This paper constructs unbiased and model-free measures of daily and hourly volatility of the overnight interest rate negotiated on the Italian interbank deposits market (e-MID) using high-frequency transaction data. We find that the largest increases in volatility and the most notable variations...

In this research note I propose the use of the undetermined coefficients method as an alternative approach to solve the Central Bank optimization problem in a neo-keynesian economy. The advantage of using this method is that it provides a theory as to how rational expectations are constructed,...

Why do banks squeeze their lending activity? is an oft-repeated question during the times of financial crisis. This study examines an emerging economy’s banking system and contributes to the evolving body of literature on the topic by providing answers as to what causes the sluggish bank...

The purpose of this paper is to test the (rational) expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rates using Portuguese data for the interbank money market. The results obtained support only a very weak, long-run or "asymptotic" version of the hypothesis, and broadly agree with...

The purpose of this paper is to test both short- and long-run implications of the (rational) expectations hypothesis of the term structure of interest rates using Portuguese data for the interbank money market. The results support only a very weak, long-run or "asymptotic" version of the...

A contribution to the study of volatility and country risk is made in order to achieve a successful crosscountry comparison. We present a methodology for the evaluation of country risk that include endogenous detection of multiple structural breaks (also identifying its different kinds),...

The model proposed by Nelson and Siegel (1987) has been used for several researcher to fit the yield curve. In this paper we propose a discrete-time version of that model by using dynamic factors, such that the model is dynamic in the sense proposed by Diebold and Li (2006). We found the exact...

This study investigates whether the term structure of interest rates contains useful information about future real economic activity and inflation in Turkey during the 1991:7-2004:3 periods. In order to analyze these relationships, we have employed the Generalized Impulse Response (GIRF)...

As a result of the transition to monetary stability, we analyzed the real effort rate with the debt service for Portugal in a context of a decrease in nominal interest rates. Monthly time series data from January 1991 to September 2013 were used. The UECM of the ARDL model was applied which...

This paper analyses to what extent the Spanish regions have undergone a process of convergence since 1980. The application of unit root techniques to the data of the Human Development Index allow us to show that the evolution of the Spanish economy can be understood as a sum of divergent forces,...