This paper uses model-based recursive partitioning to study economic growth in the 255 European Union NUTS2 regions over the period 1995-2005. The starting point of the analysis is a human-capital augmented Solow-type growth equation similar in spirit to Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992). Initial...

Myopic loss aversion (MLA) has been found to play a persistent role for investment behavior under risk. We study whether MLA is already present during adolescence. Quite surprisingly, we find no evidence of MLA in a sample of 755 adolescents. This finding is at odds with previous findings, and...

Four years after the last European football championship (EURO) in Austria and Switzerland, the two finalists of the EURO 2008 - Spain and Germany - are again the clear favorites for the EURO 2012 in Poland and the Ukraine. Using a bookmaker consensus rating - obtained by aggregating winning...

The classical approach to testing for structural change employs retrospective tests using a historical data set of a given length. Here we consider a wide array of fluctuation-type tests in a monitoring situation – given a history period for which a regression relationship is known to be...

This paper introduces ideas and methods for testing for structural change in linear regression models and presents how these have been realized in an R package called strucchange. It features tests from the generalized uctuation test framework as well as from the F test (Chow test) framework....

The paper presents an approach to the analysis of data that contains (multiple) structural changes in a linear regression setup. We implement various strategies which have been suggested in the literature for testing against structural changes as well as a dynamic programming algorithm for the...

Variable importance measures for random forests have been receiving increased attention as a means of variable selection in many classification tasks in bioinformatics and related scientific fields, for instance to select a subset of genetic markers relevant for the prediction of a certain...

Non-homogeneous regression is often used to statistically post-process ensemble forecasts. Usually only ensemble forecasts of the predictand variable are used as input but other potentially useful information sources are ignored. Although it is straightforward to add further input variables,...

Measurement invariance is a fundamental assumption in item response theory models, where the relationship between a latent construct (ability) and observed item responses is of interest. Violation of this assumption would render the scale misinterpreted or cause systematic bias against certain...