In many microeconometric models we use distances. For instance, in modelling the individual behavior in labor economics or in health studies, the distance from a relevant point of interest (such as a hospital or a workplace) is often used as a predictor in a regression framework. However, in...

The well-known SETAR model introduced by Tong belongs to the wide class of TAR models that may be specified in several different ways. Here we propose to consider the delay parameter as endogenous, that is we make it to depend on both the past value and the specific past regime of the series. In...

In this paper, we distinguish three constrained variants of the gravity model of spatial interaction: doubly constrained, production constrained and attraction constrained exponential gravity models. These model variants include origin- and/or destination-specific balancing factors that act as...

In an important class of econometric problems, researchers select a target parameter by maximizing the Euclidean norm of a data-dependent vector. Examples that can be cast into this frame include threshold regression models with estimated thresholds and structural break models with estimated...

In an important class of econometric problems, researchers select a target parameter by maximizing the Euclidean norm of a data-dependent vector. Examples that can be cast into this frame include threshold regression models with estimated thresholds, and structural break models with estimated...

We propose a new methodology to estimate the empirical pricing kernel implied from option data. In contrast to most of the studies in the literature that use an indirect approach, i.e. first estimating the physical and risk-neutral densities and obtaining the pricing kernel in a second step, we...

Hedge funds offer desirable risk-return profiles; but we also find high management fees, lack of transparency and worse, very limited liquidity (they are often closed to new investors and disinvestment fees can be prohibitive). This creates an incentive to replicate the attractive features of...