The use of models to try to better understand reality is ubiquitous. Models have proven useful in testing our current understanding of reality; for instance, climate models of the 1980s were built for science discovery, to achieve a better understanding of the general dynamics of climate...

China is the world's second-largest economy and its output data are being closely watched. The release of the latest GDP data by China's National Bureau of Statistics can be felt on stock markets around the globe, and may influence a broad range of economic decisions ranging from companies'...

The capture ratio is a widely-used investment performance measure. We study the statistical problem of estimating the capture ratio based on a finite number of observations of a fund's returns. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the estimator and use it for testing whether one fund has a...

Country statistical capacity is increasingly recognized as crucial for development, but no academic study exists that reviews the available assessment tools. We offer the first review study that fills this gap, paying particular attention to data and practical measurement challenges. We compare...