When analyzing panel data using regression models, it is often reasonable to allow for time-varying covariate effects. We propose a novel approach to modelling timevarying coefficients in panel data regressions, which is based on penalized regression techniques. To illustrate the usefulness of...

This paper compares various estimation methods often used in the estimation of gravity models of international trade. The authors first discuss different structural and consistent estimation techniques, their underlying assumptions and their impact on estimated coefficients. They then estimate...

In many microeconometric models we use distances. For instance, in modelling the individual behavior in labor economics or in health studies, the distance from a relevant point of interest (such as a hospital or a workplace) is often used as a predictor in a regression framework. However, in...

In fitting parametric or nonparametric regression models, one or a few observations may have undue effects on estimators. These influential observations are precisely detected by the well-known influence measure, Cook's distance. In this paper, we introduce a type of Cook's distance for one or a...

Although globalization has diminished the importance of distance, empirical gravity models find little change in distance coefficients. We argue that changing distance costs are largely reflected in the constant term. A proportional fall in distance costs is consistent with constant distance...