We propose a first order bias correction term for the Gini index to reduce the bias due to grouping. The first order correction term is obtained from studying the estimator of the Gini index within a measurement error framework. In addition, it reveals an intuitive formula for the remaining...

This paper applies an ANOVA-type of meta-analysis to the evaluation of agri-environmental policy in theEuropean Union. Meta-analysis is concerned with the statistical analysis of previous research results, andhas become an established technique in the medical and natural science. The paper...

Various economic theories are available to explain the existence of credit and default cycles. There remains empirical ambiguity, however, as to whether or these cycles coincide. Recent papers_new suggest by their empirical research set-up that they do, or at least that defaults and credit...

We model 1927-1997 U.S. business failure rates using a time series approach based on unobserved components. Clear evidence is found of cyclical behavior in default rates. The cycle has a period of around 10 years. We also detect longer term movements in default probabilities and default...

In practice, multivariate dependencies of extreme risks are often only assessed in a pairwise way. We propose a novel test to detect when bivariate simplifications produce misleading results. This occurs when a significant portion of the multivariate dependence structure in the tails is of...