The stochastic frontier analysis (Aigner et al., 1977, Meeusen and van de Broeck, 1977) is widely used to estimate individual efficiency scores. The basic idea lies in the introduction of an additive error term consisting of a noise and an inefficiency term. Most often the assumption of a...

In this paper we examine the properties of a simple criterion-based, likelihood ratio type test of parameter restristions for standard GMM estimators in autoregressive panel data models. A comparison is made with recent test proposals based in the continuously-updated GMM criterion (Hansen,...

We propose a generalized method of moments (GMM) Lagrange multiplier statistic, i.e. the K statistic, that uses a Jacobian estimator based on the continuous updating estimator that is asymptotically uncorrelated with the sample average of the moments. Its asymptotic (...)

We suggest a robust form of conditional moment test as a constructive test for functional misspecification in multiplicative error models. The proposed test has power solely against violations of the conditional mean restriction but is not affected by any other type of model misspecification....

Stock returns are often modeled as having infinite second or fourth moments with consequences for test statistics which have not yet been fully explored. Conclusions on the existence of moments are usually drawn from a generalized Pareto or simple Pareto tail index estimate. In a recent study...

This paper undertakes a Monte Carlo study to compare MLE-based and GMM-based tests regarding the spatial autocorrelation coefficient of the error term in a Cliff and Ord type model. The main finding is that a Wald-test based on GMM estimation as derived by Kelejian and Prucha (2005a) performs...

In the recent years, di usion models for interest rates became very popular. In this paper, we try to do a selection of a suitable diffusion model for the Italian interest rates. Our data set is given by the yields on three-month BOT, from 1981 to 2001, for a total of 470 observations. We...

We address the problem how to estimate default probabilities for sovereign countries based on market data of traded debt. A structural Merton-type model is applied to a sample of emerging market and transition countries. In this context, only few and heterogeneous default probabilities are...

We propose a quantification of the p-p plot that assigns equal weight to all distances between the respective distributions: the surface between the p-p plot and the diagonal. This surface is labelled the Harmonic Weighted Mass (HWM) index. We introduce the diagonal-deviation (d-d) plot that...

We derive the exact finite sample distribution of the L1-version ofthe Fisz-Cramér-von Mises test statistic (L1-FCvM). We first characterizethe set of all distinct sample p-p plots for two balanced sampleof size n absent ties. Next, we order this set according to the correspondingvalue of...