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作者：Nakajima, Ryo
作者单位：University of Tsukuba
摘要：This paper examines the role of peer effects in teenagers' smoking behaviour in the U.S.A. I present a random utility model that incorporates complementarity between individual and peer smoking. A Markov process model of smoking interactions between individuals is presented. I estimate the structural parameters of the model using a steady-state distribution that is determined by the Markov process. The empirical results strongly support the presence of positive peer effects. Interestingly, pee...
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作者：Kopczuk, Wojciech; Lupton, Joseph P.
作者单位：Columbia University
摘要：We examine the effect of observed and unobserved heterogeneity in the desire to die with positive net worth. Using a structural life-cycle model nested in a switching regression with unknown sample separation, we find that roughly three-fourths of the elderly single population has a bequest motive. Both the presence and the magnitude of the bequest motive are statistically and economically significant. On average, households with a bequest motive spend about 25% less on consumption expenditure...
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作者：Epstein, Larry G.; Schneider, Martin
作者单位：Boston University; New York University; National Bureau of Economic Research
摘要：This paper considers learning when the distinction between risk and ambiguity matters. It first describes thought experiments, dynamic variants of those provided by Ellsberg, that highlight a sense in which the Bayesian learning model is extreme-it models agents who are implausibly ambitious about what they can learn in complicated environments. The paper then provides a generalization of the Bayesian model that accommodates the intuitive choices in the thought experiments. In particular, the ...
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作者：Koop, Gary; Potter, Simon M.
作者单位：University of Strathclyde; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - New York
摘要：This paper develops a new approach to change-point modelling that allows the number of change-points in the observed sample to be unknown. The model we develop assumes that regime durations have a Poisson distribution. It approximately nests the two most common approaches: the time-varying parameter (TVP) model with a change-point every period and the change-point model with a small number of regimes. We focus considerable attention on the construction of reasonable hierarchical priors both fo...
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作者：Rossi-Hansberg, Esteban; Wright, Mark L. J.
作者单位：Princeton University; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
摘要：Most economic activity occurs in cities. This creates a tension between local increasing returns, implied by the existence of cities, and aggregate constant returns, implied by balanced growth. To address this tension, we develop a general equilibrium theory of economic growth in an urban environment. In our theory, variation in the urban structure through the growth, birth, and death of cities is the margin that eliminates local increasing returns to yield constant returns to scale in the agg...
