The dominant practice in economics is to choose the mathematical specification of model relations on the basis of convenience, without much theoretical support. This paper discusses how quantitative model specifications can, in some cases, be given a more formal scientific underpinning in the...

The dominant practice in economics is to choose the mathematical specification of model relations on the basis of convenience, without much theoretical support. This paper discusses how quantitative model specifications can, in some cases, be given a more formal scientific underpinning in the...

This paper proposes a particular behavioral assumption to characterize the stochastic structure of intertemporal discrete choice models in the absence of state dependence. This assumption extends Luce's axiom; Independence from Irrelevant Alternatives, to the intertemporal context. Under certain...

"Matching" is a statistical technique used to evaluate the effect of a treatment by comparing the treated and non-treated units in an observational study. Matching provides an alternative to older estimation methods, such as ordinary least squares (OLS), which involves strong assumptions that...

This paper proposes a particular axiomatic approach to motivate the choice of functional forms and distribution of unobservables in continuous time models for discrete panel data analysis. We discuss in particular applications with data on transitions between employment and unemployment. This...