The relationship between uncertainty and economic activity has attracted substantial interest in recent macroeconomics literature. Empirical work has mostly focused on short-run and medium-term effects of uncertainty shocks. However, there are a number of mechanisms that may cause a response of...

We propose a blended approach which combines identification via heteroskedasticity with the widely used methods of sign restrictions, narrative restrictions, and external instruments.Since heteroskedasticity in the reduced form can be exploited to point identify a set of orthogonal shocks, its...

A growing empirical literature has considered the impact of uncertainty using SVAR models that include proxies for uncertainty shocks as endogenous variables. In this paper we consider the possible impact of measurement error in the uncertainty shock proxies on the estimated impulse responses...

Based on recent evidence of fractional cointegration in commodity spot and futures markets, we investigate whether a fractionally cointegrated model can provide statistically and/or economically significant forecasts of commodity returns. Specifically, we propose to model and forecast commodity...