This paper examines the role of bond ratings and the effects of rating-based regulations in thecorporate bond market. Exploiting an unanticipated mechanical change in how the benchmarkLehman bond indices are constructed in 2005, we show that rating-induced market segmentationof the bond market...

This paper proposes new pooled panel unit root tests that are appropriate when the data exhibit cross-sectional dependence that is generated by a single common factor. Using sequential limit arguments, we show that the tests have a limiting normal distribution that is free of nuisance parameters...

I introduce a technique to estimate parameters in regressions with reduced rank parameters in a general setting. The framework can handle a general class of parameter restrictions and allows for specifications with heteroskedastic and autocorrelated regression errors. Applications of this...

This paper proposes a new panel model of cross-sectional dependence. The model has a number of potential structural interpretations that relate to economic phenomena such as herding in financial markets. On an econometric level it provides a flexible approach to the modelling of interactions...

The investigation of the presence of structural change in economic and financial series is a major preoccupation in econometrics. A number of tests have been developed and used to explore the stationarity properties of various processes. Most of the focus has rested on the first two moments of a...

Testing serial dependence is central to much of time series econometrics. A number of tests that have been developed and used to explore the dependence properties of various processes. This paper builds on recent work on nonparametric tests of independence. We consider a fact that characterises...

The aim of this paper is to consider multivariate stochastic volatility models for large dimensional datasets. We suggest use of the principal component methodology of Stock and Watson (2002) for the stochastic volatility factor model discussed by Harvey, Ruiz, and Shephard (1994). The method is...