Christopher Klein - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Christopher Klein

Working Papers, Aug 1, 2007

The U.S. Supreme Court held that litigation for anticompetitive ends ("sham litigation") must be ... more The U.S. Supreme Court held that litigation for anticompetitive ends ("sham litigation") must be "baseless" in order to face antitrust liability. The filing of such suits continues apace, as does the legal commentators' debate, but economic analysis has lagged. Here, a game theoretic model is constructed in which plaintiffs file suit to achieve collateral gains and defendants may countersue for damages under the Sherman Act. In equilibrium, settlement fails and all suits are litigated, but the threat of countersuit deters low-expected-value plaintiffs. As the legal standard for sham litigation approaches "baselessness," this deterrence effect is weakened and litigation may increase.

Journal For Economic Educators, 2010

This article uses linear regression analysis to examine the determinants of public transportation... more This article uses linear regression analysis to examine the determinants of public transportation ridership in over 100 U. S. cities in 2007. The primary determinant of ridership appears to be availability of public transportation service. In fact, the relationship is nearly one to one: a 1% increase in availability is associated with a 1% increase in ridership. The relative unimportance of price may be an indicator of the heavy subsidization of fares in most cities, leaving availability as the more effective policy tool to encourage use of public transport.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2004

The authors are especially indebted to George Ford for his assistance with the data and analyses.... more The authors are especially indebted to George Ford for his assistance with the data and analyses. We also thank Larry Spiwak for helpful comments, and for preparing the manuscript for publication. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2003

The primary purpose of the Telecommunications Act of 1996' ("1996 Act") was to promote competitio... more The primary purpose of the Telecommunications Act of 1996' ("1996 Act") was to promote competition in the local exchange telecommunications marketplace-the last vestige of the telecommunications monopoly. 2 Congress aimed to alter the competitive landscape of local telecommunications by splitting the integrated local phone market into its wholesale and retail components.i In the post-1996 Act environment, firms seeking to offer retail local telephone services need not construct a local exchange network, but may offer services by acquiring the necessary facilities in a wholesale market where such facilities are bought and sold. When the 1996 Act was signed into law in February 1996, however, the only firms capable of supplying the wholesale market in each local mar-* An earlier version of this paper appeared as Bell Companies as Profitable Wholesale Firms: The Financial Implications of

Research in Higher Education, 2012

Consumers of higher education face a bewildering array of product and price combinations. We comp... more Consumers of higher education face a bewildering array of product and price combinations. We compare U. S. institutions with a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) multi-factor frontier using 2000-2001 data for 1,188 four-year institutions of higher education. The input is net price or tuition, fees, room, and board less per student financial aid. Outputs include SAT score, athletic expenditures, instructional expenditures, value of buildings, dorm capacity, and student body characteristics. The DEA efficiency scores indicate the distance of each institution from the-best buy‖ frontier, providing an objective means of ranking institutions as the best buys in higher education.

To gain analytical insight into whether input resources matter in public education, a Becker/Pelt... more To gain analytical insight into whether input resources matter in public education, a Becker/Peltzman/Stigler model of the determination of local educational budgets and outputs by political authorities is constructed. The model results are consistent with empirical findings that resources don’t matter, even when all schools are efficient, if errors in measurement and specification occur. When all outputs are not observed, one cannot distinguish an inefficient school district from one that chooses an idiosyncratic output mix. Blind application of efficiency measurement techniques in this context yields perverse or counterintuitive findings. Interpretation of feasible approaches to education production studies are discussed.

The characteristics of time as a resource are examined in order to seek evidence of these charact... more The characteristics of time as a resource are examined in order to seek evidence of these characteristics in fundamental concepts of Economics. A series of thought experiments on time travel demonstrate that a constant irreversible rate of time usage underlies the concepts of opportunity cost, time preference, and interest. This leads to the startling suggestion that the root question in Economics concerns the choice of how to spend time. Thus, the principles of Economics are tied closely to the human perception of time and more closely to the human condition than is generally admitted in undergraduate classes on the subject.

This article fills in some notable gaps in the literature on the existence and empirical implemen... more This article fills in some notable gaps in the literature on the existence and empirical implementation of dual cost and production models embodying the time utilization of capital. A proof of the existence of such dual cost and production functions is provided; previous results of Betancourt (1986) and Klein (1984) are extended to the general N-input-factor, continuously variable time-utilization case; and the restrictive conditions under which a conventional neoclassical empirical cost model captures the characteristics of a capital-utilization technology are derived. The general specification of cost functions that capture utilization effects is indicated.

