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Author: Agee, Mark D.
Resulting in 3 citations.
1. Agee, Mark D.
Atkinson, Scott E.
Crocker, Thomas D.
Child Maturation, Time-invariant, and Time-varying Inputs: Their Interaction in the Production of Child Human Capital
Journal of Productivity Analysis 38,1 (August 2012): 29-44.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/183lx7ww7w841183/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: Springer
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Child Health; Geocoded Data; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Maternal Employment; Motor and Social Development (MSD); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); School Characteristics/Rating/Safety; Smoking (see Cigarette Use); Temperament

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We model the relationship over time between multiple good and bad inputs to the child development production process and the multiple good and bad outcomes which are generated. Doing this avoids several well-known empirical problems associated with construction and use of aggregated inputs and outputs, the assumption of separability among inputs and outputs, and the estimation of reduced forms. Using time-demeaned data for a balanced panel of families from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth–Child Sample for 1994–2000, we estimate an output-oriented directional distance function that simultaneously relates good and bad inputs from home, school, and environment, to good and bad outcomes, measured as children’s math and reading test scores as well as parent-reported behavior problems. We are able for the first time to compute partial effects among endogenous outputs. Recovering consistent estimates of time-invariant coefficients using a second-stage estimator, we find that some time-invariant variables are significant. We also measure productivity growth, technical change, efficiency change, and technical efficiency. Children’s productivity growth is highest at age 5 years and diminishes thereafter. Finally, we investigate the effect on these estimates of the choice of alternative direction vectors for the good and bad outputs.
Bibliography Citation
Agee, Mark D., Scott E. Atkinson and Thomas D. Crocker. "Child Maturation, Time-invariant, and Time-varying Inputs: Their Interaction in the Production of Child Human Capital ." Journal of Productivity Analysis 38,1 (August 2012): 29-44.
2. Agee, Mark D.
Atkinson, Scott E.
Crocker, Thomas D.
Multiple-output Child Health Production Functions: The Impact of Time-varying and Time-invariant Inputs
Southern Economic Journal 75,2 (October 2008): 410-428.
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Southern Economic Association
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Asthma; Child Health; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Disability; Environment, Pollution/Urban Density; Geographical Variation; Head Start; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Household Models; Maternal Employment; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Teachers/Faculty

Many production activities generate undesirable outputs in conjunction with the desirable outputs. In this paper we present the first estimates of a multiple-input, multiple-output directional distance function that relates good and bad inputs from home, school, and environment to good and bad outputs, measured as children's cognitive and behavioral development. This household directional distance function is estimated using a balanced panel of 369 families from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Sample for 1996 to 2000 using the generalized method of moments within estimator and instrumental variables. We recover consistent partial effects for the time-invariant variables in a second-stage regression and estimate their corrected asymptotic standard errors. We then compute and examine productivity differences among households defined as the increase (decrease) in good (bad) outputs that families could attain with constant inputs if they were operating on the technological frontier. Our estimates suggest the presence of significant inefficiency among sample families that diminishes over time.
Bibliography Citation
Agee, Mark D., Scott E. Atkinson and Thomas D. Crocker. "Multiple-output Child Health Production Functions: The Impact of Time-varying and Time-invariant Inputs." Southern Economic Journal 75,2 (October 2008): 410-428.
3. Agee, Mark D.
Atkinson, Scott E.
Crocker, Thomas D.
On the Technical Efficiency of Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output Child Outcome Production Functions
Working Paper, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming, November 2, 2005.
Also: http://business.uwyo.edu/ECONFIN/Papers/ChildHealth.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming
Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Asthma; Child Health; Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Disability; Environment, Pollution/Urban Density; Geographical Variation; Head Start; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Household Models; Maternal Employment; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Teachers/Faculty

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Many production activities generate undesirable outputs in conjunction with the desirable outputs. We estimate a multiple-input, multiple-output directional distance function to analyze the relationship between parental home, school, and environmental inputs and children's cognitive and behavioral development. A household directional distance function is estimated using a panel of 206 families from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Sample for the years 1988 to 1990 using Hausman and Taylor's (1981) within-groups instrumental variables technique. We then transform our fitted model to compute marginal effects of any input on any output, and to compute technical inefficiencies of households, defined as the increase (decrease) in good (bad) outputs that sample families could attain from a given level of inputs if they were operating on the technological frontier. Our estimates suggest the presence of significant inefficiency (approaching 20 percent) among sample families? production (reduction) of good (bad) outputs. Given these inefficiencies, public provision of education services for young children such as Head Start or other health and welfare programs that target improvements in children's home environment may be the most effective means of improving child outcomes.
Bibliography Citation
Agee, Mark D., Scott E. Atkinson and Thomas D. Crocker. "On the Technical Efficiency of Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output Child Outcome Production Functions." Working Paper, Department of Economics and Finance, University of Wyoming, November 2, 2005.