The KL-optimality criterion has been recently proposed to discriminate between any two statistical models. However, designs which are optimal for model discrimination may be inadequate for parameter estimation. In this paper, the DKL-optimality criterion is proposed which is useful for the dual...

Simulation-based cost-risk analysis of the interest expenditure is increasingly used for policy evaluation of public debt strategies by governments around the world. This paper is a first attempt to empirically evaluate this approach by comparing its implications for the maturity structure of...

In this paper we describe some applications of the Random Recursive Partitioning (RRP) method. This method generates a proximity matrix which can be used in non parametric hot-deck missing data imputation, classification, prediction, average treatment effect estimation and, more generally, in...

Building on the principles of the classical thoey of fiscl federalism, the new political economy of multi-level government indicates a number of criteria asa guide for the efficient assignment of competencies between the European Union (EU) and the member states: internalize interregional...

A procedure for the construction of an indicator in the presence of structured missing data is proposed. In particular, we face the problem of creating a ‘measure’ of the damage degree of valuable historical-architectonical buildings on the basis of the observation of several ordinal...

We introduce a new ``Monotonic Imbalance Bounding'' (MIB) class of matching methods for causal inference that satisfies several important in-sample properties. MIB generalizes and extends in several new directions the only existing class, ``Equal Percent Bias Reducing'' (EPBR), which is designed...

This paper reconsiders the effects of population growth on per-capita income growth within a Romerian (1990)-type endogenous growth model with human capital accumulation. One important novelty of our contribution is that in the human capital accumulation equation we explicitly consider the...

A one dimensional diffusion process X={X_t, 0 <= t <= T}, with drift b(x) and diffusion coefficient s(theta, x)=sqrt(theta) s(x) known up to theta>0, is supposed to switch volatility regime at some point t* in (0,T). On the basis of discrete time observations from X, the problem is the one of estimating the instant of change in the volatility structure t* as well as the two values of theta, say...</=>

EU New Member States must comply with the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and the investment requirements implied by the Lisbon Agenda. However, the SGP rules may result in underinvestment or distortions in the allocation of public expenditure. This paper provides new evidence on the effects of...

In this study we empirically estimated the role played by attitudes toward risk in insurance decision-making. To this end, we used the Iowa Gambling Task coupled with skin conductance recording, a validated experimental task of decision making under ambiguity which provides two dimensions of...