Measuring the price responsiveness of gasoline demand
Measuring the price responsiveness of gasoline demand
复制标题
衡量汽油需求的价格反应
DOI：
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发表时间：
2009
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
M. Parey
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
R. Blundell;J. Horowitz;M. Parey
本文提出了一种新的方法来估计汽油的需求函数和由于汽油税的增加而造成的无谓损失。该方法也适用于其他商品。该方法使用来自经济理论的形状限制，以提高需求函数的非参数估计的精度。使用美国全国家庭旅行调查的数据，我们表明，这些限制与汽油需求数据一致，并消除了标准非参数估计的异常行为。我们的方法提供了关于汽油需求的价格响应性以及收入分配中响应方式的新见解。我们拒绝常数弹性模型，并发现价格反应随收入的非单调变化。特别是，我们发现低收入和高收入消费者对汽油价格变化的反应不如中等收入消费者。
This paper develops a new method for estimating the demand function for gasoline and the deadweight loss due to an increase in the gasoline tax. The method is also applicable to other goods. The method uses shape restrictions derived from economic theory to improve the precision of a nonparametric estimate of the demand function. Using data from the U.S. National Household Travel Survey, we show that the restrictions are consistent with the data on gasoline demand and remove the anomalous behavior of a standard nonparametric estimator. Our approach provides new insights about the price responsiveness of gasoline demand and the way responses vary across the income distribution. We reject constant elasticity models and find that price responses vary non-monotonically with income. In particular, we find that low- and high-income consumers are less responsive to changes in gasoline prices than are middle-income consumers.