When estimating the effects of treatments defined by complex formulas, researchers often use simple functions of exogenous shocks as instruments. A leading example is "simulated instruments" for public policy eligibility, which capture variation in state-level policy generosity. We show how more...

We argue that measurement error in historical price data has led researchers to erroneously believe that there was little persistence of inflation during the 19th century. Using a statistical technique that accounts for these errors, we estimate the persistence of (a) US inflation and (b)...

This paper presents a new adaptive technique for forecasting the Yen/U.S. Dollar exchange rate. The proposed method assumes a time-varying model to describe the evolution of the exchange rate. Weekly predictions of the Yen/U.S. Dollar rate are dominated by weekly announcements of unexpected...