This paper investigates the finite sample properties of the two-step estimators of dynamic factor models when unobservable common factors are estimated by the principal components methods in the first step. Effects of the number of individual series on the estimation of an auto-regressive model...

The recent financial crisis has witnessed the importance of the housing markets in macroeconomic fluctuations. We investigate the correlation between housing dynamics and the business cycle for a variety of countries. Our empirical results confirm the two daunting facts faced by lots of...

One of the daunting problems in international finance is the weak explanatory power of existing theories of the nominal exchange rates, the so-called “foreign exchange rate determination puzzle”. We propose a continuous-time model to study the impact of order flow on foreign exchange rates....

Standard international real business cycle (IRBC) models formulated by Backus, Kehoe, and Kydland (BKK, 1992) have been considered a natural starting point to assess the quantitative implications of dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models in an open economy environment. Since the...

Empirical evidence shows that house prices are highly volatile and closely correlated with the business cycle, and the fact is at odds with the evidence that rental prices are relatively stable and almost uncorrelated with the business cycle. To explain the fact, we introduce information...