This paper uses sectoral data to study survey-based diffusion indices designed to capture changes in the business cycle in real time. The empirical framework recognizes that when answering survey questions regarding their firm's output, respondents potentially rely on infrequently updated...

This paper develops a methodology for estimating the parameters of dynamic opinion or expectation formation processes with social interactions. We study a simple stochastic framework of a collective process of opinion formation by a group of agents who face a binary decision problem. The...

Qualitative surveys enjoy huge popularity among business cycle analysts and research institutes since they provide fast information on the stance of the economy. However, in order to derive quantitative statements researchers have to rely on assumptions about the relation between quantitative...

Much analysis in macroeconomics empirically addresses economy-wide incentives behind consumer/investment choices by using insights from the way a single representative household would behave. Heterogeneity at the micro level can jeopardize attempts to back up the representative consumer...

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the impact of inequality on economic growth. Both theoretical and empirical approaches have produced ambiguous results on sign and size of this relationship. Although there is a considerable part of the literature that considers inequality...

This paper discusses the application of statistical, survey sampling technique to hedge fund tracking problems. I describe a strategy that allows an investor or a fund of hedge funds manager, to construct a small tracking portfolio that replicates the time series changes of the total relative...

The paper proposes a technique for the estimation of possibly nonlinear panel data models in the presence of heterogeneous unit nonresponse. Attrition or unit nonresponse in panel data usually renders parameter estimators inconsistent unless the unavailable information is missing completely at...

The paper analyzes effects of randomized response with respect to some binary dependent variable on the estimation of the probit model. This approach is used in interviews when asking sensitive questions. Alternatively randomization can be considered as a means of statistical disclosure control...

Die Kumulation von Haushaltsstichproben steht auf der Agenda einer europäischen Neuordnung von Haushaltsbefragungen. Im Rahmen des Projektes "Amtliche Statistik und sozioökonomische Fragestellungen" des Statistischen Bundesamtes und in Abstimmung mit den EUROSTAT-Erfordernissen für neue...

The present paper offers a careful description of empirical identification of possible multiple changes in regime. We apply recently developed tools designed to select between regime-switching models among a broad class of linear and nonlinear regression models and provide a discussion of the...