François Gardes

Panel and Pseudo-Panel Estimation of Cross-Sectional and Time Series Elasticities of Food Consumption: The Case of American and Polish Data

This article addresses the problem of the bias of income and expenditure elasticities estimated on pseudopanel data caused by measurement error and unobserved heterogeneity. We gauge these biases empirically by comparing cross-sectional, pseudo-panel, and true panel data from both Polish and U.S. expenditure surveys. Our results suggest that unobserved heterogeneity imparts a downward bias to cross-section estimates of income elasticities of at-home food expenditures and an upward bias to estimates of income elasticities of away-from-home food expenditures. “Within” and first-difference estimators suffer less bias, but only if the effects of measurement error are accounted for with instrumental variables.

Hedonic prices for environmental and safety characteristics and the Akerlof effect in the French car market

In this paper, the computation of hedonic prices on individual panel data shows the positive valuation of environmental and safety characteristics by the market and gives some evidence of an Akerlof effect between perceived quality and the part of the market price which is not explained by car characteristics and pure inflation.

Cross-section versus time-series income elasticities of Canadian consumption

Abstract Five Canadian surveys are used to compute cross-section and time-series income elasticities. Within pseudo-panel elasticities differ significantly from between elasticities for most consumptions. Thus, income elasticities computed using cross-section data cannot be used to predict changes in consumption over time.

Are Time and Money Equally Substitutable for All Commodity Groups in the Household's Domestic Production?

This article uses time-use and household expenditure data to measure the substitutability between time and money within the Beckerian household production framework. The elasticity of substitution is estimated for five commodity groups and across two developing countries: Ecuador and Guatemala. The estimated elasticities are positive, indicating substitutability, and much larger for all other goods compared to food. Our results raise some interesting questions regarding the policy effects of an intervention that does not consider the money/time trade-offs in consumption.