Two of the central challenges faced by Cape Verde at the present are the high level of unemployment and the increasing proportion of the population that lives below the poverty line. Microenterprise development can be an effective means of addressing both problems in a developing country like...

This paper proposes novel methods for the construction of tests for models specified by unconditional moment restrictions. It exploits the classical-like nature of generalized empirical likelihood (GEL) to define Pearson-type statistics for over-identifying moment conditions and parametric...

In this paper we examine the following two hypotheses which traditional theories of capital structure are relatively silent about: (i) the determinants of financial leverage decisions are different for micro, small, medium and large firms; and (ii) the factors that determine whether or not a...

Empirical likelihood (EL) is appropriate to estimate moment condition models when a random sample from the target population is available. However, many economic surveys are subject to some form of stratification, in which case direct application of EL will produce inconsistent estimators. In...

This papers studies and compares the asymptotic bias of GMM and generalized empirical likelihood (GEL) estimators in the presence of estimated nuisance parameters. We consider cases in which the nuisance parameter is estimated from independent and identical samples. A simulation experiment is...

The ability of six alternative bootstrap methods to reduce the bias of GMM parameter estimates is examined in an instrumental variable framework using Monte Carlo analysis. Promising results were found for the two bootstrap estimators suggested in the paper.

This paper provides an integrated approach for estimating parametric models from endogenous stratified samples. We discuss several alternative ways of removing the bias of the moment indicators usually employed under random sampling for estimating the parameters of the structural model and the...