Nested CES production functions are very popular in economic applications, but their empirical validity has been questioned. In this paper, we outline a simple method that can be used to test whether a given dataset is consistent with a CES production technology and that informs on which nesting structure describes it more closely. The method is based on empirical testing input separability conditions, derived for all the feasible 3-input and 4-input nested CES. A Monte Carlo simulation environment is exploited to assess the accuracy of the test.

中文翻译：

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CES 的嵌套结构是什么？一种基于输入可分离性的新选择方法

嵌套 CES 生产函数在经济应用中非常流行，但其实证有效性受到质疑。在本文中，我们概述了一种简单的方法，可用于测试给定的数据集是否与 CES 生产技术一致，并告知哪种嵌套结构更能描述它。该方法基于对所有可行的 3 输入和 4 输入嵌套 CES 导出的经验测试输入可分离性条件。蒙特卡罗模拟环境被用来评估测试的准确性。