Professor
328 Giannini Hall
(510) 643-5416 (voice)
(510) 643-8911 (fax)
Agricultural & Resource Economics 207 Giannini Hall / MC 3310 University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-3310
Research Interests: Curriculum Vita
Consumer economics and demand analysis, econometrics, agricultural policy, environmental & resource economics.
Current Research:
LaFrance, J.T. CES Preferences. Constant elasticity of substitution utility functions are additively separable with a power function aggregator over a sum of sub-utility functions. Each sub-utility function is positive-valued, increasing, and concave, but unrestricted in functional form. The added generality over the CES production function is due to ordinal utility, which does not imply constant returns to scale (CRS). Utility functions with identical level sets, demands, and welfare measures can have any elasticity of substitution. In both production and consumption theory, the elasticity of substitution contains no information about the degree of substitutability or complementarity among goods. Given CES, a method to nest or test for the additional property of CRS is identified.
LaFrance, J.T. and R.D. Pope. Full Rank Rational Demand Systems. We find the solution to integrability of all full rank aggregable demand models. We find the necessary and sufficient conditions for full rank and global regularity of a class of indirect utility functions that generate rational demand systems. We develop a new class of demand models that nests these two approaches.
LaFrance, J.T., T.K.M. Beatty, and R.D. Pope. Aggregation Theory for Incomplete Systems. Gorman’s theory of demand is extended comprehensively to incomplete systems. Complete solutions for indirect preferences are found. A method to nest rank and functional form of any Gorman system is developed.
Selected Publications:
LaFrance, J.T. and R.D. Pope. 2008. Homogeneity and Supply. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 90: in press.
LaFrance, J.T. and R.D. Pope. 2008. AJAE Appendix: Homogeneity and Supply. At http://agecon.lib.umn.edu.
Pope, R.D., LaFrance, J.T., and R.E. Just. 2008. "Agricultural Arbitrage and Risk Preferences." Journal of Econometrics 142: in press.
Pope, R.D., LaFrance, J.T. and R.E. Just. 2007. "Imperfect Price Deflation in Production Systems." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 89: 738-754.
Chouinard, H.H., Davis, D.E., LaFrance, J.T., and J.M. Perloff. 2007. "Fat Taxes: Big Money for Small Change." Forum for Health Economics and Policy, 10: Article 2.
Watts, M.J., Shimshack, J.P., and J.T. LaFrance. "Grazing Fees versus Stewardship on Federal Lands." Invited paper, joint AAEA/WAEA meeting, 2007. Abstract in press at Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 32,3 (2007).
Beattie, B.R. and J.T. LaFrance. 2006. "The Law of Demand versus Diminishing Marginal Utility." Review of Agricultural Economics, 28: 263-271.
LaFrance, J.T., T.K.M. Beatty, and R.D. Pope. 2006. “Gorman Engel Curves for Incomplete Demand Systems.” In Exploring Frontiers in Applied Economics: Essays in Honor of Stanley R. Johnson, M.T. Hott and J.–P. Chavas, ed., Berkeley Electronic Press.
Beatty, T.K.M. and J.T. LaFrance. 2005. "U.S. Demand for Food and Nutrients in the 20th Century." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 87: 1159-1166.
LaFrance, J.T., T.K.M. Beatty, and R.D. Pope. 2005. “Building Gorman’s Nest.” 9th World Congress of the Econometric Society.
LaFrance, J.T. 2004. "Integrability of the Linear Approximate Almost Ideal Demand System." Economic Letters 84: 297-303.
Stohs, S.M. and J.T. LaFrance. 2004. “A Learning Rule for Inferring Local Distributions Over Space and Time." In Advances in Econometrics, Volume 18: Spatial and Spatiotemporal Econometrics, T.B. Fomby and R.C. Hill, eds., Elsevier Science.
LaFrance, J.T., T.K.M. Beatty, R.D. Pope, and G.K. Agnew. 2002. “Information Theoretic Measures of the U.S. Income Distribution in Food Demand.” Journal of Econometrics 107: 235-257.
LaFrance, J.T. 2001. “Duality for the Household: Theory and Application.” Chapter 18 in Handbook of Agricultural Economics, B. Gardner and G. Rausser, eds., New York: Elsevier Science: 1025-1081.
LaFrance, J.T., T.K. M. Beatty, R.D. Pope and G.K. Agnew. 2000. “U.S. Income Distribution and Gorman Engel Curves for Food.” Proceedings of IIFET, 2000. Complete background in Working Paper No. 911.
LaFrance, J.T. 1999. “Inferring the Nutrient Content of Food with Prior Information.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 81: 728-734
LaFrance, J.T. 1999. "U.S. Food & Nutrient Demand & the Effects of Agricultural Policy." USDA/AAEA/FAMA commissioned paper.
Black, G. and J.T. LaFrance. 1998. “Is Hotelling’s Rule Relevant to Domestic Oil Production?” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 35: 149-169.
LaFrance, J.T. 1998. “The
SilenceBleating! of the Lambda’s.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 80: 221-230.Kirchhoff, S., B.G. Colby, and J.T. LaFrance.c 1997. “Evaluating the Performance of Benefits Transfer: An Empirical Inquiry.” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 33: 75-93.
LaFrance, J.T. and M.J. Watts. 1995. “Public Grazing in the West and ‘Rangeland Reform ’94’.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 77: 447-461.
LaFrance, J.T. 1992. “Do Higher Commodity Prices Lead to More or Less Soil Degradation?” Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 36: 57-82. Mathematical appendix. The appendix has detailed derivations of the short-run, intertemporal, and long-run comparative statics and dynamics properties for natural resource economics.
LaFrance, J.T. and L.D. Barney. 1991. “The Envelope Theorem in Dynamic Optimization.” Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 15: 355-385.
LaFrance, J.T. 1990. “Incomplete Demand Systems and Semilogarithmic Demand Models." Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 34: 118-131.
LaFrance, J.T. and W.M. Hanemann. 1989. “The Dual Structure of Incomplete Demand Systems.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 71: 262-274.
LaFrance, J.T. 1986. “The Structure of Constant Elasticity Demand Models.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 68: 543-552.
LaFrance, J.T. 1985. “Linear Demand Functions in Theory and Practice.” Journal of Economic Theory, 37: 147-166.
LaFrance, J.T. and H. de Gorter. 1985. “Regulation in a Dynamic Market: The United States Dairy Industry.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 67: 821-832.
Hochman, E., J.T. LaFrance, and D. Zilberman. 1984. “Solar Energy and Hydroelectric Power Generation in the Dead Sea: A Dynamic Analysis.” Water Resources Research 20: 1467-1476.
Rucker, R.R., O.R. Burt, and J.T. LaFrance. 1984. “An Econometric Model of Beef Cattle Inventories.” American Journal of Agricultural Economics 66: 131-144.
LaFrance, J.T., A. Schmitz, and D. Zilberman. 1984. “Small Leading Firms.” Economic Record (June): 160-164.
LaFrance, J.T., and O.R. Burt. 1983. "A Modified Partial Adjustment Model of Aggregate U.S. Agricultural Supply." Western Journal of Agricultural Economics 8:1-12.
© Jeffrey T. LaFrance, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.