Prepared for the Handbook of Economic Forecasting, vol 2 This chapter reviews Bayesian methods for inference and forecasting with VAR models. Bayesian inference and, by extension, forecasting depends on numerical methods for simulating from the posterior distribution of the parameters and spe-...

The present paper assesses whether monetary policy effects are asymmetric over the business cycle by estimating a univariate model for GDP including additionally the first difference of the 3-month Austrian interest rate as a measure for monetary policy. The asymmetry of the effects is captured...

This paper investigates both cross-sectional asymmetry (related to bank-speci.c characteristics like size and liquidity) and asymmetries over time (potentially related to the overall state of the economy) in Austrian bank lending reaction to monetary policy. The first type of asymmetry is...

In the present paper, time series on industrial production growth of individual countries are used to investigate the following questions: (i) Is there a common growth cycle for the euro area countries? (ii) Did the synchronization change over time? (iii) Can we discriminate between a "European"...

In the present paper we use a balanced bank panel data set to obtain an inference on two dimensions of the asymmetric response of bank lending to interest rate changes. The cross-sectional dimension is captured by group-specific parameters whereby each bank's group membership is estimated along...

This paper develops a method that uses a likelihood approach to directly compare two or more non-nested dynamic, stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models. It is shown how DSGE models can be compared across the whole sample and how this measure can be decomposed across individual observations...

Inference on the long-run properties of a Vector Autoregression (VAR) consisting wholly of I(1) variables are made using Bayesian methods. In particular, the implications on the forecast and impulse response function distributions of directly estimating and restricting the drift parameters of...

This paper develops a heterogeneous agents segmented markets model with endogenous production and a monetary authority that follows a Taylor-type interest rate rule. The model is estimated using Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques and is evaluated as a framework suitable for empirical monetary...

This paper extends the existing fully parametric Bayesian literature on stochastic volatility to allow for more general return distributions. Instead of specifying a particular distribution for the return innovation, we use nonparametric Bayesian methods to flexibly model the skewness and...