This paper presents new evidence on the role of cognitive skills in promoting economic growth rate, using a within country dataset (Brazilian municipalities’ dataset) and nonparametric kernel regression estimation with mixed data.

This article generalizes the conditional stochastic kernel developed by Quah (1997, 1998) for multiple and more general conditioning schemes using nonparametric conditional density estimation. We utilize this methodology to analyze conditional convergence in income for Brazilian municipalities...

This paper shows a somehow counterintuitive result: an increase in the exam difficulty may reduce the average quality (productivity) of selected individuals. Since the exam does not verify all skills, when its standard rises, candidates with relatively low skills emphasized in the test and high...

A parallel of education with transformative processes in standard markets suggest that a more severe control of the quality of the output will improve the overall quality of the education. This paper shows a somehow counterintuitive result: an increase in the exam difficulty may reduce the...

This paper shows that the LM statistic for testing first order serial correlation in regression models can be computed using the Kalman Filter. It is shown tha.t when there are missing observations, the LM statistic for this tesi is equivalent to the tesi statistic derived by Robinson (1985)...

The aim of this paper is to set out criteria for defining trend and seasonal components in a time series. The criteria are set up primarily in terms of properties involving prediction. Because a structural time series model is set up in terms of components of interest, the relevant information...