Many questions in econometrics can be cast as inference on a parameter selected through optimization. For example, researchers may be interested in the effectiveness of the best policy found in a randomized trial, or the bestperforming investment strategy based on historical data. Such settings...

This paper looks at changes in employment and relative wages of near higher earnings (NHE) workers between middle-class (MC) and higher earners (HE) in Canada over 2000-2015. An approach is also forwarded for evaluating these changes in terms of underlying demand and supply factors. It is found...

Targeted employment subsidy programs are commonly employed by governments. This study examines one such initiative that rebated unemployment insurance premiums for net new insurable employment for youth aged 18 to 24. Using microdata from two datasets to estimate the labour market impacts of...

This paper applies the tool box measures of disaggregative income inequality characterization and the statistical methodology of Beach (2021) to percentile-based distribution statistics such as quintile income shares and decile means typically published by official statistical agencies. It...

In an important class of econometric problems, researchers select a target parameter by maximizing the Euclidean norm of a data-dependent vector. Examples that can be cast into this frame include threshold regression models with estimated thresholds and structural break models with estimated...

Reliable inference with clustered data has received a great deal of attention in recent years. The overwhelming majority of this research assumes that the cluster structure is known. This assumption is very strong, because there are often several possible ways in which a dataset could be...

We study large-sample properties of likelihood ratio tests of the unit root hypothesis in an autoregressive model of arbitrary, finite order. Earlier research on this testing problem has developed likelihood ratio tests in the autoregressive model of order one, but resorted to a plug-in approach...

Many empirical questions concern target parameters selected through optimization. For example, researchers may be interested in the effectiveness of the best policy found in a randomized trial, or the best-performing investment strategy based on historical data. Such settings give rise to a...

In an important class of econometric problems, researchers select a target parameter by maximizing the Euclidean norm of a data-dependent vector. Examples that can be cast into this frame include threshold regression models with estimated thresholds, and structural break models with estimated...

This paper proposes a statistical test for the decoupling of the comovements in the real activity of developed and emerging economies. Although globalization has shaped the world economy in recent decades, emerging economies such as China have experienced impressive growth compared to developed...