Nonparametric Welfare Analysis

Exact consumer's surplus and deadweight loss are the most widely used welfare and economic efficiency measures. These measures can be computed from demand functions in straightforward ways. Nonparametric estimation can be used to estimate the welfare measures. In doing so, it seems important to...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hausman, Jerry A, Newey, Whitney K
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Format: Article
Published: Annual Reviews 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114158
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5433-9435
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2699-4704
Description
Summary:Exact consumer's surplus and deadweight loss are the most widely used welfare and economic efficiency measures. These measures can be computed from demand functions in straightforward ways. Nonparametric estimation can be used to estimate the welfare measures. In doing so, it seems important to account correctly for unobserved heterogeneity, given the high degree of unexplained demand variation often found in applications. This review surveys work on nonparametric welfare analysis, focusing on work that allows for general heterogeneity in demand, such as that of Hausman & Newey (2016). Keywords: consumer surplus, deadweight loss, identification, quantiles