An empirical investigation of the trade benefit function

We introduce new definition and estimation procedures of trade benefit functions that allow researchers to generate estimable import share functions. The method is based on the work of Chau and Färe, while it is more general in permitting the estimation of Hicksian import share systems, which are explicit in an unobservable variable but may lack a closed-form representation in terms of observable variables. An empirical application demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed method.