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Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19582-9 - Households as Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting Krislert Samphantharak and Robert M. Townsend Frontmatter More information Households as Corporate Firms This investigation proposes a conceptual framework for measurement neces- sary for an analysis of household finance and economic development. The authors build on and, where appropriate, modify corporate financial accounts to create balance sheets, income statements, and statements of cash flow for households in developing countries, using integrated household surveys. The authors also illustrate how to apply the accounts to an analysis of household finance that includes productivity of household enterprises, capital structure, liquidity, financing, and portfolio management. The conceptualization of this analysis has important implications for measurement, questionnaire design, the modeling of household decisions, and the analysis of panel data. Krislert Samphantharak is an Assistant Professor and the Charles Robins Faculty Scholar in the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is also an affiliate at the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD). He received his doctoral degree in economics from the University of Chicago. In addition to his research on household finance, other research interests include family business groups, the effect of unpredictable corruption on firm investment, the effect of sales tax on gasoline prices, the effect of a firm’s lobby spending on its effective tax rate, and the economic development of the economies in Southeast Asia. Robert M. Townsend is the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He previously was the Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he remains a Research Professor. His contributions to economic theory include the revelation principle, costly state verification, optimal multiperiod contracts, decentralization with private information, money with spatially separated agents, financial structure and growth, and forecasting the forecasts of others. His contributions to econometrics include the study of risk and insurance in developing countries. His work on village India was awarded the Frisch Medal in 1998. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19582-9 - Households as Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting Krislert Samphantharak and Robert M. Townsend Frontmatter More information ECONOMETRIC SOCIETY MONOGRAPHS Editors Andrew Chesher, University College London George J. Mailath, University of Pennsylvania The Econometric Society is an international society for the advancement of economic theory in relation to statistics and mathematics. The Econometric Society Monographs series is designed to promote the publication of original research contributions of high quality in mathematical economics and theoretical and applied econometrics. Other titles in the series G. S. Maddala Limited dependent and qualitative variables in econometrics Gerard Debreu Mathematical economics: Twenty papers of Gerard Debreu Jean-Michel Grandmont Money and value: A reconsideration of classical and neoclassical monetary economics Franklin M. Fisher Disequilibrium foundations of equilibrium economics Andreu Mas-Colell The theory of general equilibrium: A differentiable approach Truman F. Bewley, Editor Advances in econometrics – Fifth World Congress (Volume I) Truman F. Bewley, Editor Advances in econometrics – Fifth World Congress (Volume II) Herve Moulin Axioms of cooperative decision making L. G. Godfrey Misspecification tests in econometrics: The Lagrange multiplier principle and other approaches Tony Lancaster The econometric analysis of transition data Alvin E. Roth and Marilda A. Oliviera Sotomayor, Editors Two-sided matching: A study in game-theoretic modeling and analysis Wolfgang Härdle Applied nonparametric regression Jean-Jacques Laffont, Editor Advances in economic theory – Sixth World Congress (Volume I) Jean-Jacques Laffont, Editor Advances in economic theory – Sixth World Congress (Volume II) Halbert White Estimation, inference and specification Christopher Sims, Editor Advances in econometrics – Sixth World Congress (Volume I) Christopher Sims, Editor Advances in econometrics – Sixth World Congress (Volume II) Roger Guesnerie A contribution to the pure theory of taxation David M. Kreps and Kenneth F. Wallis, Editors Advances in economics and econometrics – Seventh World Congress (Volume I) David M. Kreps and Kenneth F. Wallis, Editors Advances in economics and econometrics – Seventh World Congress (Volume II) David M. Kreps and Kenneth F. Wallis, Editors Advances in economics and econometrics – Seventh World Congress (Volume III) Donald P. Jacobs, Ehud Kalai, and Morton I. Kamien, Editors Frontiers of research in economic theory: The Nancy L. Schwartz Memorial Lectures, 1983–1997 Continued after the index © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19582-9 - Households as Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting Krislert Samphantharak and Robert M. Townsend Frontmatter More information Households as Corporate Firms An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting Krislert Samphantharak University of California, San Diego Robert M. Townsend Massachusetts Institute of Technology © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19582-9 - Households as Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting Krislert Samphantharak and Robert M. Townsend Frontmatter More information CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521124164 © Krislert Samphantharak and Robert M. Townsend 2010 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2010 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Samphantharak, Krislert. Households as corporate firms : an analysis of household finance using integrated household surveys and corporate financial accounting / Krislert Samphantharak, Robert M. Townsend. p. cm. – (Econometric society monographs ; 46) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-521-19582-9 (hardback) 1. Households – Economic aspects. 2. Household surveys – Accounting. I. Townsend, Robert M., 1948– II. Title. III. Series. HB820.S25 2009 339.2Ł2–dc22 2009038927 ISBN 978-0-521-19582-9 Hardback ISBN 978-0-521-12416-4 Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19582-9 - Households as Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting Krislert Samphantharak and Robert M. Townsend Frontmatter More information To Khun Sombat Sakuntasathien and the staff at the Thai Family Research Project © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19582-9 - Households as Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting Krislert Samphantharak and Robert M. Townsend Frontmatter More information “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science.” Lord Kelvin, 1891–4 “The only way to obtain measures [of income and consumption] is by imposing an accounting framework on the data, and painstakingly constructing estimates from myriad responses to questions about the specific components that contribute to the total.” Angus Deaton, l997 © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-19582-9 - Households as Corporate Firms: An Analysis of Household Finance Using Integrated Household Surveys and Corporate Financial Accounting Krislert Samphantharak and Robert M. Townsend Frontmatter More information Contents Preface page xi Part I Households as Corporate Firms 1 Introduction 3 1.1 The Challenges 4 1.2 Our Solution: Constructing