IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jae/japmet/v16y2001i1p59-80.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An empirical comparison of flexible demand system functional forms

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas Fisher

    (Department of Economics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7506, USA)

  • Adrian R. Fleissig

    (Department of Economics, California State University, Fullerton, CA 92834-6848, USA)

  • Apostolos Serletis

    (Department of Economics, The University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada)

Abstract

This paper compares the performance of eight frequently used flexible forms that are either (1) locally flexible, (2) 'effectively globally regular', or (3) asymptotically globally flexible. Results show that the functions with global properties generally perform better, particularly those models having asymptotic properties. Results, using US consumption data, indicate substitutability among the components of consumption at most data points. There is also some interesting substitution volatility around the time of recessions in the USA. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas Fisher & Adrian R. Fleissig & Apostolos Serletis, 2001. "An empirical comparison of flexible demand system functional forms," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(1), pages 59-80.
    • Handle: RePEc:jae:japmet:v:16:y:2001:i:1:p:59-80
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://qed.econ.queensu.ca:80/jae/2001-v16.1/
    File Function: Supporting data files and programs
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Varian, Hal R, 1982. "The Nonparametric Approach to Demand Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 945-973, July.
    2. William A. Barnett, 2000. "New Indices of Money Supply and the Flexible Laurent Demand System," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: The Theory of Monetary Aggregation, pages 325-359, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Lewbel, Arthur, 1996. "Aggregation without Separability: A Generalized Composite Commodity Theorem," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 524-543, June.
    4. Phillips, Peter C B, 1995. "Fully Modified Least Squares and Vector Autoregression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(5), pages 1023-1078, September.
    5. Barten, A. P., 1969. "Maximum likelihood estimation of a complete system of demand equations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 7-73.
    6. Dickey, David A & Fuller, Wayne A, 1981. "Likelihood Ratio Statistics for Autoregressive Time Series with a Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 49(4), pages 1057-1072, June.
    7. Charles Blackorby & R. Robert Russell, 1981. "The Morishima Elasticity of Substitution; Symmetry, Constancy, Separability, and its Relationship to the Hicks and Allen Elasticities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 48(1), pages 147-158.
    8. Lewbel, Arthur, 1987. "Fractional demand systems," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 311-337, November.
    9. Adolf Buse, 1994. "Evaluating the Linearized Almost Ideal Demand System," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(4), pages 781-793.
    10. Pollak, Robert A & Wales, Terence J, 1980. "Comparison of the Quadratic Expenditure System and Translog Demand Systems with Alternative Specifications of Demographic Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(3), pages 595-612, April.
    11. Gallant, A. Ronald, 1981. "On the bias in flexible functional forms and an essentially unbiased form : The fourier flexible form," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 211-245, February.
    12. Pashardes, Panos, 1993. "Bias in Estimating the Almost Ideal Demand System with the Stone Index Approximation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(419), pages 908-915, July.
    13. Christensen, Laurits R & Jorgenson, Dale W & Lau, Lawrence J, 1975. "Transcendental Logarithmic Utility Functions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(3), pages 367-383, June.
    14. Apostolos Serletis, 2006. "Translog Flexible Functional Forms and Substitutability of Monetary Assets," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Money And The Economy, chapter 10, pages 189-205, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    15. Elbadawi, Ibrahim & Gallant, A Ronald & Souza, Geraldo, 1983. "An Elasticity Can Be Estimated Consistently without A Priori Knowledge of Functional Form," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(6), pages 1731-1751, November.
    16. Eastwood, Brian J., 1991. "Asymptotic normality and consistency of semi-nonparametric regression estimators using an upwards F test truncation rule," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1-2), pages 151-181.
    17. Chalfant, James A. & Gallant, A. Ronald, 1985. "Estimating substitution elasticities with the Fourier cost function : Some Monte Carlo results," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 205-222, May.
    18. Diewert, W Erwin, 1978. "Superlative Index Numbers and Consistency in Aggregation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(4), pages 883-900, July.
    19. Blackorby, Charles & Russell, R Robert, 1989. "Will the Real Elasticity of Substitution Please Stand Up? (A Comparison of the Allen/Uzawa and Morishima Elasticities)," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 882-888, September.
