An Elasticity can be Estimated Consistently without a Priori Knowledge of Functional Form
无需预先知道函数形式也能一致估计弹性
We consider an open question in applied price theory: Without a priori knowledge of a firm's cost function or a consumer's indirect utility function, is it possible to estimate price and substitution elasticities consistently by observing a demand system? As the work of White [30], Guilkey, Lovell, and Sickles [19], and others has shown, ordinary flexible functional forms such as the translog cannot achieve this objective. We find that if one is prepared to assume that…