The hypothesis of additive utility (or preference independence) is often applied to the demand for broad aggregates. Recent testing provides some evidence favourable to the hypothesis, thus overturning the older results based on the standard asymptotic tests which are seriously biased against the null in small samples. Using data for seven countries and a variety of tests, this paper shows that preference independence also cannot be rejected for more narrowly defined commodities - beer, wine and spirits. The implications of the results for efficient taxation of alcoholic beverages are also explored.

As there is a plethora of demand models, which one should be used to estimate income and price elasticities? The paper sheds light on this important practical problem by developing a matrix approach to simulating (MAS) demand equations to analyse their performance under idealized circumstances. Artificial data on the dependent variable are generated by one model, and these are then used for the estimation of another model. As an illustrative application, using four popular models, a 4 × 4 matrix is generated which gives all pair-wise comparisons. The performance of the models is then evaluated on the basis of the quality of the income and own-price elasticity estimates.

As there is a plethora of demand models, which one should be used to estimate income and price elasticities? The paper sheds light on this important practical problem by developing a matrix approach to simulating (MAS) demand equations to analyse their performance under idealised circumstances. Artificial data on the dependent variable are generated by one model, and these are then used for the estimation of another model. Using four popular models, a 4 x 4 matrix is generated which gives all pair-wise comparisons. The performance of the models is then evaluated on the basis of the quality of the income and own-price elasticity estimates. The overall results indicate that, among the four models, E. A. Selvanathan' s (1985) model performs the best, followed by Working's model under substitution independence (Keller, 1984).