This article compares OLS, the normal-half normal stochastic frontier approach (SFA) and the thick frontier approach (TFA) to an alternative thick frontier approach based on a mixture approach. Unlike the TFA approach, the new approach developed here uses all of the data, does not require...

In a recent volume of this journal, Holden [Testing the normality assumption in the Tobit Model, J. Appl. Stat. 31 (2004) pp. 521-532] presents Monte Carlo evidence comparing several tests for departures from normality in the Tobit Model. This study adds to the work of Holden by considering...

When tax shares can be included in political platforms, there will be a bias toward more government spending. This bias is the result of the fact that demand curves slope downward. Political parties can compete for votes by offering pivotal voters lower tax shares, but when they do, a lower...

Genetic improvement has been a major contributor to agricultural productivity in the United States, but many questions about the economics of crop breeding, such as the value of pre-commercial germplasm, remain unanswered. This study estimates the marginal value of poorly characterized materials...

Cointegration and vector autoregression are used to test the 'Tax-and-Spend', 'Spend-and-Tax', and 'Fiscal Synchronization' for ten countries using annual time-series data over the period 1951 to 1996. Three of them are part of the newly industrialized countries of Asia (South Korea, Taiwan, and...

Genetic improvement has been a major contributor to agricultural productivity in the United States, but many questions about the economics of crop breeding, such as the value of pre-commercial germplasm, remain unanswered. This study estimates the marginal value of poorly characterized materials...

Until 1985, research in the economics literature on state lotteries was based on the simplifying assumption that administrative costs were constant. DeBoer (1985) provided empirical evidence supporting the idea that average administrative costs are not constant, but decline with output. In other...

A finite mixture model is used to estimate farm-retail price transmission in the US fresh strawberry market. Results suggest two distinct pricing regimes associated with off- and peak-harvesting seasons. The market power parameter is significant in the peak-harvest regime, but not in the...