In this dissertation, structural models that utilize parametric and nonparametric approaches are developed that are used to measure competition and cost efficiency in the US banking industry (1990--96). Competition in loan and deposit markets is studied using the method of conjectural variations...

My dissertation research is composed of two parts: a theoretical part on semiparametric efficient estimation and an applied part in energy economics under different dynamic settings. The essays are related in terms of their applications as well as the way in which models are constructed and...

This dissertation investigates the productive performance of the private manufacturing sector of Egypt, particularly within the context of economic reforms undertaken since the early 1990s. Beginning in 1991, the Egyptian government implemented reforms to achieve macroeconomic stabilization and...

I formalize growth ideas that go beyond rates of factor accumulation to also include the fact that countries may differ in technology and institutions. The first essay explores the empirical finding that cross-country convergence is also accompanied by significant relative income shifts...

An analysis of strategic behavior and consumer surplus in eBay auctions. This essay presents structural estimates of bidding behavior in eBay computer monitor auctions. The entry of bidders is taken as exogenous and treated as another parameter in the estimation. The source of our data is the...

This study builds on an ever growing health demand and retirement literature. I extend the literature on structural models by developing and estimating a stochastic model that jointly considers health status, retirement and consumption in a life-cycle framework. I also use a number of...

Bilateral air service agreements have determined the nature of international air services through regulation of entry, service quality and pricing. Negotiations for such treaties reflect each government's aim to gain at least an equivalent right before granting certain traffic rights to the...

In the first chapter, we examine the relation between efficiency and competition in a dynamic framework. For this purpose, we measure efficiencies and conduct of the U.S. airlines in two city-pairs. We model the conduct parameter as an unobservable state variable which is an AR(1) process and...

In the first chapter, we consider the logistic regression model with an integrated regressor. In particular, we derive the limit distributions of the nonlinear least squares (NLS) estimators and their t-ratios. It is shown that the NLS estimators are generally not efficient. Moreover, the...

This dissertation explores two important issues in the determination of U.S. airline fares: inflation and market power.The first essay deals with the accurate measurement of inflation in the U.S. airline industry by calculating a quality adjusted price index for airfares. This calculation is...