This paper proposes an extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition from two to a continuum of comparison groups. The proposed decomposition is then estimated for the case of racial wage differences in urban Peru, exploiting a novel data set that allows the capturing of mestizaje (racial...

This paper proposes an extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition from two to a continuum of comparison groups. The proposed decomposition is then estimated for the case of racial wage differences in urban Peru, exploiting a novel data set that allows the capturing of mestizaje (racial mixtures)

In empirical research it is common practice to use sensible rules of thumb for cleaning data. Measurement error is often the justification for removing (trimming) or recoding (winsorizing) observations whose values lie outside a specified range. We consider a general measurement error process...

We show that the main nonparametric identification finding of Abbring and Van den Berg (2003b, Econometrica) for the effect of a timing-chosen treatment on an event duration of interest does not hold. The main problem is that the identification is based on the competing-risks identification...

We propose a methodology that can efficiently measure the Value-at-Risk (VaR) of large portfolios with time-varying volatilities and correlations by bringing together the established historical simulation framework and recent contributions to the Dynamic Factor Models literature. We find that...

A novel simulation-based methodology is proposed to test the validity of a set of marginal time series models, where the dependence structure between the time series is taken ‘directly' from the observed data. The procedure is useful when one wants to summarize the test results for several...

Using NCRIEF farmland and timberland smoothed indices over the period from 1992Q1 to 2012Q3 and a new de-smoothing approach offered by Fisher et al. (1994), we explore the mean-variance diversification features of farmland and timberland assets. Our empirical results show that diversification...

[Update: Within four weeks of the original publication of this research report, Risk Magazine reported in its 28th February 2012 issue story titled 'Goodbye VaR? Basel to Consider Other Risk Metrics': "A review of trading book capital rules, due to be launched in March by the Basel Committee on...

Previously we introduced Singular Spectrum Analysis SSA and its multivariate extension MSSA as a powerful tool for cleaning data. Here we compare MSSA with the data filling algorithm M-REM (Multivariate Regularized Expectation Maximization). We compare theoretical methodology, numerical...

We showed that Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) applied to time series yields better correlations for risk simulations. This involved comparing SSA-based correlations with standard correlations and to noise, a zero correlation Wishart random matrix (WRM). We complete this testing here. We also...