This paper discusses three families of flexible parametric probability density functions: the skewed generalized t, the exponential generalized beta of the second kind, and the inverse hyperbolic sin distributions. These families allow quite flexible modeling the first four moments of a...

This paper evaluates the effect of AIDS-related mortality on per-capita incomes of surviving household members, using a large nationally representative sample of rural households from Zambia. To minimize selection bias that may arise because AIDS is likely to be the endogenous outcome of...

DSGE models with generalized shock processes have been a major area of research in recent years. In this paper, I show that the structural parameters governing DSGE models are not identified when the driving process behind the model follows an unrestricted VAR. This finding implies that...

Maximum likelihood estimation of discretely observed diffusion processes is mostly hampered by the lack of a closed form solution of the transient density. It has recently been argued that a most generic remedy to this problem is the numerical solution of the pertinent Fokker-Planck (FP) or...

This paper investigates the nature of the IV method for tackling endogeneity. By tracing the rise and fall of the method in macroeconometrics and its subsequent revival in microeconometrics, it pins the method down to an implicit model respecification device - breaking the circular causality of...

This paper shows how exact solutions for the transient density of a large class of continuous-time Markov switching models can be obtained. We illustrate the pertinent approach for both simple diffusion models with a small number of regimes as well as for the more complicated so-called Poisson...

Long memory (long-term dependence) of volatility counts as one of the ubiquitous stylized facts of financial data. Inspired by the long memory property, multifractal processes have recently been introduced as a new tool for modeling financial time series. In this paper, we propose a parsimonious...

In this study, we employ an innovative new methodology inspired from the approach of Hwang and Salmon (2004) and based on the cross sectional dispersion of trading volume to examine the herding behavior on Toronto stock exchange. Our findings show that the herd phenomenon consists of three...

The standard indicators used to compare cross-country innovation are in the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR). But there are problems with aggregation and response bias with these largely self-reported measures (Hollanders and van Cruysen, 2008). We propose a theory-based metric using Data...

In this paper we empirically investigate the time- and state-dependent behavior of aggregate price setting. We implement a testing procedure by means of a nonparametric representation of the structural form New Keynesian Phillips curve. By means of the so-called functional coefficient regression...