    20. Campbell, John Y & Mankiw, N Gregory, 1990. "Permanent Income, Current Income, and Consumption," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 8(3), pages 265-279, July.
    21. Phillips, P C B, 1987. "Time Series Regression with a Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(2), pages 277-301, March.
    22. McElroy, Marjorie B, 1987. "Additive General Error Models for Production, Cost, and Derived Demand or Share Systems," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(4), pages 737-757, August.
    23. Wilcox, David W, 1992. "The Construction of U.S. Consumption Data: Some Facts and Their Implications for Empirical Work," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(4), pages 922-941, September.
    24. W.A. Barnett & J.M. Binner, 2004. "The Global Properties of the Minflex Laurent, Generalized Leontief, and Translog Flexible Functional Forms," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Functional Structure and Approximation in Econometrics, pages 79-97, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    25. Guilkey, David K & Lovell, C A Knox, 1980. "On the Flexibility of the Translog Approximation," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 21(1), pages 137-147, February.
    26. Barnett, William A. & Jonas, Andrew B., 1983. "The Muntz-Szatz demand system : An application of a globally well behaved series expansion," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 337-342.
    27. Fisher, Douglas, 1992. "Money-Demand Variability: A Demand-Systems Approach," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 10(2), pages 143-151, April.
    28. Lewbel, Arthur, 1990. "Full Rank Demand Systems," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(2), pages 289-300, May.
    29. Pantula, Sastry G & Gonzalez-Farias, Graciela & Fuller, Wayne A, 1994. "A Comparison of Unit-Root Test Criteria," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 12(4), pages 449-459, October.
    30. Ng, Serena, 1995. "Testing for Homogeneity in Demand Systems When the Regressors Are Nonstationary," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 10(2), pages 147-163, April-Jun.
    31. Stoker, Thomas M, 1986. "Simple Tests of Distributional Effects on Macroeconomic Equations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 763-795, August.
    32. Hal R. Varian, 1983. "Non-parametric Tests of Consumer Behaviour," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 50(1), pages 99-110.
    33. Cooper, Russel J & McLaren, Keith R, 1996. "A System of Demand Equations Satisfying Effectively Global Regularity Conditions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(2), pages 359-364, May.
    34. William A. Barnett & Michael Wolfe, 2004. "The Global Properties of the Two Minflex Laurent Flexible Functional Forms," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Functional Structure and Approximation in Econometrics, pages 141-157, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    35. Alston, Julian M & Foster, Kenneth A & Green, Richard D, 1994. "Estimating Elasticities with the Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System: Some Monte Carlo Results," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 76(2), pages 351-356, May.
    36. Barnett, William A. & Lee, Yul W. & Wolfe, Michael D., 1985. "The three-dimensional global properties of the minflex laurent, generalized leontief, and translog flexible functional forms," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1-2), pages 3-31.
    37. James Banks & Richard Blundell & Arthur Lewbel, 1997. "Quadratic Engel Curves And Consumer Demand," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 527-539, November.
    38. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R, 1980. "Global Properties of Flexible Functional Forms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 422-432, June.
    39. Phillips, P C B, 1987. "Time Series Regression with a Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(2), pages 277-301, March.
    40. Diewert, W. E., 1976. "Exact and superlative index numbers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-145, May.
    41. W.A. Barnett, 2004. "The Minflex Laurent Translog Flexible Functional Form," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Functional Structure and Approximation in Econometrics, pages 99-110, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    42. Guilkey, David K & Lovell, C A Knox & Sickles, Robin C, 1983. "A Comparison of the Performance of Three Flexible Functional Forms," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 24(3), pages 591-616, October.
    43. Diewert, W E, 1971. "An Application of the Shephard Duality Theorem: A Generalized Leontief Production Function," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(3), pages 481-507, May-June.
    44. Fleissig, Adrian R. & Kastens, Terry & Terrell, Dek, 1997. "Semi-nonparametric estimates of substitution elasticities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 209-215, July.
    45. Fleissig, Adrian R. & Hall, Alastair R. & Seater, John J., 2000. "Garp, Separability, And The Representative Agent," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(3), pages 324-342, September.
    46. Lewbel, Arthur, 1991. "The Rank of Demand Systems: Theory and Nonparametric Estimation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(3), pages 711-730, May.
    47. Lewbel, Arthur, 1995. "Utility Functions and Global Regularity of Fractional Demand Systems," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(4), pages 943-961, November.
