Decision-makers often consult different experts to build reliable forecasts on variables of interest. Combining more opinions and calibrating them to maximize the forecast accuracy is consequently a crucial issue in several economic problems. This paper applies a Bayesian beta mixture model to...

This paper improves a kernel-smoothed test of symmetry through combining it with a new class of asymmetric kernels called the generalized gamma kernels. It is demonstrated that the improved test statistic has a normal limit under the null of symmetry and is consistent under the alternative. A...

This paper proposes a methodology to incorporate bivariate models in numerical computations of counterfactual distributions. The proposal is to extend the works of Machado and Mata (2005) and Melly (2005) using the grid method to generate pairs of random variables. This contribution allows...

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...

It is well known that efficient estimation of average treatment effects can be obtained by the method of inverse propensity score weighting, using the estimated propensity score, even when the true one is known. When the true propensity score is unknown but parametric, it is conjectured from the...

In economics, rank-size regressions provide popular estimators of tail exponents of heavy-tailed distributions. We discuss the properties of this approach when the tail of the distribution is regularly varying rather than strictly Pareto. The estimator then over-estimates the true value in the...