probabilities of three types of informal activities (working, buying and hiring) are discussed. Their interdependencies are discussed the hypothesis of the network or neighborhood effects. The impact of the household's participation on informal markets on its regular consumption is estimated by imputing the informal activity probabilities to the consumption surveys and panel. Then, the specific consumption profiles of participants in the informal market can be identified. This participation does influence significantly more than half of the household's expenditure groups. Moreover, the participants of the informal economy distinguish themselves by the higher individual full prices (integrating non monetary constraints and resources).Informal economy participation, Consumer behavior, Cross-section-panel estimation

The World According to GARP* : Non-parametric Tests of Demand Theory and Rational Behavior

The purpose of this paper is twofold. We first point out that violation of rationality axioms (SARP, GARP, WARP) do not necessarily lead to a non-rational behavior. Second, our tests of axioms SARP, GARP and WARP over a Polish panel data (1987-90) show that over the 3630 households only 240 violate the three axioms. However these 240 violations are not caused by the non-respect of demand theory axioms but by the changing of preferences over the period. A logistic regression confirms the robustness of the test since the more the real expenditure increases in absolute value, the more the probability of violating the axioms increases (the respect of the axioms by the 3390 households is not due to an increase of the real expenditure). Moreover, changing in the composition of the family structure increases the probability of being inconsistent. It seems therefore that the 240 apparent violations are due to the appearance of new constraints, which increase the shadow prices of the goods. In order to explain these 240 households' preference changes, we build an econometric model of prices including an observed monetary component and an unobserved non-monetary component expressing the constraints faced by the agent. The estimation of this econometric model shows that the agents who apparently violate the axioms have these complete price changes superior to those of the agents who respect the axioms. Thus the agents who apparently violate the axioms faced during the period a change of their non-monetary resources and the appearance of new constraints.Rationality, GARP, Non-parametric tests, Shadow prices.

GARP violation, Economic Environment Distortions and Shadow Prices : Evidence from Household Expenditure Panel Data

This paper contributes to the discussion of the compatibility of consumers' behavior in "real" life with GARP. Within expenditure panel data we observe a relatively low rate of violation (240 out of 3630 households). We show that these violations do not imply an "irrational" behavior of the agents, but can be attributed to a change in the agents' choice conditions during a period of time, which includes a shift from a centrally planned towards a market oriented economy.GARP, shadow prices.

Une nouvelle mesure pour analyser la pauvreté au Québec : l’indice synthétique de pauvreté-richesse

Cet article propose une nouvelle mesure de la pauvreté: l'indice synthétique de pauvreté-richesse (ISPR). Cet indice est multidimensionnel, les trois dimensions retenues étant le revenu, les dépenses totales et la privation des ménages. Cet indice est à la fois absolu et relatif. Le caractère relatif de la pauvreté a été opérationnalisé en fonction de la région, de l'âge et de la scolarité. Les propriétés formelles de cet indice rendent possibles les comparaisons internationales et les analyses temporelles sur l'évolution du phénomène de la pauvreté, sans biais systématique. Le but de cette mesure ne vise pas avant tout un comptage du nombre des pauvres, mais bien l'élaboration d'un instrument d'analyse de la pauvreté. Les données canadiennes analysées proviennent de l'Enquête sur les dépenses des familles de Statistique Canada. La pauvreté reste élevée au Québec, mais l'écart avec l'Ontario s'amenuise fortement, puisque la pauvreté y est presque aussi élevée qu'au Québec. La pauvreté est aussi en progression dans le groupe des ménages les plus jeunes et les moins scolarisés.This article proposes a new index of poverty. The multidimensional measure has been built with three dimensions: total income, total expenditures of households, and deprivation. Are poor the house holds which have less than a certain proportion of the mean in three reference groups, defined by the region, age, and educational level. The formal property of this index allows international comparisons, and also studying the evolution of poverty over a certain period. The index is not aimed at counting the proportion of poor households at a certain point in time, but it provides a tool to analysing different characteristics of poverty

Revisiting an important Canadian natural experiment with new methods: an evaluation of the impact of the 1994 tax decrease on smoking

