The literature on agent-based models has been highly successful in replicating many stylized facts of financial and macroeconomic time series. Over the past decade, however, also advances in the estimation of such models have been made. Due to the inherent heterogeneity of agents and...

The authors use firm level data on Bulgaria to investigate the impact of liquidity constraints on firms investment performance. Internal funds are a important determinant of investment in most industrial economies. The authors use a simple accelerator model of investment to test whether...

Sovereign default is the switching state between successful and unsuccessful Fund catalysis. We find the IMF to be effective in mobilising private capital flows to middle-income countries that participate in a Fund program, but do not restructure their debt. A debt restructuring is a clear...

We develop and estimate a dynamic heterogeneous agent model for the EMS period. Our empirical results suggest that the existence of heterogeneous interacting agents is indeed a possible explanation for the dynamics of exchange rates during the EMS; we find strong evidence in favor of our model...

Since 2000 the Ukraine has followed a successful stabilization policy. Stabilizing the value of the hryvnia against the US dollar has been an important ingredient of this policy. However, the resulting unsterilized interventions fuel the domestic money supply and might lead to high levels of...

In this paper we develop and estimate a heterogeneous agents model with three different types of agents, switching beliefs, and two equity markets, Hong Kong and Thailand, in the period surrounding the Asian crisis. We find that investors are heterogeneous in their expectation formation...

We develop and estimate a dynamic heterogeneous agent model for the EMS period. Our empirical results suggest that the existence of heterogeneous interacting agents is indeed a possible explanation for the dynamics of exchange rates during the EMS; we find strong evidence in favor of our model...

In Bulgaria and other transition economies, liquidity constraints and hence access to external funds must be seen in the context of soft budget constraints and the financial system's failure to enforce the efficient allocation of funds. Liquidity constraints in Bulgaria may be seen as a sign of...

Although during the last decades the importance of stock markets has increased in all OECD countries, the cross-country differences appear to be remarkably stable. In this paper we relate the factors determining cross-country differences in stock market activity to deeply rooted norms and values...

We use Bulgarian firm-level data to investigate the impact of liquidity constraints on investment performance. Internal funds are an important determinant of investment in most industrialized countries. We test whether internal funds are important for firm investment during the current...