Without denying particular dimensions of the decentralisation in Sub-Saharan countries, this paper applies standard reasoning from the fiscal federalism literature to a developing country and tests the existence of strategic interactions among local Beninese governments, called communes'. We...

We review the econometric literature on measuring the returns to R&D. The theoretical frameworks that have been used are outlined, followed by an extensive discussion of measurement and econometric issues that arise when estimating the models. We then provide a series of tables summarizing the...

This paper examines the impact of securities regulation and exchange listing standards on the valuation of venture capital-backed IPOs in Canada and the United States. We use a sample of IPOs in both countries matched by size and sector over the 1986-2007 period. The data strongly indicate...

This paper uses asymmetric heteroskedastic normal mixture models to fit return data and to price options. The models can be estimated straightforwardly by maximum likelihood, have high statistical fit when used on S&P 500 index return data, and allow for substantial negative skewness and time...

Au courant des années 1990, plusieurs pays de l'OCDE ont connu un déclin significatif de l'épargne du secteur privé telle que mesurée par le taux d'épargne, ce déclin étant concentré principalement chez les ménages . Ce phénomène a généré une littérature abondante (parmi laquelle...

We propose estimators for the parameters of a linear median regression without any assumption on the shape of the error distribution including no condition on the existence of moments allowing for heterogeneity (or heteroskedasticity) of unknown form, noncontinuous distributions, and very...

In this paper, we provide evidence on two alternative mechanisms of interaction between returns and volatilities: the leverage effect and the volatility feedback effect. We stress the importance of distinguishing between realized volatility and implied volatility, and find that implied...

We test for the presence of time-varying parameters (TVP) in the long-run dynamics of energy prices for oil, natural gas and coal, within a standard class of mean-reverting models. We also propose residual-based diagnostic tests and examine out-of-sample forecasts. In-sample LR tests support the...

We propose a semiparametric approach for testing orthogonality and causality between two infinite-order cointegrated vector autoregressive IVAR(1) series. The procedures considered can be viewed as extensions of classical methods proposed by Haugh (1976, JASA) and Hong (1996, Biometrika) for...