We estimate the effects of active labour market policies (ALMP) on subsequent employment by nonparametric instrumental variables and matching estimators. Very informative administrative Swiss data with detailed regional information are combined with exogenous regional variation in programme...

We propose a new methodology to estimate the empirical pricing kernel implied from option data. In contrast to most of the studies in the literature that use an indirect approach, i.e. first estimating the physical and risk-neutral densities and obtaining the pricing kernel in a second step, we...

We suggest a semi-nonparametric estimator for the entire call price surface based on a tensor-product B-spline. To enforce no-arbitrage constraints in strike and calendar dimensions we establish sufficient no-arbitrage conditions on the control net of the tensor product (TP) B-spline. Since...

We propose a flexible GARCH-type model for the prediction of volatility in financial time series. The approach relies on the idea of using multivariate B-splines of lagged observations and volatilities. Estimation of such a B-spline basis expansion is constructed within the likelihood framework...

In this paper, we show how instrumental variable and matching estimators can be combined in order to identify a broader array of treatment effects. Instrumental variable estimators are known to estimate effects only for the compliers, which often represent only a small subset of the entire...