Unobserved Inputs in Household Production

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mityakov, Sergey; Mroz, Thomas A.
• 署名单位: State University System of Florida; Florida State University; University System of Georgia; Georgia State University; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - Atlanta
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/728106
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 1876-1896
• 关键词: health; demand; investments

摘要

Most household production studies ignore unobserved inputs. Without additional assumptions, however, estimated impacts of the observed inputs cannot provide informative estimates of marginal products because of contaminating variations in unobserved inputs. Not even the signs of marginal impacts can be ascertained. One can establish the direction of these biases and significantly reduce them by including detailed information about nonproductive (pure consumption) goods in the analysis. Estimates from prior demand studies can also help determine the direction of the bias. We describe the stringent assumptions one must invoke in the absence of such additional information to be able to relate estimated effects to the true marginal products.