Santos Silva, Joao and Tenreyro, Silvana 
ORCID: 0000-0002-9816-7452
(2005)
The log of gravity.
CEPR Discussion Paper (5311).
Centre for Economic Policy Research (Great Britain), London, UK.
Abstract
Although economists have long been aware of Jensen's inequality, many econometric applications have neglected an important implication of it: the standard practice of interpreting the parameters of log-linearized models estimated by ordinary least squares as elasticities can be highly misleading in the presence of heteroskedasticity. This paper explains why this problem arises and proposes an appropriate estimator. Our criticism of conventional practices and the solution we propose extends to a broad range of economic applications where the equation under study is log-linearized. We develop the argument using one particular illustration, the gravity equation for trade, and apply the proposed technique to provide new estimates of this equation. We find significant differences between estimates obtained with the proposed estimator and those obtained with the traditional method.
| Item Type: | Monograph (Discussion Paper) |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | http://www.cepr.org |
| Additional Information: | © 2005 The Authors |
| Divisions: | Centre for Economic Performance Economics |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory |
| JEL classification: | F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F10 - General F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F11 - Neoclassical Models of Trade F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F15 - Economic Integration C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C1 - Econometric and Statistical Methods: General > C13 - Estimation F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F12 - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods > C2 - Econometric Methods: Single Equation Models; Single Variables > C21 - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Jun 2008 17:31 |
| Last Modified: | 15 Sep 2023 23:02 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/5311 |
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