We investigate the sustainability of Italy’s public finances from 1862 to 2012 adopting a non-linear perspective. Specifically, we employ the smooth transition regression approach to explore the scope for non-linear fiscal adjustments of primary surpluses in response to the accumulation of...

We state that long-run restrictions that identify structural shocks in VAR models with unit roots lose their original interpretation if the fractional integration order of the affected variable is below one. For such fractionally integrated models we consider a medium-run approach that employs...

We find that short rates are more nonstationary than longer rates and that differences in conditional volatility exist between different maturities. Therefore, their dynamics may be both maturity specific and country specific, and any a priori generalizing assumptions may be misleading.

The behavior of impulse response coefficients as persistence measures is discussed under fractional integration. Results for long memory processes are extended to the antipersistent case of short memory.

This paper examines the asymmetric response of the underground economy (UE) in Taiwan to an effective tax rate change. The UE size in Taiwan from 1962 to 2003 is estimated using a cash deposit ratio (CDR) approach and a currency demand approach. The impact of an increase in the effective tax...

In this paper we consider testing for a unit root in the possible presence of a trend break at an unknown time. Zivot and Andrews (1992) [Journal of Business and Economic Statistics 10, 251–270] proposed using the infimum of t-ratio Dickey–Fuller statistics across all candidate break points...

Ng (2008) shows how the cross-sectional variance of the observed panel data can be used to construct a simple test for the proportion of non-stationary units. However, in the case with incidental trends the test is distorted. The present note shows how the distortions can be substantially...

The asymptotic distributions of the maximum likelihood estimator of the persistence parameter are developed in a linear diffusion model under three sampling schemes, long-span, in-fill and double. Simulations suggest that the in-fill asymptotic distribution gives a more accurate approximation to...