Working Papers, Sep 1, 2007

This paper seeks to shed light on the role of school funding in individual school performance. A ... more This paper seeks to shed light on the role of school funding in individual school performance. A unique data set is utilized for the Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County School District in Tennessee, known colloquially as Metro. In 2005 the Metro school board undertook the task of breaking down individual school spending levels by funding source. The resulting 2004-2005 financial data are combined with academic test scores and demographic data for 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 academic years for each of 70 elementary schools. Econometric tests are then conducted to examine whether contemporaneous test score performance is determined by funding, or whether funding is determined by prior performance, or whether other school characteristics influence both.

Utilities Policy, 1994

Utilities in the USA are prohibited from charging prices that are unduly discriminatory, but the ... more Utilities in the USA are prohibited from charging prices that are unduly discriminatory, but the mearzing of 'undue' is not clear. A review of recerlt court decisions reveals that regulators' decisions are rarely overturned for this reason. The ecorlornics literature suggests that arl_v set of prices falling between marginal cost and the unregulated monopoly price may be acceptable, but this proL>ides little guidance for defining 'undue' irz practice. The arltitrmt offerzce of price discriminatiorz comerm effects otl competition in a vertical chailz, suggesting a growing role for vertical prickg effects in regulatoy proceedirlgs.

International Review of Law and Economics, 1986

A divisia index of total factor productivity (TFP) growth is calculated for each of 16 regulated ... more A divisia index of total factor productivity (TFP) growth is calculated for each of 16 regulated local telephone companies operating in Tennessee over the years 1989 through 1993. Year over year changes in TFP, in Tornqvist form, yield a growth in total factor productivity estimate for each company. These growth rates, however, contain the effects of both scale and technical change. Using the method suggested by Caves and Christensen, the effects are decomposed indirectly by regressing the annual percentage changes in TFP growth against measures of scale, service density, and network size. The results are consistent with the findings of economies of density and nearly constant returns to scale prevalent in the telecommunications literature.

Working Papers, Apr 1, 2007

To gain analytical insight into whether input resources matter in public education, a Becker/Pelt... more To gain analytical insight into whether input resources matter in public education, a Becker/Peltzman/Stigler model of the determination of local educational budgets and outputs by political authorities is constructed. The model results are consistent with empirical findings that resources don't matter, even when all schools are efficient, if errors in measurement and specification occur. When all outputs are not observed, one cannot distinguish an inefficient school district from one that chooses an idiosyncratic output mix. Blind application of efficiency measurement techniques in this context yields perverse or counterintuitive findings. Interpretation of feasible approaches to education production studies are discussed.

Working Papers, 2007

The characteristics of time as a resource are examined in order to seek evidence of these charact... more The characteristics of time as a resource are examined in order to seek evidence of these characteristics in fundamental concepts of Economics. A series of thought experiments on time travel demonstrate that a constant irreversible rate of time usage underlies the concepts of opportunity cost, time preference, and interest. This leads to the startling suggestion that the root question in Economics concerns the choice of how to spend time. Thus, the principles of Economics are tied closely to the human perception of time and more closely to the human condition than is generally admitted in undergraduate classes on the subject.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Recent reports on the financial consequences of UNE-P sales for Bell Operating Companies have dra... more Recent reports on the financial consequences of UNE-P sales for Bell Operating Companies have drawn additional attention to long-standing complaints by the BOCs that such sales are confiscatory, and amount to "subsidized competition." T his paper subjects the conclusions of these claims and the financial studies upon which they are based to careful scrutiny, and finds that they are largely without merit. Errors in both the calculation of unbundled element revenues, and in the wholesale costs of providing unbundled elements, are identified. Using actual payments by a representative CLEC and publicly available ARMIS expense data, we obtain realistic revenue and current cost figures usable for financial analyses. Our analysis suggests that the wholesale business, taken alone, is profitable for the BOCs.

This article fills in some notable gaps in the literature on the existence and empirical implemen... more This article fills in some notable gaps in the literature on the existence and empirical implementation of dual cost and production models embodying the time utilization of capital. A proof of the existence of such dual cost and production functions is provided; previous results of Betancourt (1986) and Klein (1984) are extended to the general N-input-factor, continuously variable time-utilization case; and the restrictive conditions under which a conventional neoclassical empirical cost model captures the characteristics of a capital-utilization technology are derived. The general specification of cost functions that capture utilization effects is indicated.

