Semi-nonparametric estimates of interfuel substitution in U.S. energy demand

This paper focuses on the demand for crude oil, natural gas, and coal in the United States in the context of two globally flexible functional forms - the Fourier and the Asymptotically Ideal Model (AIM) - estimated subject to full regularity, using methods suggested over 20 years ago by Gallant and Golub [Gallant, A. Ronald and Golub, Gene H. Imposing Curvature Restrictions on Flexible Functional Forms. Journal of Econometrics 26 (1984), 295-321] and recently used by Serletis and Shahmoradi [Serletis, A., Shahmoradi, A., 2005. Semi-nonparametric estimates of the demand for money in the United States. Macroeconomic Dynamics 9, 542-559] in the monetary demand systems literature. We provide a comparison in terms of a full set of elasticities and also a policy perspective, using (for the first time) parameter estimates that are consistent with global regularity.