URL des Documents de travail : http://centredeconomiesorbonne.univ-paris1.fr/Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 2014.27 - ISSN : 1955-611XThe panel structure of the Survey on Smoking in Canada (1994-95) and novel methods are used to estimate the impact of an important decrease in the levels of taxation of cigarettes occurring in five out of the ten Canadian provinces that intended to eradicate black market sales of cigarettes in the spring of 1994. Given that black market sales have recently increased substantially because of new taxes, a complete and thorough analysis of the 1994 policy is of particular importance for policy makers. We revisit the issue with new econometric methods to address this evaluation problem as well as focus on particular sub-groups in the Canadian population. The large sample permits precise estimation of the impact of the policy by sub-group showing that females, young males, the poorly educated and separated or divorced individuals were particularly sensitive to these dramatic changes in cigarette prices. We also compute under realistic assumptions a price-elasticity for the probability of smoking and a lower bound on the price-elasticity for the quantities of cigarettes smoked.L'enquête sur le tabac conduite au Canada en 1994-95 permet d'estimer l'effet de la diminution drastique des taxes opérées dans cinq des dix provinces canadiennes au printemps de 1994. Cet effet fut particulièrement important du fait du développement du marché noir des cigarettes à cette époque. Deux nouveaux estimateurs de différences sont utilisés pour estimer ces effets-prix, qui s'avèrent particulièrement importants pour les femmes, les jeunes hommes, les personnes de faible niveau d'éducation et les personnes récemment séparées ou divorcées. Ces analyses permettent d'estimer l'élasticité-prix de la probabilité de fumer et des quantités de cigarettes fumées

Panel and Pseudo-Panel Estimation of Cross-Sectional and Time Series Elasticities of Food Consumption: The Case of American and Polish Data

The problem addressed in this article is the bias to income and expenditure elasticities estimated on pseudo-panel data caused by measurement error and unobserved heterogeneity. We gauge empirically these biases by comparing cross-sectional, pseudo-panel and true panel data from both Polish and American expenditure surveys. Our results suggest that unobserved heterogeneity imparts a downward bias to cross-section estimates of income elasticities of at-home food expenditures and an upward bias to estimates of income elasticities of away-from-home food expenditures. "Within" and first-difference estimators suffer less bias, but only if the effects of measurement error are accounted for with instrumental variables.individual and grouped data; unobserved heterogeneity; AIDS model

The World According to GARP* : Non-parametric Tests of Demand Theory and Rational Behavior

Deuxième révision pour Annales d'economie et de StatistiqueThe purpose of this paper is twofold. We first point out that violation of rationality axioms (SARP, GARP, WARP) do not necessarily lead to a non-rational behavior. Second, our tests of axioms SARP, GARP and WARP over a Polish panel data (1987-90) show that over the 3630 households only 240 violate the three axioms. However these 240 violations are not caused by the non-respect of demand theory axioms but by the changing of preferences over the period. A logistic regression confirms the robustness of the test since the more the real expenditure increases in absolute value, the more the probability of violating the axioms increases (the respect of the axioms by the 3390 households is not due to an increase of the real expenditure). Moreover, changing in the composition of the family structure increases the probability of being inconsistent. It seems therefore that the 240 apparent violations are due to the appearance of new constraints, which increase the shadow prices of the goods. In order to explain these 240 households' preference changes, we build an econometric model of prices including an observed monetary component and an unobserved non-monetary component expressing the constraints faced by the agent. The estimation of this econometric model shows that the agents who apparently violate the axioms have these complete price changes superior to those of the agents who respect the axioms. Thus the agents who apparently violate the axioms faced during the period a change of their non-monetary resources and the appearance of new constraints.Dans cet article nous montrons d'abord que la violation des axiomes de rationalité des préférences revelées (SARP, GARP, WARP) ne correspond pas nécessairement à des comportements non rationnels. Nous testons ces axiomes sur les données individuelles de 3630 ménages du panel polonais (1987-1990) ; 240 ménages violent les trois axiomes, mais on montre que ces violations ne sont pas la conséquence d'une contradiction aux axiomes de la théorie de la demande mais sont entraînés par la modification des préférences individuelles pendant cette période. Une analyse logistique montre que la probabilité de violation des axiomes augmente avec l'accroissement du revenu réel de ménage ce qui confirme la robustesse de ce test non-paramétrique de la rationalité. La probabilité de violation dépend également des modifications démographiques des ménages. On fait l'hypothèse que ces violations apparentes sont dues à l'apparition des nouvelles contraintes de choix qui se traduisent par l'apparition des prix virtuels. L'estimation de ces prix virtuels se fait par la considération des biais d'endogénéité dans l'estimation en cross-section, c'est à dire par la comparaison des estimations en coupe et en dynamique. L'étude confirme que les ménages qui violent apparemment ces axiomes de rationalité subissent des variations de prix virtuels nettement supérieures aux non-violeurs. Ceci semble indiquer qu'ils subissent pendant cette période des modifications plus fortes de leurs ressources non-monétaires et de leurs contraintes de choix