Review of Industrial Organization, 1989

This paper critically reviews the regulatory history of telecommunications as rendered in four re... more This paper critically reviews the regulatory history of telecommunications as rendered in four recent books: Temin's The Fall of the Bell System, Henck and Strassburg's A Slippery Slope, Wender's The Economics of Telecommunications, and the multicontributor Disconnecting Bell. Only Wender's regulatory cartel theory seriously competes with the Government's theory in U.S. v. AT&T as an explanation for AT&T's behavior under regulation. In response to inconsistencies between Wender's view and the historical record, an historically consistent alternative hypothesis of AT&T and regulator behavior is developed from clues apparent in the form of the AT&T divestiture.

Energy Economics, 1993

... 4 RG Chambers, Applied Production Analusis, Cambridge, 1988. 5 AL Danielsen, DR Kamerschen an... more ... 4 RG Chambers, Applied Production Analusis, Cambridge, 1988. 5 AL Danielsen, DR Kamerschen and DC Keenan, `Third-Best Pricing Rules for Regulated Utilities', Southern Economic Journal, January 1990, pp 628-638. ... Clcr.ss A and C Gus Utilities, Nashville, annual. ...

Eastern Economic Journal, 2010

The results of a Becker–Peltzman–Stigler model of local school district decision-making yields bi... more The results of a Becker–Peltzman–Stigler model of local school district decision-making yields biased or inconsistent efficiency measures when some school outputs are not measured. Empirical investigation of data for 95 Tennessee counties in the 1999–2000 academic year finds that Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) efficiency measures, and efficiency rankings based on those measures, are highly sensitive to changes in the number

We investigate the determinants of regulators&amp... more We investigate the determinants of regulators' relative weighting of the social welfare of customer groups and utilities using panel data on natural gas distribution utilities in the US state of Tennessee. In contrast to previous empirical work on cross-sections of electric utilities, our results are statistically robust and consistent with the interest group theory of regulation. Intervention in rate cases,

Working Papers, Aug 1, 2007

The U.S. Supreme Court held that litigation for anticompetitive ends ("sham litigation") must be ... more The U.S. Supreme Court held that litigation for anticompetitive ends ("sham litigation") must be "baseless" in order to face antitrust liability. The filing of such suits continues apace, as does the legal commentators' debate, but economic analysis has lagged. Here, a game theoretic model is constructed in which plaintiffs file suit to achieve collateral gains and defendants may countersue for damages under the Sherman Act. In equilibrium, settlement fails and all suits are litigated, but the threat of countersuit deters low-expected-value plaintiffs. As the legal standard for sham litigation approaches "baselessness," this deterrence effect is weakened and litigation may increase.

Journal For Economic Educators, 2010

This article uses linear regression analysis to examine the determinants of public transportation... more This article uses linear regression analysis to examine the determinants of public transportation ridership in over 100 U. S. cities in 2007. The primary determinant of ridership appears to be availability of public transportation service. In fact, the relationship is nearly one to one: a 1% increase in availability is associated with a 1% increase in ridership. The relative unimportance of price may be an indicator of the heavy subsidization of fares in most cities, leaving availability as the more effective policy tool to encourage use of public transport.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2004

The authors are especially indebted to George Ford for his assistance with the data and analyses.... more The authors are especially indebted to George Ford for his assistance with the data and analyses. We also thank Larry Spiwak for helpful comments, and for preparing the manuscript for publication. Any remaining errors are the responsibility of the authors.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2003

The primary purpose of the Telecommunications Act of 1996' ("1996 Act") was to promote competitio... more The primary purpose of the Telecommunications Act of 1996' ("1996 Act") was to promote competition in the local exchange telecommunications marketplace-the last vestige of the telecommunications monopoly. 2 Congress aimed to alter the competitive landscape of local telecommunications by splitting the integrated local phone market into its wholesale and retail components.i In the post-1996 Act environment, firms seeking to offer retail local telephone services need not construct a local exchange network, but may offer services by acquiring the necessary facilities in a wholesale market where such facilities are bought and sold. When the 1996 Act was signed into law in February 1996, however, the only firms capable of supplying the wholesale market in each local mar-* An earlier version of this paper appeared as Bell Companies as Profitable Wholesale Firms: The Financial Implications of

