Factors other than changes in oil supply may cause changes in oil prices.

With rare exception, studies of monetary policy tend to neglect the timing of the innovations to the monetary policy instrument. Models which do take timing seriously are often difficult to compare to standard VAR models of monetary policy because of the differences in the frequency that they...

This paper reexamines the small sample properties of Hansen's (1982) Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Hansen and Jagannathan's (1989) estimation-free tests on simulated data from a more plausible consumption based asset pricing model. Previous studies are incomplete and misleading. A...

Recent research showing negative correlations between detrended output and prices during the postwar period has brought into question the conventional wisdom that prices are procyclical. However, this finding has been shown to be sensitive to the sample period considered. This paper examines the...

We analyze the volatility surface vs. moneyness and time to expiration implied by MIBO options written on the MIB30, the most important Italian stock index. We specify and fit a number of models of the implied volatility surface and find that it has a rich and interesting structure that strongly...

This paper presents empirical evidence on the hypothesis that aggregate price disturbances cause or worsen financial distress. We construct two annual indexes of financial conditions for the United States covering 1790-1997, and estimate the effect of aggregate price shocks on each index using a...

This paper explores the theoretical relationship between the population growth rate and asset prices implied by an overlapping-generations model. The model shows that changes in a population's age distribution affect asset prices but such changes generate low frequency movements in asset prices....

One key stylized fact in the empirical option pricing literature is the existence of an implied volatility surface (IVS). The usual approach consists of fitting a linear model linking the implied volatility to the time to maturity and the moneyness, for each cross section of options data....

It is common practice to estimate the response of asset prices to monetary policy actions using market-based measures of monetary policy shocks, such as the federal funds futures rate. I show that because interest rates and market-based measures of monetary policy shocks respond simultaneously...

This paper argues that the positive relationship between the level of prices and interest rates noted by Gibson arises, in part, because measured prices indexes, which are comprised primarily of the prices of short-lived consumption goods, and nominal interest rates are both driven in the same...