This paper is providing an initial empirical application of Lee and Pitt's approach to the problem of corner solutions with panel data. This approach deals with corner solutions in a manner consistent with behavioral theory. Furthermore it allows the use of flexible form cost functions and...

Portfolio theory suggests that risk-averse agents favour a diversified portfolio of assets as a strategy to offset market risk. This paper explicitly tests whether Irish cereal producers decision to engage in multi-crop production (asset diversification) in itself reveals a relatively...

We apply a recently proposed method to disentangle unobserved heterogeneity from risk in returns to education. We replicate the original study on US men and extend to US women, UK men and German men. Most original results are not robust. A college education cannot universally be considered an...

Using Italian data, we estimate an option value model to quantify the effectof financial incentives on retirement choices. As far as we know, this isthe first empirical study to estimate the conditional multiple-years modelput forward by Stock and Wise (1990). This implies that we account...

We apply a recently proposed method to disentangle unobserved heterogeneity from risk in returns to education. We replicate the original study on US men and extend to US women, UK men and German men. Most original results are not robust. A college education cannot universally be considered an...

We analyze households' joint investment decisions for financial wealth and homes. We use a bivariate censored regression model with endogenous switching. Fixed costs or transaction costs are captured by an unobserved nonzero censoring threshold. The model allows for spill-over effects of a...

This study estimates the impact of migrants' remittances on households' spending decisions in Ecuador. Applying both parametric and semiparametric techniques, we find strong evidence that remittances enhance expenditures on education, health, and housing, but decrease expenditures on food. This...

We investigate whether people enrolled into voluntary health insurance (VHI) substitute public consumption with private (opt out) or just enlarge their private consumption, without reducing reliance upon public provisions (top up). We study the case of Italy, where a mixed insurance system is in...

The consumption of storable goods does not necessarily equal purchases during a period because of changes in stock. In many cases, we have information about expenditures only, not consumption. A method is developed to obtain an estimate of consumption and changes in stock when only expenditure...

Increased energy efficiency is often seen as the best way of reducing energy consumption. However, the cost reduction resulting from the efficiency increase can undermine the energy-saving potential of the efficiency measures. In this study, we develop a method for decomposing the behavioral...