Research in Higher Education, 2012

Consumers of higher education face a bewildering array of product and price combinations. We comp... more Consumers of higher education face a bewildering array of product and price combinations. We compare U. S. institutions with a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) multi-factor frontier using 2000-2001 data for 1,188 four-year institutions of higher education. The input is net price or tuition, fees, room, and board less per student financial aid. Outputs include SAT score, athletic expenditures, instructional expenditures, value of buildings, dorm capacity, and student body characteristics. The DEA efficiency scores indicate the distance of each institution from the-best buy‖ frontier, providing an objective means of ranking institutions as the best buys in higher education.

To gain analytical insight into whether input resources matter in public education, a Becker/Pelt... more To gain analytical insight into whether input resources matter in public education, a Becker/Peltzman/Stigler model of the determination of local educational budgets and outputs by political authorities is constructed. The model results are consistent with empirical findings that resources don’t matter, even when all schools are efficient, if errors in measurement and specification occur. When all outputs are not observed, one cannot distinguish an inefficient school district from one that chooses an idiosyncratic output mix. Blind application of efficiency measurement techniques in this context yields perverse or counterintuitive findings. Interpretation of feasible approaches to education production studies are discussed.

The characteristics of time as a resource are examined in order to seek evidence of these charact... more The characteristics of time as a resource are examined in order to seek evidence of these characteristics in fundamental concepts of Economics. A series of thought experiments on time travel demonstrate that a constant irreversible rate of time usage underlies the concepts of opportunity cost, time preference, and interest. This leads to the startling suggestion that the root question in Economics concerns the choice of how to spend time. Thus, the principles of Economics are tied closely to the human perception of time and more closely to the human condition than is generally admitted in undergraduate classes on the subject.

This article fills in some notable gaps in the literature on the existence and empirical implemen... more This article fills in some notable gaps in the literature on the existence and empirical implementation of dual cost and production models embodying the time utilization of capital. A proof of the existence of such dual cost and production functions is provided; previous results of Betancourt (1986) and Klein (1984) are extended to the general N-input-factor, continuously variable time-utilization case; and the restrictive conditions under which a conventional neoclassical empirical cost model captures the characteristics of a capital-utilization technology are derived. The general specification of cost functions that capture utilization effects is indicated.

Working Papers, Sep 1, 2007

This paper seeks to shed light on the role of school funding in individual school performance. A ... more This paper seeks to shed light on the role of school funding in individual school performance. A unique data set is utilized for the Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County School District in Tennessee, known colloquially as Metro. In 2005 the Metro school board undertook the task of breaking down individual school spending levels by funding source. The resulting 2004-2005 financial data are combined with academic test scores and demographic data for 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 academic years for each of 70 elementary schools. Econometric tests are then conducted to examine whether contemporaneous test score performance is determined by funding, or whether funding is determined by prior performance, or whether other school characteristics influence both.

Utilities Policy, 1994

Utilities in the USA are prohibited from charging prices that are unduly discriminatory, but the ... more Utilities in the USA are prohibited from charging prices that are unduly discriminatory, but the mearzing of 'undue' is not clear. A review of recerlt court decisions reveals that regulators' decisions are rarely overturned for this reason. The ecorlornics literature suggests that arl_v set of prices falling between marginal cost and the unregulated monopoly price may be acceptable, but this proL>ides little guidance for defining 'undue' irz practice. The arltitrmt offerzce of price discriminatiorz comerm effects otl competition in a vertical chailz, suggesting a growing role for vertical prickg effects in regulatoy proceedirlgs.

International Review of Law and Economics, 1986

A divisia index of total factor productivity (TFP) growth is calculated for each of 16 regulated ... more A divisia index of total factor productivity (TFP) growth is calculated for each of 16 regulated local telephone companies operating in Tennessee over the years 1989 through 1993. Year over year changes in TFP, in Tornqvist form, yield a growth in total factor productivity estimate for each company. These growth rates, however, contain the effects of both scale and technical change. Using the method suggested by Caves and Christensen, the effects are decomposed indirectly by regressing the annual percentage changes in TFP growth against measures of scale, service density, and network size. The results are consistent with the findings of economies of density and nearly constant returns to scale prevalent in the telecommunications literature.

