Internet recommender systems are popular in contexts that include heterogeneous consumers and numerous products. In such contexts, product features that adequately describe all the products are often not readily available. Content-based systems therefore rely on user-generated content such as...

This paper introduces a Bayesian MCMC method, referred to as a marginalized mixture sampler, for state space models whose disturbances follow stochastic volatility processes. The marginalized mixture sampler is based on a mixture-normal approximation of the log-2 distribution, but it is...

We consider structural vector autoregressions identified through stochastic volatility. Our focus is on whether a particular structural shock is identified by heteroskedasticity without the need to impose any sign or exclusion restrictions. Three contributions emerge from our exercise: (i) a set...

We present a comprehensive framework for Bayesian estimation of structural nonlinear dynamic economic models on sparse grids. The Smolyak operator underlying the sparse grids approach frees global approximation from the curse of dimensionality and we apply it to a Chebyshev approximation of the...

We propose a new algorithm which allows easy estimation of Vector Autoregressions (VARs) featuring asymmetric priors and time varying volatilities, even when the cross sectional dimension of the system N is particularly large. The algorithm is based on a simple triangularisation which allows to...

In this paper, we propose a Markov Chain Quasi-Monte Carlo (MCQMC) approach for Bayesian estimation of a discrete-time version of the stochastic volatility (SV) model. The Bayesian approach represents a feasible way to estimate SV models. Under the conventional Bayesian estimation method for SV...

A new version of the local scale model of Shephard (1994) is presented. Its features are identically distributed evolution equation disturbances, the incorporation of in-the-mean effects, and the incorporation of variance regressors. A Bayesian posterior simulator and a new simulation smoother...

We propose a moving average stochastic volatility in mean model and a moving average stochastic volatility model with leverage. For parameter estimation, we develop efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms and illustrate our methods, using simulated data and a real data set. We compare the...

Recent research has shown that a reliable vector autoregressive model (VAR) for forecasting and structural analysis of macroeconomic data requires a large set of variables and modeling time variation in their volatilities. Yet, there are no papers jointly allowing for stochastic volatilities and...

This paper applies the Bayesian method to estimate a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model using quarterly data for the UK over the period from 1971:Q1 through 2009:Q2. The contribution of the paper is two-fold. First, we estimate a model characterised by nominal and real...