We point out that the simple slice sampler generates chains that are correlation-free when the target distribution is centrally symmetric. This property explains several results in the literature about the relative performance of the simple and product slice samplers. We exploit it to improve...

In the production function approach, an accurate output gap assessment requires a careful evaluation of the total factor productivity (TFP) cycle. We build a common cycle model that links TFP to capacity utilization and we show that, in almost all of the pre-enlargement EU countries, using...

Analytical results for reducing the parameter space dimension when computing the marginal likelihood are given for the broad class of dynamic mixture models. These results allow the integration of scale parameters out of the likelihood by Kalman filtering and Gaussian quadrature. The method is...