Alan Powell | Monash University (original) (raw)

Papers by Alan Powell

... Empirical analytics of demand systems. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Powell, Alan A. ... more ... Empirical analytics of demand systems. Post a Comment. CONTRIBUTORS: Author: Powell, Alan A. PUBLISHER: Lexington Books (Lexington, Mass). SERIES TITLE: YEAR: 1974. PUB TYPE: Book (ISBN 0669863149 ). VOLUME/EDITION: PAGES (INTRO/BODY): xiv, 149 p. ...

Centre of Policy Studies Impact Centre Working Papers, Nov 1, 1992

ABSTRACT This is a companion paper to Impact Preliminary Working Paper No OP-73 in which Rimmer a... more ABSTRACT This is a companion paper to Impact Preliminary Working Paper No OP-73 in which Rimmer and Powell report on a new implicitly directly additive demand system (AIDADS) which (in Cooper and McLaren's 1992b terminology) is effectively globally regular. In OP-73 AIDADS is fitted to a six-commodity disaggregation of a 35-year Australian time series of consumption. Unlike the linear expenditure system and the Rotterdam model, the new system allows marginal budget shares to vary as a function of income. In the current paper we also work at a six-commodity level, fitting AIDADS to an international cross section of 30 countries in 1975. The data are from the International Comparisons Project of Kravis, Heston and Summers (1982) and previously were analyzed by Theil and Clements (1987) using a combination of additive preferences and Working's (1943) model in differential form. The present results overcome two potential shortcomings of the earlier work by replacing Working's model with a more regular specification of Engel effects and by providing and estimating an explicit functional form in the levels of the variables. A rough comparison can be made between the time-series estimates of OP-73 and the cross-sectional ones reported here. We found the two sets of results broadly consistent (although the rate of decline in Food's marginal budget share was less in the Australian time series than in the international cross section). Overall, the new system performed well empirically. It seems suitable for modelling demand for broad consumption aggregates (say up to about a dozen commodities) in situations in which there may be very large variations in income per head.

Centre of Policy Studies Impact Centre Working Papers, Jul 1, 1994

Centre of Policy Studies Impact Centre Working Papers, Oct 1, 1992

ABSTRACT The problem of endowing large applied general equilibrium models with numerical values f... more ABSTRACT The problem of endowing large applied general equilibrium models with numerical values for parameters is formidable. For example, a complete set of own- and cross-price elasticities of demand for the ORANI model involves 228 squared, or about 60 K items. Invoking the minimal assumptions that demand is generated by utility maximization reduces the load to about 26 K -- obviously still a number much too large for unrestrained econometric estimation. To obtain demand systems estimates for a dozen or so generic commodities at a top level of aggregation (categories like 'food', 'clothing and footwear', ...), typically Johansen's (1960) lead has been followed, and directly additive preferences imposed upon the underlying utility function. With the move beyond one-step linearized solutions of the ORANI model, the functional form of the demand system adopted becomes an issue. The most celebrated of the additive-preference demand systems, Stone's (1954) linear expenditure system (LES), has one drawback for empirical work; namely, the constancy of marginal budget shares (MBSs) -- a liability shared with the Rotterdam system (Barten, 1964, 1968; Theil, 1965, 1967). To get around this, Theil and Clements (1987) used Holbrook Working's (1943) Engel specification in conjunction with additive preferences; unfortunately both Working's formulation and Deaton and Muellbauer's (1980) AIDS have the problem that, under large changes in real incomes, budget shares can stray outside the [0,1] interval. It was such behaviour that led Cooper and McLaren (1987, 1988, 1991, forthcoming 1992) to invent MAIDS, a system with better regularity properties. MAIDS, however, is not globally compatible with any additive preference system. In this paper we specify, and estimate, at the six-commodity level, an implicitly directly additive-preference demand system which allows MBSs to vary as a function of total real expenditure and which is globally regular throughout that part of the the price-expenditure space in which the consumer is at least affluent enough to meet subsistence requirements.

Centre of Policy Studies Impact Centre Working Papers, Feb 1, 2007

none of whom is responsible for any deficiencies in it. I would also like to take this opportunit... more none of whom is responsible for any deficiencies in it. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution made to GTAP by Judy Conner over the period 1991 through 2006, both to its administration and to its relationships to its far-flung associates, and especially to me.

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 000368496327589, Oct 1, 2010

Centre of Policy Studies Impact Centre Working Papers, May 1, 1998

ABSTRACT The policy debate on global warming has raised the prospect of large taxes on Greenhouse... more ABSTRACT The policy debate on global warming has raised the prospect of large taxes on Greenhouse pollutants leading to a very substantial rise in the price of energy. Models in which output is produced according to a technology in which capital (K), labour (L) and energy (E) are substitutable run into the difficulty of how to allow parsimoniously for the higher likely substitutability between K and E than between L and E. Nesting all three factors in a single CES aggregator function is unsatisfactory because of the constancy over pairs of factors of partial substitution elasticities. This paper is a variation on the CES theme. It presents a new composite three-input production function (based on CES and Leontief components) which allows the partial substitution elasticities between capital and labour, capital and energy, and between labour and energy, to differ but to remain individually constant.

Latin American Journal of Economics Formerly Cuadernos De Economia, 1965

Consider the following two opinions, both of which can be found in the literature of consumer dem... more Consider the following two opinions, both of which can be found in the literature of consumer demand systems: (a) As the real income of a consumer becomes indefinitely large, re-mixing the consumption bundle becomes irrelevant: having chosen the ultimately satisfying budget shares at any given set of relative prices, the superlatively wealthy continue to allocate additional income in the same

Two large applied general equilibrium models, GTAP and MONASH, are used in this paper to simulate... more Two large applied general equilibrium models, GTAP and MONASH, are used in this paper to simulate the elimination of trade barriers among the members of APEC. These models focus respectively on global trading relations and on the detailed sectoral, occupational, and regional dimensions of the Australian economy. We find that the mature industrialized members of APEC are likely to experience

General equilibrium models are usually represented as a system of levels equations (e.g. in North... more General equilibrium models are usually represented as a system of levels equations (e.g. in North America) or a system of linearized equations (e.g. in Australia). Either representation can be used to obtain accurate solutions. General-purpose software is available in both cases - GAMS or MPS/GE for levels modellers and GEMPACK for linearizers. Some equations (notably accounting identities) are naturally expressed