It is often argued that informal labor markets in developing countries promote growth by reducing the impact of regulation. On the other hand informality may reduce the amount of social protection offered to workers. We extend the wage-posting framework of Burdett and Mortensen (1998) to allow...

This paper proposes a nonparametric test for common trends in semiparametric panel data models with fixed effects based on a measure of nonparametric goodness-of-fit (R^2). We first estimate the model under the null hypothesis of common trends by the method of profile least squares, and obtain...

This paper develops new estimation and inference procedures for dynamic panel data models with fixed effects and incidental trends. A simple consistent GMM estimation method is proposed that avoids the weak moment condition problem that is known to affect conventional GMM estimation when the...

Too technical to post, see paper.

A system of vector semiparametric nonlinear time series models is studied with possible dependence structures and nonstationarities in the parametric and nonparametric components. The parametric regressors may be endogenous while the nonparametric regressors are strictly exogenous and represent...

This paper introduces a new estimation method for dynamic panel models with fixed effects and AR(p) idiosyncratic errors. The proposed estimator uses a novel form of systematic differencing, called X-differencing, that eliminates fixed effects and retains information and signal strength in cases...

We consider identification in a "generalized regression model" (Han, 1987) for panel settings in which each observation can be associated with a "group" whose members are subject to a common unobserved shock. Common examples of groups include markets, schools or cities. The model is fully...

The asymptotic local powers of various panel unit root tests are investigated. The power envelope is obtained under homogeneous and heterogeneous alternatives. It is compared with asymptotic power functions of the pooled t-test, the Ploberger-Phillips (2002) test, and a point optimal test in...