This paper tackles the problem of aggregate TFP measurement using stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). Data from Penn World Table 6.1 are used to estimate a world production frontier for a sample of 75 countries over a long period (1950-2000) taking advantage of the model offered by Battese &...

We consider parametric examples of two-bidder private value auctions in which each bidder observes her own private valuation as well as noisy signals about her opponent’s private valuation. In such multidimensional private value auction environments, we show that the revenue equivalence...

We study the performance of four market protocols with regard to their ability to equitably distribute the gains from trade among two groups of participants in an exchange economy. We test the protocols by running (computerized) experiments. Assuming Walrasian tatonemment as benchmark, there is...

This paper investigates whether the minimum wage leads to inefficient job rationing. By not allowing wages to clear the labor market, the minimum wage could cause workers with low reservation wages to be rationed out while equally skilled workers with higher reservation wages are employed. This...

Aggregation of productivity indices is known to be consistent under very restrictive conditions only. This paper quantifies the aggregation inconsistency. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2005

While it is well known that education strongly predicts health, less is known as to why. One reason might be that education improves health-care decision making. In this paper we attempt to disentangle improved decision making from other effects of education, and to quantify how large an impact...

Collective consumption decisions taken by the members of a household may prove inefficient. The impact of such inefficient household decisions on market performance is investigated. At one extreme, market efficiency can occur even when household decisions are inefficient, namely when household...

In the past few years, the government has developed and installed a unique model of performance-based budgeting known as the Organizational Performance Indicator Framework (OPIF). The OPIF demonstrates the relationship between an agency’s programs, activities, and projects (PAPs), the goods...

Inflation may enhance the efficiency of the price system in the presence of nominal rigidities. For the price system to function efficiently there is a need for nominal prices to adjust both to real and nominal shocks for relative prices to disseminate the appropriate signals. Since the...