Collusion is a widespread problem in procurement auctions. In this research, we study a class of econometric models, derived from economic theory, that are appropriate for describing both competitive and collusive behavior in many applied settings. The models we consider allow for asymmetries, randomization in the participation decision and non-trivial dynamics. We establish that if only bid da...

This paper examines the extent to which a decline in market power could have contributed to the general decline in inflation rates experienced in developed countries during the 1990s. *Staff economist of the Division of International Finance of the Federal Reserve Board. Email: [email protected]. I wish to thank Jon Faust, Steve Kamin, and Jeremy Rudd for valuable comments. This paper repr...

We survey recent microeconometric research on investment and employment that has used panel data on individual firms or plants. We focus on model specification and econometric estimation issues, but we also review some of the main empirical findings. We discuss advantages and limitations of microeconomic data in this context. We briefly review the neoclassical theory of the demand for capital a...

This paper gives an excellent overview of the way that econometric models are used to help formulate monetary policy at the Federal Reserve Board. David Reifschneider, David Stockman, and David Wilcox stress at the start of their paper that econometric models are used to help the staff of the Fed "support the monetary policymaking endeavors" of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) rather th...

A key concern in policy debates over youth smoking is whether preventing children from smoking will stop them from smoking as adults or merely defer initiation into smoking. This paper estimates smoking status in late adolescence viewing smoking at age 14 as an endogenous “treatment” on subsequent smoking, an approach which disentangles causation from unobserved heterogeneity and allows the mod...

Title of Document: THE DYNAMICS OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: AN ANALYSIS OF THE DYNAMIC INTERACTION BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS AND THEIR POLITICAL MICRO-ENVIRONMENT Stephen Wendel, Ph.D., 2012 Directed By: Professor Joe Oppenheimer, Department of Government and Politics While political choices are rarely isolated or simultaneous, the vast majority of empirical models in political science assume they ar...

As machine learning techniques become more popular and computers become capable of storing and processing large quantities of data, there have been many recent efforts to incorporate such techniques into structural econometric models. My research aims to extend this literature by introducing the techniques of regularization and classification (from machine learning) into Generalized Method of M...