It is well known that traditional inference do not apply when the spectral density of a stationary process vanishes for some frequency. This paper examines some properties of several new non parametric tests of this hypothesis which have been recently proposed by Lacroix (1999). These tests...

Non parametric and parametric estimation for the spectral density of a stationary process is a well-known topic, except when the spectrum vanishes for some frequency. Indeed, for this frequency, the limit law degenerates, and traditional inference no longer applies. The paper introduces non...

This paper uses disaggregated CPI time series to show that a break in the mean of French inflation occurred in the mid-eighties and that the 1983 monetary policy shift mostly accounted for it. CPI average yearly growth declined from nearly 11% before the break date (May 1985) to 2.1% after. No...

The objective of the paper is to investigate to what extent business cycles co-move in Germany, France and Italy. We use a large-scale database of non-stationary series for the euro area in order to assess the effect of common versus idiosyncratic shocks, as well as transitory versus permanent...

In this article, we analyze the US short term real interest rate series for the last five decades in the framework of a M-SETAR model (Momentum - Self Exciting Threshold Auto-Regressive). With the aim of disentangling the non-linearity from the non-stationarity cases, we use threshold...

In this paper we give a precise definition of long-run causality in a multivariate non-stationary, possibly cointegrated, framework. A variable is said to be causal for another in the long run if knowledge of the past of the former improves long-run predictions of the latter. In a VAR framework,...

Swaps are one of the major innovations of the 80s but there are little empirical studies on interest rates swaps (IRS), especially on US and European markets. To understand how swap pricing works, we estimate IRS valuation models for the US, German and French swap markets. On one hand, we derive...

The purpose of this article is to study the trends in per capita productivity in several major industrialised countries. The analysis is first based on annual data over a long period spanning the entire 20th century for the United States, France and the United Kingdom. Productivity trends are...

This paper explores the various shapes the recoveries may exhibit within a Markov-Switching model. It relies on the bounce-back effects first analyzed by Kim, Morley and Piger (2005) and extends the methodology by proposing i) a more flexible bounce-back model, ii) explicit tests to select the...

For central banks, institutional, and individual investors, it is crucial to understand the frequency and importance of drops or sudden rises in financial markets. Extreme value theory (EVT) is an interesting tool providing answers to questions such as: With what frequency do we find variations...