Three Essays on Microfoundations of Economics

Three Essays on Microfoundations of Economics
Author: Gaosheng Ju
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

This dissertation, which consists of three essays, studies three applications. Each of them emphasizes the microfoundations of economic models. The first essay proposes a nonparametric estimation of structural labor supply and exact welfare change under nonconvex piecewise-linear budget sets. Different from previous literature, my method focuses on a nonparametric specification of an indirect utility function. I find that working with the indirect utility function is very useful in simultaneously addressing the labor supply problems with individual heterogeneity, nonconvex budget sets, labor nonparticipation, and measurement errors in working hours that previous literature was unable to. Further, the estimated indirect utility function proves to be convenient and efficient in calculating exact welfare change and deadweight loss under general piecewise-linear budget sets. In the second essay, I solve the equity premium, risk-free rate, and capital structure puzzles by laying a more solid microfoundation for consumption-based asset pricing models. I argue that the above two asset pricing puzzles arise from the aggregation of hump-shaped life-cycle consumption into per capita consumption, which accounts for the unanimous rejections of Euler equations in the literature. As for the third puzzle, I show that a firm's capital structure can be determined by heterogenous investors maximizing life-time utility even though the capital structure is irrelevant on the firm side. The endogenously determined leverage generates an even larger equity premium than a fixed one. The third essay studies the solution concepts of coalition equilibrium. Traditional solution concepts such as Strong Nash Equilibrium, Coalition-proof Nash Equilibrium, Largest Consistent Set, and Coalition Equilibrium violate the fundamental principles of individual rationality. I define a new solution concept, Weak Coalition Equilibrium, which requires each coalitional deviation to be within-coalition self-enforceable and cross-coalition self-enforceable. The cross-coalition self-enforceability endows coalitions with farsightedness. Weak Coalition Equilibrium is a generalization of Coalition-proof Nash Equilibrium and a refinement of the concept Nash Equilibrium. It exists under a weak condition. Most importantly, it is in line with the principle of individual rationality.

Economic Models, Estimation and Risk Programming: Essays in Honor of Gerhard Tintner

Economic Models, Estimation and Risk Programming: Essays in Honor of Gerhard Tintner
Author: K. A. Fox
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 474
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3642461980

These essays in honor of Professor Gerhard Tintner are substantive contributions to three areas of econometrics, (1) economic models and applications,. (2) estimation, and (3) stochastic programming, in each of which he has labored with outstanding success. His own work has extended into multivariate analysis, the pure theory of decision-making under un certainty, and other fields which are not touched upon here for reasons of space and focus. Thus, this collection is appropriate to his interests but covers much less than their full range. Professor Tintner's contributions to econometrics through teaching, writing, editing, lecturing and consulting have been varied and inter national. We have tried to highlight them in "The Econometric Work of Gerhard Tintner" and to place them in historical perspective in "The Invisible Revolution in Economics: Emergence of a Mathematical Science. " Professor Tintner's career to date has spanned the organizational life of the Econometric Society and his contributions have been nearly coextensive with its scope. His principal books and articles up to 1968 are listed in the "Selected Bibliography. " Professor Tintner's current research involves the intricate problems of specification and application of stochastic processes to economic systems, particularly to growth, diffusion of technology, and optimal control. As always, he is moving with the econometric frontier and a portion of the frontier is moving with him. IV Two of the editors wrote dissertations under Professor Tintner's sup- vision; the third knew him as a colleague and friend.

Three Essays on Trend Analysis and Misspecification in Structural Econometric Models

Three Essays on Trend Analysis and Misspecification in Structural Econometric Models
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2003
Genre:
ISBN:

The purpose of this research has been to look into several econometric issues of concern to researchers doing applied work in macroeconomics. The first essay looks at Bureau of Economic Analysis data on inventories and sales of finished goods often used in studies of inventory behavior. Applying recently developed methods, the series are rigorously tested to determine their stationarity properties. Results indicate that neither first differencing nor linearly detrending the data is appropriate. For most series a trend function with one or more breaks offers a better fit and also generates stationarity. The results are used to determine the impact on estimation in a simple production-smoothing model of inventory behavior. The impact of different trend specifications on univariate forecasting of inventories is also considered. The second essay considers an alternative method of detrending time series data -- the Hodrick-Prescott (HP) filter. Previous research has shown that HP filtering can have serious adverse consequences when used to analyze co-movements between data series at business cycle frequencies. Despite this, the filter has also been used to induce stationarity in a data series prior to estimation of structural econometric models. Little work has been done in analyzing the possible effects this may have on parameter estimates from such models. A simulation study is conducted to assess the impact of HP filtering on parameter estimation and a comparison is made to other detrending methods. It is shown that the HP filter induces bias in the parameter estimates and also increases the root mean squared error of the estimates from the simulations. In addition, there is some adverse impact on the size of certain test statistics. The final essay looks at the impact of misspecification on estimation results from a structural econometric model when using a Generalized Method of Moments estimator. Simulated data consistent with a particular specification of the.

Three Essays in Regional Economic Modeling

Three Essays in Regional Economic Modeling
Author: Doleswar Bhandari
Publisher:
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2008
Genre: Electronic dissertations
ISBN:

My dissertation is about regional economic modeling for understanding local economy, economic impact analysis and forecasting. In the first essay, I developed a nonspatial version of community policy analysis model for Missouri counties. In my second essay, I introduced space into my model. I specified and estimated a model using generalized spatial three-stage least square procedures. In my third essay, using South Korean regional data, I compared forecasting accuracy of non-spatial, spatial lag, spatial error and spatial lag and error model using in-sample data. I also compared the impact estimates of nonspatial and spatial models. The spatial components appear to improve the accuracy of the intra-county impacts. It appears that the estimated parameters tend to be sensitive to the specification of weight matrices if the sizes of spatial units are heterogeneous and vice versa. Employment is the main driver of each of the model.