The paper involves the analysis of the seeds of the recent debt crisis that occurred in the Eurozone area. For the analysis we use the model of Fleming and Stein (2004). This model has two risk drivers arising from uncertainties in the return on capital and the effective rate of return on net...

In this paper we use a long memory framework to examine the validity of the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) hypothesis using both monthly and quarterly data for a panel of 47 countries over a fifty year period (1957 to 2009). The analysis focusses on the long memory parameter d that allows us to...

In this paper, we solve two problems related to growth and survival probability maximization of an economy. We assume that the problems are subject to the stochastic net worth model introduced by Fleming and Stein (2004) and apply the techniques of stochastic optimal control theory in order to...

The forecast combination puzzle refers to the finding that a simple average forecast combination outperforms more sophisticated weighting schemes and/or the best individual model. The paper derives optimal (worst) forecast combinations based on stochastic dominance (SD) analysis with...

In this study, we explore the effect of peers and family on University attendance and graduation. We find that parental expectations and peer effects have a significant impact on the educational outcomes which operates through the interconnectedness between grades and aspirations during high...

We consider a weighting scheme that yields a best-case scenario for measured human development such as the official equally-weighted Human Development Index (HDI) using an approach that relies on consistent tests for stochastic dominance efficiency (SDE). We compare the official equally-weighted...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capital-economic growth nexus, taking into consideration the previously documented nonlinear relationship between initial income and human capital on the one hand and economic growth on the other. We apply...

The annual Eurovision Song Contest provides a setting where Europeans can express their sentiments about other countries without regard to political sensitivities. Analyzing voting data from the 25 contests between 1981-2005, we find strong evidence for the existence of clusters of countries...

We derive general distribution tests based on the method of Maximum Entropy density. The proposed tests are derived from maximizing the di®erential entropy subject to moment constraints. By exploiting the equivalence between the Maximum Entropy and Maximum Likelihood estimates of the general...

The short run effect of the financial intermediary development on economic growth is analyzed using an unbalanced panel of 77 countries covering 35 years. Empirical Likelihood (EL) estimation is used and compared to more conventional GMM methods that weight moment conditions equally over the...