Comparing groups with respect to hypothetical constructs requires that the measurement models are equal across groups. Otherwise conclusions drawn from the observed indicators regarding differences at the latent level (mean differences, differences in the structural relations) might be severly...

This article evaluates the performance of structural equation models in validating measurement models for hypothetical constructs and deals with specific issues following from the way this methodology is typically applied in scale construction. In particular, controlling for various types of...

Many researchers seem to be unsure about how to specify formative measurement models in software programs like LISREL or AMOS and to establish identification of the corresponding structural equation model. In order to make identification easier, a new, mainly graphically-oriented approach is...

Microfoundations of the euro's effect on euro area trade hinge on the timing, the speed and the size of adjustment in trade costs. We estimate timing, speed and size of adjustment in trade costs for sectoral trade data. Our approach allows for sector specific impacts of trade costs on sectoral...

There are two main research traditions for analyzing market basket data that exist more or less independently from each other, namely exploratory and explanatory model types. Exploratory approaches are restricted to the task of discovering cross-category interrelationships and provide marketing...

East German wages have been below the West German wage level since unification. Moreover, the East-West wage gap implied by the contractual wages specified in collective wage agreements is drifting ever further apart from the wage gap in terms of effective wages. This paper looks at the role of...

Due to dependency of energy demand on temperature, weather derivatives enable the effective hedging of temperature related fluctuations. However, temperature varies in space and time and therefore the contingent weather derivatives also vary. The spatial derivative price distribution involves a...

In this paper uniform confidence bands are constructed for nonparametric quantile estimates of regression functions. The method is based on the bootstrap, where resampling is done from a suitably estimated empirical density function (edf) for residuals. It is known that the approximation error...

The quality of newly constructed single-family houses is usually homogeneous in and heterogeneous between neighborhoods. Such quality-clustering will be caused by the variation of natural amenities throughout a suburban area. Clustering will be enforced if the quality of neighboring buildings...

In many applications, covariates are not observed but have to be estimated from data. We outline some regression-type models where such a situation occurs and discuss estimation of the regression function in this context.We review theoretical results on how asymptotic properties of nonparametric...