The motion passed in 2002 in the parliament of the Swiss canton of Valais by the MP Yves Bagnoud requires that the government has the overall debt of the State externally audited. The aim of this study is to provide information to answer the motion. To do so, the study is organised as follows....

Optimization algorithms must be among the most common numerical methods used by economists. Yet, there is surprisingly little guidance on choosing the appropriate one. This problem is most notable with regard to conventional versus global optimizers. Typically, a global optimizer is used when a...

This paper investigates the performance of international affine term structure models (ATSMs) that are driven by a mutual set of global state variables. We discuss which mixture of Gaussian and square root processes is best suited for modelling international bond markets. We derive necessary...

The method proposed in this chapter is making use of the bispectrum transformation to estimate the level of integration of a fractionally integrated time series. Bispectrum ransformation transforms the series into a two dimensional frequency space, and thus has higher information content...

Valid predictions for the direction of nonresponse bias were obtained from subjective estimates and extrapolations in an analysis of mail survey data from published studies. For estimates of the magnitude of bias, the use of extrapolations led to substantial improvements over a strategy of not...

Meta-rules, or rules for making rules, determine the costs of innovation and thus the pace of economic growth. Adapting rules to a changing economic environment through explicit, well-designed meta-rules makes economic growth quicker, less painful, and more certain than adapting rules through...