Current methods for constructing house price indices are based on comparisons of sale prices of residential properties sold two or more times and on regression of the sale prices on the attributes of the properties and of their locations. The two methods have well recognised deficiencies,...

Structural equation models (SEM) are commonly used to analyze the relationship between variables some of which may be latent, such as individual ``attitude'' to and ``behavior'' concerning specific issues. A number of difficulties arise when we want to compare a large number of groups, each with...

We propose an alternative method for measuring intergenerational mobility. Measurements obtained from traditional methods (based on panel data) are scarce, difficult to compare across countries and almost impossible to get across time. In particular, this means that we do not know how...

Using data from the Spanish household budget survey, we investigate life- cycle effects on several product expenditures. A latent-variable model approach is adopted to evaluate the impact of income on expenditures, controlling for the number of members in the family. Two latent factors...

The present paper proposes a model for the persistence of abnormal returns both at firm and industry levels, when longitudinal data for the profits of firms classiffied as industries are available. The model produces a two- way variance decomposition of abnormal returns: (a) at firm versus...

We derive a new inequality for uniform deviations of averages from their means. The inequality is a common generalization of previous results of Vapnik and Chervonenkis (1974) and Pollard (1986). Using the new inequality we obtain tight bounds for empirical loss minimization learning.

We consider the application of normal theory methods to the estimation and testing of a general type of multivariate regression models with errors--in--variables, in the case where various data sets are merged into a single analysis and the observable variables deviate possibly from normality....

This paper proposes to estimate the covariance matrix of stock returns by an optimally weighted average of two existing estimators: the sample covariance matrix and single-index covariance matrix. This method is generally known as shrinkage, and it is standard in decision theory and in empirical...

We propose new spanning tests that assess if the initial and additional assets share the economically meaningful cost and mean representing portfolios. We prove their asymptotic equivalence to existing tests under local alternatives. We also show that unlike two-step or iterated procedures,...

This paper demonstrates that all rank test statistics are functions of implicit null space estimators. The paper proposes a novel theory of null space estimation that allows for standard asymptotics, polynomial regressions, and cointegration asymptotics. The paper proves that the behaviour of...