The challenge of the econometric problem in production efficiency analysis is that the efficiency scores to be analyzed are unobserved. Statistical properties have recently been discovered for a type of estimator popular in the literature, known as data envelopment analysis (DEA). This opens up...

In a seminal paper, Racine and Li, (Journal of Econometrics, 2004) introduce a tool which admits discrete and categorical variables as regressors in nonparametric regres- sions. The method is similar to the smoothing techniques for continuous regressors but uses discrete kernels. In the...

In the wake of the recent global financial crisis central banks and regulators are concerned about redirection of bailout funds into dividends. Yet, we do not know much about the extent banks follow dividend policies and funding decisions optimal to generating shareholders? wealth because banks...