Recently, single equation approaches for estimating structural models have become popular in the monetary economics literature. In particular, single-equation Generalized Method Moments estimators have been used for estimating forward-looking models with rational expectations. Two important...

In “Excessive Ambitions," Jon Elster criticizes a wide range of social science aspirations to understand a complicated and evolving reality. Some of his analysis is to the point, but some is flawed, as explained in my comments. Crucially, however, his conclusions on empirical modeling are...

In this paper, we extend the impulse saturation algorithm to a class of dynamic models. We show that the procedure is still correctly sized for stationary AR(1) processes, independently of the number of splits used for sample partitions. We derive theoretical power when there is an additive...

We develop a new automatically-computable test for super exogeneity, using a variant of general-to-specific modelling. Based on the recent developments in impulse saturation applied to marginal models under the null that no impulses matter, we select the significant impulses for testing in the...

Existing methods of reconstructing historical Euro-zone data by aggregation of the individual countries’ data raises numerous difficulties due to past exchange rate changes. The approach proposed here is designed to avoid such distortions, and aggregate exactly when exchange rates are...

OLS estimation of an impulse-indicator coefficient is inconsistent, but its variance can be consistently estimated. Although the ratio of the inconsistent estimator to its standard error has a t-distribution, that test is inconsistent: one solution is to form an index of indicators. We provide...

The recent controversy over model selection in the context of `growth regressions` has led to some remarkably numerous `estimation` strategies, including 4 million regressions by Sala-i-Martin (1997b). Only one regression is really needed, namely the general unrestricted model, appropriately...

UK inflation varied greatly over 1865-1990, in response to many policy and exchange-rate regimes, two world wars and oil crises, and major legislative, and technological changes. It is modelled as responding to excess demands from all sectors of the economy: goods and services, factors of...

We revisit the concept of unpredictability to explore its implications for forecasting strategies in a non-stationary world subject to structural breaks, where model and mechanism differ. Six aspects of the role of unpredictability are distinguished, compounding the four additional mistakes most...

Big Data offer potential benefits for statistical modelling, but confront problems like an excess of false positives, mistaking correlations for causes, ignoring sampling biases, and selecting by inappropriate methods.  We consider the many important requirements when searching for a data-based...