The recent episodes of financial turmoil in Mexico, East Asia, Russia, Brazil, and Argentina are often dubbed financial crises. However, the severe downturns in equity markets, abrupt currency devaluations, and massive capital flight that characterize these events can still be deemed compatible...

This paper examines the impact that a currency target zone has on short-term interest rates. For a number of countries in the European Monetary System, we characterize the short rate using a regime-switching model that allows fbr a differently parameterized mean-reverting square-root process in...

The term structure of interest rates is often summarized using a handful of yield factors that capture shifts in the shape of the yield curve. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive model for volatility dynamics in the level, slope, and curvature of the yield curve that simultaneously...

The analysis of price transmission in transition countries is complicated by their often unstable policy environments. We utilise a Markov-switching vector error correction model (MSVECM) to allow for multiple regime shifts in the price relationship between wheat and wheat flour in Ukraine from...

This dissertation is a collection of three essays that cover issues in poverty analysis. The first essay (Partial Identification of PovertyMeasures with Contaminated and Corrupted Data) applies a partial identification approach to poverty measurement when data errors arenon-classical in the...

The three papers in this dissertation all deal with new challenges for energy policy.The first paper deals with mitigation of market power in deregulated wholesaleelectricity markets, while the second and third papers deal with reduction ofgreenhouse gas emissions.The first paper experimentally...

Does consumer behavior exhibit time inconsistency? This is an essential, yet difficult question to answer. This dissertation attempts to answer this question based on a large-scale randomized experiment in the credit card market. Specifically,we apply both time consistent preferences...

In this dissertation I focus on two considerations that influence the product strategy of a firm. The first is consumers’ choice and its influence on a firm’s product offering, and the second is the interaction between durable products and their contingent consumables. First, I study the...