We introduce continuous-time models that capture the salient features of the short-term interest rate and remain tractable for asset pricing applications. We extend classical specifications within and outside of the affine class to multi-factor settings with latent variables that are readily...

The properties and applications of the normal log-normal (NLN) mixture are considered. The moment of the NLN mixture is shown to be finite for any positive order. The expectations of exponential functions of a NLN mixture variable are also investigated. The kurtosis and skewness of the NLN...

The term structure of interest rates is often summarized using a handful of yield factors that capture shifts in the yield curve. Despite their wide application in financial economics, very little is known on the time-series properties of the yield-factor volatilities. We examine three common...

This paper applies recent tests of stochastic dominance of several orders proposed by Linton, Maasoumi and Whang (2003) to reexamine the equity premium puzzle. An advantage of this nonparametric framework is that it provides a means to assess whether the existence of a premium is due to an...

A leading explanation of aggregate stock market behavior suggests that assets are priced as if there were a representative investor whose utility is a power function of the difference between aggregate consumption and a "habit" level, where the habit is some function of lagged and (possibly)...

This paper proposes a new empirical representation of US inflation expectations in a Stace-Space Markov-Switching framework in order to identify the expectations regimes which are associated with short and long term Phillips curves. Results suggest that the dynamics of in‡ation expectation...

In this paper we propose a general component-driven model to analyze economic data with different characteristics (or regimes) in different time periods. Motivated by empirical data characteristics, our discussion focuses on a simple model driven by a random walk component and a stationary ARMA...

Strong seasonality in demand, a short product life cycle, and the absence of any price competition make the release date of first-run movies one of the main strategic decisions taken by movies' distributors. Movies are typically released on a Friday within a short release season, thus making the...

This article studies two extensions of the compound Poisson process with iid Gaussian innovations which are able to characterize important features of high frequency security prices. The first model explicitly accounts for the presence of the bid/ask spread encountered in price-driven markets....

This paper investigates the effect of exchange rate volatility on US-UK bilateral trade flows. As part of econometric problems arising from a generated variable, we consider a special case when an ARCH type auxiliary model is used to measure uncertainty in the exchange rate and discuss a...