This paper demonstrates that factor-based forecasts for key Australian macroeconomic series can outperform standard time-series benchmarks. In practice, however, the advantages of using large panels of data to construct the factors typically comes at the cost of using less timely series, thereby...

There is an important debate going on in South Africa on whether to apply safeguard trade barriers to protect textiles. This presents an interesting case of how a country might use safeguard trade barriers in order to better achieve a domestic policy objective. Much of the current discourse on...

This paper provides evidence on the existence of asymmetries in the underlying loss preferences for the difference between the spot and forward nominal exchange rate. We find that, in the context of both linear and non-linear loss functions, the underlying loss preferences for monthly data are...

This paper focuses on labour market dynamics in the EU 15 using Markov Chains for proportions of aggregate data for the first time in this literature. We apply a Bayesian approach, which employs a Monte Carlo Integration procedure that uncovers the entire empirical posterior distribution of...

As asserted in standard literature, there is an implicit circular relationship between the productivity growth and the potential level of production (and, consequently, the estimation of the natural rate of unemployment is also altered). In order to avoid such emerging impediment in any...

The study is based on the 2000 version of the Romanian economy macromodel, amended only by updating the inflation econometric function. The paper presents the estimations for 2001, and, having in view the "Pre-Accession Economic Programme" the author presents two scenarios (a desirable,...

En este documento se hace una evaluación tanto de las fortalezas de la economía colombiana que contribuirían a la sostenibilidad actual del crecimiento, como de los factores de riesgo y vulnerabilidades que podrían afectarlo negativamente. Con este propósito se compara el desempeño...

Using a panel of 439 German regions we evaluate and compare the performance of various Neural Network (NN) models as forecasting tools for regional employment growth. Because of relevant differences in data availability between the former East and West Germany, NN models are computed separately...

This paper contributes to the growing literature that attempts to explain unemployment persistence. We show that when the economy is struck by a negative transitory (or permanent) demand or supply shock, firms can find their way back quicker to the pre-shock (or new) employment levels if they...

Logistic smooth transition and Markov switching autoregressive models of a logistic transform of the monthly US unemployment rate are estimated by Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. The Markov switching model is identified by constraining the first autoregression coefficient to differ across...