Over the last two decades, alternative expected return proxies have been proposed with substantially lower variation than realized returns. This helped to reduce parameter uncertainty and to identify many seemingly robust relations between expected returns and variables of interest, which would...

We consider an adaptive importance sampling approach to estimating the marginal likelihood, a quantity that is fundamental in Bayesian model comparison and Bayesian model averaging. This approach is motivated by the difficulty of obtaining an accurate estimate through existing algorithms that...

Bayesian model averaging is applied to robustly ascertain the determinants of various output volatility measures, including the downside semideviation of growth rates. Financial sophis- tication variables are found to have qualitatively different effects on volatility. The ratio of govern- ment...

In this paper, we formulate and solve a New Keynesian model with monetary and fiscal policy rules whose coefficients are time-varying and interdependent. We implement time variation in the policy rules by specifying coefficients that are logistic functions of correlated latent factors and...

Saving represents one of the most predictable determinants of successful personal and economic development. People desire to save although they tend to postpone saving until they have higher-paying jobs or some stability in their lives. However, in developing countries, where opportunities for...

We construct one triple-threshold GARCH model to analyze the asymmetric response of mean and conditional volatility. In parameter estimation, we apply Griddy-Gibbs sampling method, which require less work in selection of starting values and pre-run. As we apply this model in Chinese stock...

This paper details particle Markov chain Monte Carlo (PMCMC) techniques for analysis of unobserved component time series models using several economic data sets. PMCMC provides a very compelling, computationally fast and efficient framework for estimation and model comparison. For instance, we...

We introduce the family of univariate double two–piece distributions, obtained by using a density– based transformation of unimodal symmetric continuous distributions with a shape parameter. The resulting distributions contain five interpretable parameters that control the mode, as well as...

The relationship between risk and return is one of the most studied topics in finance. The majority of the literature is based on a linear, parametric relationship between expected returns and conditional volatility. However, there is no theoretical justification for the relationship to be...

This paper uses a Bayesian approach to estimate a standard international real business cycle model augmented with preferences with zero wealth-effect, variable capacity utilization and investment adjustment costs. First, I find that the bulk of fluctuations in country-specific outputs,...