    48. MacKinnon, James G, 1994. "Approximate Asymptotic Distribution Functions for Unit-Root and Cointegration Tests," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 12(2), pages 167-176, April.
    49. Berndt, Ernst R & Savin, N Eugene, 1975. "Estimation and Hypothesis Testing in Singular Equation Systems with Autoregressive Disturbances," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 43(5-6), pages 937-957, Sept.-Nov.
    50. Deaton, Angus S & Muellbauer, John, 1980. "An Almost Ideal Demand System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 312-326, June.
    51. Granger, Clive W J, 1995. "Modelling Nonlinear Relationships between Extended-Memory Variables," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(2), pages 265-279, March.
    52. Lewbel, Arthur, 1987. "Characterizing Some Gorman Engel Curves," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(6), pages 1451-1459, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barnett, William A. & Serletis, Apostolos, 2008. "Consumer preferences and demand systems," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 210-224, December.
    2. Barnett, William A. & Serletis, Apostolos, 2008. "Measuring Consumer Preferences and Estimating Demand Systems," MPRA Paper 12318, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. William Barnett & Ousmane Seck, 2006. "Rotterdam vs Almost Ideal Models: Will the Best Demand Specification Please Stand Up?," WORKING PAPERS SERIES IN THEORETICAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS 200605, University of Kansas, Department of Economics.
    4. William A. Barnett & Ousmane Seck, 2008. "Rotterdam model versus almost ideal demand system: will the best specification please stand up?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 23(6), pages 795-824.
    5. Adrian R. Fleissig, 2016. "Changing Trends in U.S. Alcohol Demand," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 44(3), pages 263-276, September.
    6. Serletis, Apostolos & Xu, Libo, 2020. "Functional monetary aggregates, monetary policy, and business cycles," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    7. Jin, Man, 2018. "Measuring substitution in China's monetary-assets demand system," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 117-132.
    8. Kesavan, Thulasiram, 1988. "Monte Carlo experiments of market demand theory," ISU General Staff Papers 198801010800009854, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    9. Nurul Hossain, A.K.M. & Serletis, Apostolos, 2017. "A century of interfuel substitution," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 8(C), pages 28-42.
    10. Serletis, Apostolos & Rangel-Ruiz, Ricardo, 2005. "Microeconometrics and measurement matters: Some results from monetary economics for Canada," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 307-330, June.
    11. Apostolos Serletis & Libo Xu, 2020. "Demand systems with heteroscedastic disturbances," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1913-1921, April.
    12. Drake, Leigh & Fleissig, Adrian R., 2010. "Substitution between monetary assets and consumer goods: New evidence on the monetary transmission mechanism," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2811-2821, November.
    13. Chang, Dongfeng & Serletis, Apostolos, 2012. "Imposing local curvature in the QUAIDS," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 41-43.
    14. Haroon Sarwar & Zakir Hussain & Masood Sarwar, 2011. "A Semi-Nonparametric Approach to the Demand for Money in Pakistan," Lahore Journal of Economics, Department of Economics, The Lahore School of Economics, vol. 16(2), pages 87-110, Jul-Dec.
    15. LaFrance, Jeffrey T., 2008. "The structure of US food demand," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 336-349, December.
    16. Feng, Guohua & Serletis, Apostolos, 2008. "Productivity trends in U.S. manufacturing: Evidence from the NQ and AIM cost functions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 281-311, January.
    17. Serletis, Apostolos & Shahmoradi, Asghar, 2010. "Consumption effects of government purchases," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 892-905, September.
    18. Chalfant, James & Wallace, Nancy, 1991. "Testing the Translog Specification with the Fourier Cost Function," CUDARE Working Papers 198581, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    19. Sulgham, Anil K. & Zapata, Hector O., 2006. "A Dynamic Approach to Estimate Theoretically Consistent US Meat Demand System," 2006 Annual Meeting, February 5-8, 2006, Orlando, Florida 35441, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    20. Arthur Lewbel & Serena Ng, 2005. "Demand Systems with Nonstationary Prices," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 479-494, August.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E17 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • E31 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Price Level; Inflation; Deflation
    • I39 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Other

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. An empirical comparison of flexible demand system functional forms (Journal of Applied Econometrics 2001) in ReplicationWiki

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jae:japmet:v:16:y:2001:i:1:p:59-80. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing or Christopher F. Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/0883-7252/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.