A common problem in applied regression analysis is that covariate values may be missing for some observations but imputed values may be available. This situation generates a trade-off between bias and precision: the complete cases are often disarmingly few, but replacing the missing observations...

We build on the existing literature in Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to analyze the main incentive issues in PPPs and the shape of optimal contracts in those contexts. We present a basic model of procurement in a multi-task environment in which a risk averse firm chooses non-contractible...

This paper presents an indirect approach to investigate the possible existence of measurement error bias in the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices for the UK and Italy. Our empirical results show that there is no significant evidence for a bias in the UK, nor for Italy prior to the introduction...

This paper examines the impact of regulatory intervention to cut termination rates of calls from fixed lines to mobile phones. Under quite general conditions of competition, theory suggests that lower termination charges will result in higher prices for mobile subscribers, a phenomenon known as...

For non-stationary vector autoregressive models (VAR hereafter, or VAR with moving average, VARMA hereafter), we show that the presence of common cyclical features or cointegration leads to a reduction of the order of the implied univariate autoregressive-moving average (ARIMA hereafter) models....

This paper analyses the issue of price level determinacy in an optimising general equilibrium model with overlapping generations. It is shown that under a pure interest rate peg, wealth effects rule out nominal indeterminacy but give rise to multiple equilibria.

This paper analyses the link between FDI inflows and migration waves from developing countries. In addition, it investigates mechanisms through which this link works. Empirical results indicate that FDI can be seen as substitutes of migration through direct and indirect labour demand. However,...

Optimal nominal interest rate rules are usually set assuming that the underlying world is linear. In this paper we consider the performance of optimal rules when the underlying relationship between inflation and the output gap may be nonlinear. In particular if the inflation-output trade off...

This paper analyzes current practices at U.S. banks for quantifying credit in retail portfolios and examines the challenges confronting banks and regulators in developing an internal ratings based (IRB) approach to setting capital requirements for retail exposures. The paper finds that...

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