This contribution analyzes bull and bear markets from 1954:1-2011:2 in the US-stock index S&P 500. Thereby, a 2-State-Markov-Switching model is applied to figure out bull and bear market regimes within the latter period, whereby the estimated state probabilities are used to estimate a dummy...

Monitoring the behavior of potential output helps policymakers implement appropriate policies in response to an economic crisis. In the short-run, estimates of the output gap will guide the timing of implementation and withdrawal of stimulus measures. In the medium- to long-term, these estimates...

This paper provides new evidence on the nature of occupational differences in unemployment dynamics, which is relevant for the debate between the structural or hysteresis hypotheses. We develop a procedure that permits us to test for the presence of a structural break at unknown date. Our...

Using new data on returns and risk factors the paper considers the stock performance on the Japanese market, which is the second largest in the world and operates under unique macroeconomic conditions. We find that the CAPM model is not an adequate approach for the Japanese market. The Carhart...

In this paper we have assessed an influence of the NYSE Stock Exchange indexes (DJIA and NASDAQ) and European Stock indexes (DAX and FTSE) on the Warsaw Stock Exchange index WIG within a framework of a GARCH model. By applying a procedure of checking predictive quality of econometric models as...

In this article we provide evidence for a rational bubble in S\&P 500 stock prices by applying a test for changing persistence under fractional integration proposed by Sibbertsen and Kruse (2007). We find strong evidence for stationary long memory before the estimated change point in 1955 and a...

This paper investigates the time-series properties of the price of iron ore. The focus is on testing a unit-root null hypothesis against a trend-stationary alternative, with a structural break allowed under both hypotheses. We consider unit-root tests with or without structural breaks, applied...