This paper develops a new estimation procedure for characteristic-based factor models of security returns. We treat the factor model as a weighted additive nonparametric regression model, with the factor returns serving as time-varying weights, and a set of univariate non-parametric functions...

In this paper we fit stochastic frontier production functions to data for Chinese farmsgrouped into each of four regions—North, Northeast, East, and Southwest—over 1995-1999.These frontier production functions are shown to have statistically different structures, and themarginal product...