We develop uniformly valid confidence regions for a regression coefficient in a high-dimensional sparse LAD (least absolute deviation or median) regression model. The setting is one where the number of regressors p could be large in comparison to the sample size n, but only s n of them are...

Cultural factors and especially common languages are well-known determinants of trade. By contrast, the knowledge of foreign languages was not explored in the literature so far. We combine traditional gravity models with data on fluency in the main languages used in EU and candidate countries....

Using the Reinhart-Rogoff dataset, we find a debt threshold not around 90 percent but around 30 percent above which the median real GDP growth falls abruptly. Our work is the first to formally test for threshold effects in the relationship between public debt and median real GDP growth. The null...

Non-homogeneous regression is often used to statistically post-process ensemble forecasts. Usually only ensemble forecasts of the predictand variable are used as input but other potentially useful information sources are ignored. Although it is straightforward to add further input variables,...

We apply a recently proposed Bayesian model selection technique, known as stochastic model specification search, for characterising the nature of the trend in macroeconomic time series. We illustrate that the methodology can be quite successfully applied to discriminate between stochastic and...