The econometrics literature contains a variety of two-sided tests for unknown breakpoints in time-series models with one or more parameters. This paper derives an analogous one-sided test that takes into account the direction of the change for a single parameter. In particular, we propose a sup...

The specification of an optimizing model of the monetary transmission mechanism requires selecting a policy regime, commonly commitment or discretion. In this paper, we propose a new procedure for testing optimal monetary policy, relying on moment inequalities that nest commitment and discretion...

In many macroeconomic applications, impulse responses and their (bootstrap) confidence intervals are constructed by estimating a VAR model in levels - thus ignoring uncertainty regarding the true (unknown) cointegration rank. While it is well known that using a wrong cointegration rank leads to...

Alternative modeling strategies for specifying subset VAR models are considered. It is shown that under certain conditions a testing procedure based on t-ratios is equivalent to sequentially eliminating lags that lead to the largest improvement in a prespecified model selection criterion. A...

This book comprehensively and scientifically tests the assertion that accommodative monetary policy can eliminate the "crowd out" problem, allowing fiscal stimulus programs (such as tax cuts or increased government spending) to stimulate the economy as intended. The book is intended to be the...