Threshold Accepting (TA) is a powerful optimization heuristic from the class of stochastic local search algorithms. It has been applied successfully to different optimization problems in statistics and econometrics, including the uniform design problem. Using the latter application as example,...

Estimation and modelling problems as they arise in many fields often turn out to be intractable by standard numerical methods. One way to deal with such a situation consists in simplifying models and procedures. However, the solutions to these simplified problems might not be satisfying. A...

Aggregation may be harmful but cannot always be avoided in the analysis of complex econometric models. It should be carried out intelligently by choosing ein aggregative model optimally for modes of aggregation speeified in advance, i.e. minimizing the bias introduced by aggregation and...

A widely used method in the analysis of complex econometric models is to replace the "true model" by an aggregative one in which the variables are grouped and replaced by sums or weighted averages of the variables in each group. The analysis of the problem of choosing an aggregative model...

A combinatorical problem is said to be of high computational complexity, if it can be shown that every efficient algorithm needs a high amount of resources as measured in Computing time or storage capacity. This paper will (1) introduce some basic concepts of mathematical complexity theory; (2)...