We investigate the small sample properties of two types of weak exogeneity tests in cointegrated VAR models that are frequently used in applied work. The first one is the standard Likelihood Ratio (LR) test in the Johansen framework. The second test is based on mapping the cointegrated VAR model...

In empirical applications of structural equation modeling researchers often assume that the sample under investigation is homogenous unless observed characteristics allow for a division of the sample into mutual exclusive homogenous subgroups. If such information is not available, unobserved...

Healthcare expenditure has increased substantially in all western industrialized countries in the last decades. The necessity to contain the increase in health care expenditure has motivated the Analysis of its determinants to explain differences across countries and health systems. However,...

Bayes estimates are derived in multivariate linear models with unknown distribution. The prior distribution is defined using a Dirichlet prior for the unknown error distribution and a ormal-Wishart distribution for the parameters. The posterior distribution for the parameters is determined and...

The Normal Inverse Gaussian (NIG) distribution recently introduced by Barndorff-Nielsen (1997) is a promising alternative for modelling financial data exhibiting skewness and fat tails. In this paper we explore the Bayesian estimation of NIG-parameters by Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods. --...

In a complete financial market every contingent claim can be hedged perfectly. In an incomplete market it is possible to stay on the safe side by superhedging. But such strategies may require a large amount of initial capital. Here we study the question what an investor can do who is unwilling...

In this note the unobserved component approach underlying the software package SEATS is compared with the Beveridge-Nelson type of decomposition for seasonal time series. The main strength of the SEATS approach lies in the appealing model formulation and the careful specification and adjustment...