We develop a numerical procedure that facilitates efficient likelihood evaluation in applications involving non-linear and non-Gaussian state-space models. The procedure employs continuous approximations of filtering densities, and delivers unconditionally optimal global approximations of...

We seek to quantify the success of Russia's attempt to achieve price-liberalization initiatives as part of the reforms established under the Big Bang of January 1992. We do so by studying the time-series behavior of commodity prices between 1992-1995 and focusing on the relationship between the...

We use a statistical model of commodity trade to measure the extent of integration between regional commodity markets within Russia. Monthly time-series data on regional commodity prices spanning 1994 through 1999 indicates substantial fluctuations in integration over this period: an initial...

In the process of implementing market reforms, many post-socialist countries have struggled to preserve economic and political integration. Using a statistical model of commodity trade, we quantify the evolution of economic integration observed among regions within Russia during 1995-1999, and...

We use a statistical model of commodity trade to measure the extent of integration between regional commodity markets within Russia. Monthly time-series data on regional commodity prices spanning 1994 through 1999 indicate substantial fluctuations in integration over this period: an initial...

We use population data from the U.S. Census to track regional patterns of growth from 1790 through 1990. At the county level, we find that an initial general tendency towards population convergence lasting roughly through the 1800s becomes dramatically reversed: particularly in the post-WWII...

In pursuit of its transition from a command to a market economy, post-Soviet Russia has witnessed enormous regional differences in economic growth rates. Moreover, the economic reforms implemented under this transition, while initiated at the federal level, have also differed markedly across...

We develop a forecasting model of GDP growth that features regime-switching behavior and an error-correction mechanism (ECM). Regime changes are manifested in the behavior of a stochastic regime drift component that moves between expansionary and contractionary phases, thus generating cycles in...

The volatility of growth in U.S. real GDP declined dramatically in the mid-1980s. Viewed through the lens of linear autoregressive models, this phenomenon appears to be the result of a structural break in the innovation process that drives GDP fluctuations. We present an alternative model that...