Working Papers, Apr 1, 2007

To gain analytical insight into whether input resources matter in public education, a Becker/Pelt... more To gain analytical insight into whether input resources matter in public education, a Becker/Peltzman/Stigler model of the determination of local educational budgets and outputs by political authorities is constructed. The model results are consistent with empirical findings that resources don't matter, even when all schools are efficient, if errors in measurement and specification occur. When all outputs are not observed, one cannot distinguish an inefficient school district from one that chooses an idiosyncratic output mix. Blind application of efficiency measurement techniques in this context yields perverse or counterintuitive findings. Interpretation of feasible approaches to education production studies are discussed.

Working Papers, 2007

The characteristics of time as a resource are examined in order to seek evidence of these charact... more The characteristics of time as a resource are examined in order to seek evidence of these characteristics in fundamental concepts of Economics. A series of thought experiments on time travel demonstrate that a constant irreversible rate of time usage underlies the concepts of opportunity cost, time preference, and interest. This leads to the startling suggestion that the root question in Economics concerns the choice of how to spend time. Thus, the principles of Economics are tied closely to the human perception of time and more closely to the human condition than is generally admitted in undergraduate classes on the subject.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Recent reports on the financial consequences of UNE-P sales for Bell Operating Companies have dra... more Recent reports on the financial consequences of UNE-P sales for Bell Operating Companies have drawn additional attention to long-standing complaints by the BOCs that such sales are confiscatory, and amount to "subsidized competition." T his paper subjects the conclusions of these claims and the financial studies upon which they are based to careful scrutiny, and finds that they are largely without merit. Errors in both the calculation of unbundled element revenues, and in the wholesale costs of providing unbundled elements, are identified. Using actual payments by a representative CLEC and publicly available ARMIS expense data, we obtain realistic revenue and current cost figures usable for financial analyses. Our analysis suggests that the wholesale business, taken alone, is profitable for the BOCs.

This article fills in some notable gaps in the literature on the existence and empirical implemen... more This article fills in some notable gaps in the literature on the existence and empirical implementation of dual cost and production models embodying the time utilization of capital. A proof of the existence of such dual cost and production functions is provided; previous results of Betancourt (1986) and Klein (1984) are extended to the general N-input-factor, continuously variable time-utilization case; and the restrictive conditions under which a conventional neoclassical empirical cost model captures the characteristics of a capital-utilization technology are derived. The general specification of cost functions that capture utilization effects is indicated.

Review of Industrial Organization, 1989

This paper critically reviews the regulatory history of telecommunications as rendered in four re... more This paper critically reviews the regulatory history of telecommunications as rendered in four recent books: Temin's The Fall of the Bell System, Henck and Strassburg's A Slippery Slope, Wender's The Economics of Telecommunications, and the multicontributor Disconnecting Bell. Only Wender's regulatory cartel theory seriously competes with the Government's theory in U.S. v. AT&T as an explanation for AT&T's behavior under regulation. In response to inconsistencies between Wender's view and the historical record, an historically consistent alternative hypothesis of AT&T and regulator behavior is developed from clues apparent in the form of the AT&T divestiture.

Energy Economics, 1993

... 4 RG Chambers, Applied Production Analusis, Cambridge, 1988. 5 AL Danielsen, DR Kamerschen an... more ... 4 RG Chambers, Applied Production Analusis, Cambridge, 1988. 5 AL Danielsen, DR Kamerschen and DC Keenan, `Third-Best Pricing Rules for Regulated Utilities', Southern Economic Journal, January 1990, pp 628-638. ... Clcr.ss A and C Gus Utilities, Nashville, annual. ...

Eastern Economic Journal, 2010

The results of a Becker–Peltzman–Stigler model of local school district decision-making yields bi... more The results of a Becker–Peltzman–Stigler model of local school district decision-making yields biased or inconsistent efficiency measures when some school outputs are not measured. Empirical investigation of data for 95 Tennessee counties in the 1999–2000 academic year finds that Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) efficiency measures, and efficiency rankings based on those measures, are highly sensitive to changes in the number

We investigate the determinants of regulators&amp... more We investigate the determinants of regulators' relative weighting of the social welfare of customer groups and utilities using panel data on natural gas distribution utilities in the US state of Tennessee. In contrast to previous empirical work on cross-sections of electric utilities, our results are statistically robust and consistent with the interest group theory of regulation. Intervention in rate cases,