A new class of regression type models termed essentially linear models is proposed. The class is characterized by geometric considerations. Within the class the distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator is easily approximated by a natural extension of the p*-formula even though the MLE...

The allocation of resources between agriculture and non- agriculture is a central decision of a farm household. In this paper we formulate a profit-maximization model in which human capital enhances efficiency through both within-sector effects and across-sector allocation of quasi-fixed inputs....

In this paper we present a generalized self-consistent algorithm that estimates a survivor function with across-interval-censored data. This algorithm is an iterative procedure based on Turnbull's (1974) reallocation idea. At each step of the iteration, the procedure first reduces the...

In the econometric analysis of labor market transitions, the data generating process is often specified as a continuous-time semi-Markovian process with a finite state space. With typically short panel data, analysts have long been concerned with the initial conditions problem -- a complication...

The Great Leap Forward (GLF) disaster, characterized by a collapse of grain output, and the associated famine in China between 1959 and 1961, can be attributed to a systemic failure in central planning. Encouraged by unrealistic expectations for agricultural productivity gains from...

This paper studies a structural model of labor market history in an environment with duration dependence. We treat the agent's job search effort explicitly as part of the dynamic decision along with a binary employment choice. The optimal policy is shown to exist and to be of the stationary...

This paper studies aspects of the broad class of log-concave probability distributions that arise in the economics of uncertainty and information. Useful properties of univariate log-concave distributions are proven without imposing differentiability of density functions. We also discuss...

In this paper we present a a generalized self-consistent algorithm that estimates a survivor function with across-interval- censored data. This algorithm is an iterative procedure based on Turnbull's (1974) reallocation idea. At each step of the iteration, the procedure first reduces the...

This paper studies aspects of the broad class of log-concave probability distributions that arise in the economics of uncertainty and information. Useful properties of univariate log-concave distributions are proven without imposing differentiability of density functions. We also discuss...

In this paper, we study the initial-conditions problem, a complication associated with left-censored or interrupted spells in the econometric analysis of labor market transitions. In the presence of unobserved individual-specific heterogeneity, no consistent estimators have been previously...