This note estimates several constrained versions of an optimization-based multi-country model to test the sources of heterogeneity within the euro area. We show that the main source is the asymmetry of shocks affecting the economies and that the heterogeneity of behaviors does not seem to be of...

This paper investigates the implications of cross-country heterogeneity within the euro area for the design of optimal monetary policy. We build an optimizing-based multi-country model (MCM) describing the euro area in which differences between structural parameters across countries are allowed....

We evaluate how departure from normality may affect the allocation of assets. A Taylor series expansion of the expected utility allows to focus on certain moments and to compute numerically the optimal portfolio allocation. A decisive advantage of this approach is that it remains operational...

In this paper, we investigate the performance-growth relation of French mutual funds. Using panel techniques, we find that capital inflows to French past top performing funds are not as strong as expected. This result suggests that there exist barriers to investment, that may come from the fact...

Many macroeconomic models involve hybrid equations, in which some variables are a function of both their lags and their expected future value. The hybrid "New Keynesian" Phillips Curve is a prominent example. Estimates of such hybrid models have produced conflicting empirical results: Studies...

Designing an investment strategy in transition economies is a difficult task, because stock markets opened through time, time series are short, and there is little guidance how to obtain expected returns and covariance matrices necessary for mean-variance asset allocation. Moments of market...

The entropy principle yields, for a given set moments, a density that involves the smallest amount of prior information. We first show how entropy densities may be constructed in a numerically efficient way as the minimization of a potential. Next, for the case where the first four moments are...

Estimating a forward-looking monetary policy rule by the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) has become a popular approach since the influential paper by Clarida, Gali, and Gertler (1998). However, an abundant econometric literature underlines the unappealing small-samples properties of GMM...

Ce papier presente une modelisation de l'indice des prix francais. L'objectif est de permettre une analyse rapide et detaillee des tendances de court terme de l'inflation ainsi que de realiser des previsions a intervalles rapproches. Les caracteristiques de cet outil sont les suivantes: un petit...

Swaps are one of the major innovations of the 80s but there are little empirical studies on interest rates swaps (IRS), especially on US and European markets. To understand how swap pricing works, we estimate IRS valuation models for the US, German and French swap markets. On one hand, we derive...