Nonparametric Regression Techniques in Economics
This introduction to nonparametric regression emphasizes techniques that might be most accessible and useful to the applied economist. The paper begins with a brief overview of the class of models under study and central theoretical issues such as the curse of dimensionality, the bias-variance trade-off and rates of convergence. The paper then focuses on kernel and nonparametric least squares estimation of the nonparametric regression model, and optimal differencing estimation of the partial linear model. Constrained estimation and hypothesis testing is also discussed. Empirical examples include returns to scale in electricity distribution and hedonic pricing of housing attributes.
Abstract This paper investigates whether it is possible to find Pareto-improving commodity tax reforms that harmonise taxes between two countries when governments supply public goods and thus have revenue requirements. We consider a Ricardian model of trade with elastic factor supply, and suppose that initial taxes are Nash equilibrium ones. Under weak conditions, a necessary and sufficient condition for a tax reform to be Pareto improving is that it increases the value of compensated (utility constant) demand for imports in both countries. A two-good example suggests that harmonisation is unlikely to be Pareto-improving if the revenue requirement is high, and the demand for imports is relatively price elastic, in both countries. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.