This paper explores the response of the divorce rate to law reforms introducing unilateral divorce after controlling for law reforms concerning the aftermath of divorce, which are omitted from most previous studies. We introduce two main policy changes that have swept the US since the late...

This paper explores the frequency of permanent shocks in divorce rates for 16 European countries during the period 1930–2006. We examine whether the divorce rate is a stationary series, exhibits a unit root, or is stationary around a process subject to structural breaks. A clear finding from...

Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC) methods are widely used for non-linear filtering purposes. However, the SMC scope encompasses wider applications such as estimating static model parameters so much that it is becoming a serious alternative to Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC) methods. Not only do SMC...

This work presents an analysis of the presence of arbitrage opportunities in the term structure of interest rates, through the estimation of the affine generalized Nelson-Siegel model with correction for no-arbitrage. We challenge the necessity of the condition of noarbitrage using the Brazilian...

This paper investigates how investor sentiment affects stock market returns and evaluates the predictability power of sentiment indices on U.S. and EU stock market returns. As regards the American example, evidence shows that investor sentiment indices have an economic and statistical...

Particle Filter algorithms for filtering latent states (volatility and jumps) of Stochastic-Volatility Jump-Diffusion (SVJD) models are being explained. Three versions of the SIR particle filter with adapted proposal distributions to the jump occurrences, jump sizes, and both are derived and...

Some researchers, for example, Koop [1], and Sims [2], have advocated for Bayesian alternatives to unit-root testing over the classical approach using the augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF). This paper studies the power of what Koop [1] has called the Objective" Bayesian approach to unit-root...

The present paper assesses whether monetary policy effects are asymmetric over the business cycle by estimating a univariate model for GDP including additionally the first difference of the 3-month Austrian interest rate as a measure for monetary policy. The asymmetry of the effects is captured...

Christopher Sims is one of the leaders in time-series econometrics and empirical macroeconomics and is well known for introducing the VAR approach to econometrics and macroeconomic modelling. Sims' main contribution to empirical macroeconomics was to show how macro-econometric modeling should be...

The present article considers Bayesian unit root test for autoregressive model involving structural break in variance. The posterior odds ratio for testing of unit root hypothesis against the alternative of break in variance has been derived under appropriate prior assumptions for the...