This dissertation collects two papers regarding the econometric and economic theoryand testing of the predictability of asset returns. It is widely accepted that stockreturns are not only predictable but highly so. This belief is due to an abundanceof existing empirical literature fi nding often...

The issue of production function estimation has received recent attention, particularly in agricultural economics with the advent of precision farming. Yet, the evidence to date is far from unanimous on theproper form of the production function. This paper reexamines the use ofthe primal...

We argue that earlier quantitative research on the relationship between heterosexual partners’ earnings and time spent on housework has two basic flaws. First, it has focused on the effects of women’s shares of couples’ total earnings on their housework, and has not considered the simpler...

We consider Semiparametric regression for periodic longitudinal data. Parametric fixed effects are used to model the covariate effects and a periodic nonparametric smooth function is used to model the time effect. The within–subject correlation is modeled using subject-specific random effects...

The Daily Hormone Study, a substudy of the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) consisting of more than 600 pre- and perimenopausal women, includes a scalar measure of total hip bone mineral density (BMD) together with repeated measures of creatinine-adjusted follicle stimulating...

We consider a random design model based on independent and identically distributed (iid) pairs of observations (Xi, Yi), where the regression function m(x) is given by m(x) = E(Yi|Xi = x) with one independent variable. In a nonparametric setting the aim is to produce a reasonable approximation...

We consider a random design model based on independent and identically distributed (iid) pairs of observations (Xi, Yi), where the regression function m(x) is given by m(x) = E(Yi|Xi = x) with one independent variable. In a nonparametric setting the aim is to produce a reasonable approximation...

The problem of the estimation of a regression function by continuous piecewise linear functions is formulated as a nonconvex, nonsmooth optimization problem. Estimates are defined by minimization of the empirical L 2 risk over a class of functions, which are defined as maxima of minima of linear...

Due to its modest data demands and transparent model structure, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) remains the most popular tool for water erosion hazard assessment. However, the model has several shortcomings, two of which are likely to have prominent implications for the model results....