Phone: +44(0)1865 281441
Fax: +44(0)1865 271094
Ian Crawford
University Lecturer. Reader. Department of Economics, University of Oxford, Manor Road Building, Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UQEmail: ian.crawford_at_economics.ox.ac.uk
Phone: +44(0)1865 281441
Fax: +44(0)1865 271094
Recent Publications:
Teaching:
Undergraduate Lectures:
Some Current Research
The Age-period-cohort Problem: set identification and point identification (with Martin Browning and Marike Knoef)
Various methods have been used to overcome the point identification problem inherent in the linear age-period-cohort model. This paper
presents a set-identification result for the model and then considers the use of the maximum-entropy principle as a vehicle
for achieving point identification. We present two substantive applications (US female mortality data and and UK female labor force
participation) and compare the results from our approach to some of the solutions in the literature.
paper.
Cormac's STATA ado file
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Aggregation without the aggravation? Nonparametric analysis of the representative consumer (with the Leuven 3 - Laurens Cherchye, Bram De Rock, Frederic Vermeulen)
In the tradition of Afriat (1967), Diewert (1973) and Varian (1982), we provide a nonparametric, revealed preference characterisation of
the representative consumer. Our results are simple and complement those of Gorman (1953, 1961), Samuelson (1956) and others. They can also
be applied to data very readily and without the need for auxilliary parametric or statistical assumptions. We investigate the application of
our characterisation by means of a balanced microdata panel survey. Our findings provide robust evidence against the existence of a
representative consumer, at least for our data.
paper
How Many Types are There? (with Krishna Pendakur)
Unobserved heterogeneity is a big deal in applied micro. But anything much more complex that the traditional linear
model with a single idiosyncratic fixed effect is very tricky to deal with in a way which is consistent with economic theory.
There is also a whiff of "the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible" about methods in which the identification of
an unobservable object is bound up with the residuals in a statistical model. Drawing on the long literature on revealed-preference/combinatorial tests of optimising behaviour
we take an economic-theory driven, nonparametric look at unobserved heterogeneity. We provide partitioning
algorithms which will allow researchers to explain cross section data in terms of standard economic models with
precision and with minimal recourse to unobserved heterogeneity as part of that explanation. It appears that
unobserved heterogeneity is less important that we may think.
paper .
“Your manuscript is both good and original. But the part that is good is not original, and the part that is
original is not good.” Attr. Samuel Johnson
Articles
"How Demanding is the Revealed Preference approach to Demand?", American Economic Review, 101 (2011), 2782–2795, (with T. Beatty)
"Welfare rankings from multivariate data, a nonparametric approach", Journal of Public Economics 95 (2011) 247–252, (with G. Anderson and A. Leicester)
"Habits Revealed" Review of Economic Studies, (2010) 77(4), pp. 1382-1402
"Best Nonparametric Bounds on Demand Responses" Econometrica, (2008) 76(6), pp. 1227–1262 (with R. Blundell and M. Browning)
"Testing for a Reference Consumer in International Comparisons of Living Standards" Amercian Economic Review (2008) 98(4), pp. 1731–32, (with J. Peter Neary)
"Revealed Preference Methods for the Consumer Characteristics Model" Review of Economic Studies, (2008) vol 75, pp. 371-389, (with L. Blow and M. Browning)
"Improving Bounds on Demand Curves " International Economic Review, (2007) Vol. 48, No. 4, November, (with R. Blundell and M. Browning).
"The RPI and the cost-of-living index: testing for consistency between theory and practice", Fiscal Studies, (2004), vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 79-91 (with I. Image)
"Nonparametric Engel Curves and Revealed Preference", Econometrica, (2003) vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 205-240, (with R. Blundell and M. Browning)
"Estimation of household demand systems with theoretically compatible Engel curve and unit value specifications", Journal of Econometrics, (2003) vol. 114, pp. 221-241, (with F. Laisney and I. Preston).
"The cost of living with the RPI: Substitution bias in the UK Retail Prices Index", Economic Journal, (2001), 111, F311-334 (with L. Blow)
Book Chapters
“The revealed preference approach to demand” in Quantifying consumer preferences: estimating demand
systems - Contributions to economic analysis Daniel Slottje (ed.), Emerald Press. 2009, with L. Cherchye
L, B. De Rock, F. Vermeulen F.
“Efficiency Analysis and the Lower Convex Hull Approach”, in Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional
Poverty Measurement, Nanak Kakwani and Jacques Silber (ed.’s) Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, with
G. Anderson and A. Leicester
“Value Added Tax and Excises” in The Mirrlees Review: Dimensions of Tax Design, S. Adam, T. Besley
and R. Blundell (ed.’s), Oxford University Press, 2009, with M. Keen and S. Smith
“The discipline of colleges and universities is in general contrived, not for the benefit of the students,
but for the interest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the masters. Its object is, in all cases,
to maintain the authority of the master, and whether he neglects or performs his duty, to oblige the students
in all cases to behave toward him as if he performed it with the greatest diligence and ability.” Adam Smith
Microeconomics (Prelims)
Course Page
Quantitative Economics (Finals)
Course Page
Graduate Lectures:
Advanced Econometrics
Course Page
Lecture 1
Lecture 2
Lecture 3
“If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” Albert Einstein