I use numerical methods to test for the presence of one-time structural breaks in the conditional variance of nominal interest rate spreads in four European countries over a period of eleven years (Jan 1988 to Dec 1998). I start with an intuitive approach consisting of a sequence of breakpoint...

This paper investigates the asymptotic properties of a penalized empirical likelihood estimator for moment restriction models when the number of parameters ( p n ) and/or the number of moment restrictions increases with the sample size. Our main result is that the SCAD-penalized empirical...

Outliers can be particularly hard to detect, creating bias and inconsistency in the semi-parametric estimates. In this paper, we use Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that semi-parametric methods, such as matching, are biased in the presence of outliers. Bad and good leverage point outliers...

We provide a new framework for modeling trends and periodic patterns in high-frequency financial data. Seeking adaptivity to ever-changing market conditions, we enlarge the Fourier flexible form into a richer functional class: both our smooth trend and the seasonality are non-parametrically...

This paper develops a method to improve the estimation of jump variation using high frequency data with the existence of market microstructure noises. Accurate estimation of jump variation is in high demand, as it is an important component of volatility in finance for portfolio allocation,...

This paper shows how to cope with a problem of model selection and simplification using the principle of coherence (Gabriel (1969): A procedure involving testing a set of models ought not accept a model while rejecting a more general model). The mathematical lattice theory is used to define a...

This paper builds on Kočenda (2001) and extends it in two ways. First, two new intervals of the proximity parameter ε (over which the correlation integral is calculated) are specified. For these ε- ranges new critical values for various lengths of the data sets are introduced and through...

This paper considers empirical work relating to models of firm dynamics. We show that a hazard regression model for firm exits, with a modification to accommodate age-varying covariate effects, provides an empirical framework accommodating many of the features of interest in studies on firm...

We propose a general procedure for testing that a regression function has a prescribed parametric form. We allow for multivariate regressors, non-normal errors and heteroscedasticity of unknown form. The test relies upon a nonparametric linear estimation method, such as a sieves expansion or the...

Although semiparametric alternatives are available, parametric binary choice models are widely used in practice, in spite of their sensitivity to misspecification. Here we present the results of a simulation study on the finite sample performance of parametric and semiparametric specification...