We suggest a simple and general approach to fitting the discount curve under no-arbitrage constraints based on a penalized shape-constrained B-spline. Our approach accommodates B-splines of any order and fitting both under the L1 and the L2 loss functions. Simulations and an empirical analysis...

Firms are heterogeneous in size, productivity, ownership concentration, governance, financial structure and other dimensions. This paper introduces a stylized theoretical framework to account for such differences and to explain the heterogeneous tax sensitivity of firm-level investments across...

In this study, we promote the estimation of alternative distributional policy parameters that identify horizontal changes in conditional distributions at quantiles from a reference distribution. The motivation underlying the introduction of these new parameters is the comparison of...

A very general stochastic volatility (SV) model specification with leverage, heavy tails, skew and switching regimes is proposed, using realized volatility (RV) as an auxiliary time series to improve inference on latent volatility. The information content of the range and of implied volatility...

We use data from the London Metal Exchange (LME) to forecast monthly copper returns using the recently proposed dynamic model averaging and selection (DMA/DMS) framework, which incorporates time varying parameters as well as model averaging and selection into one unifying framework. Using a...

This survey summarizes the state and development of European tax policy, in particular discussing the harmonization progress in direct as well as indirect taxes. Based on an over-view over the theoretical and empirical literature on tax competition, we further ask whether increased tax...

Does granting birthright citizenship help immigrant children integrating in the host country's educational system? We address this question using a reform of the German naturalization law in 1999 that entitled children born after January 1, 2000 with birthright citizenship. We use a...

Previous research in developed countries suggests that sports participation can positively influence child development. We use panel data of a cohort of 658 children in Peru to test this relationship in a less developed country where conditions for child development are worse. To identify the...

The question of whether migration can be an equilibrating force in the labour market is an important criterion for an optimal currency area. It is of particular interest currently in the context of high and rising levels of labour market disparities, in particular within the Eurozone where there...

We evaluate the relevance of covariances in the transmission mechanism of variance spillovers across the US stock, US bond and gold markets from July 2003 to December 2012. For that purpose, we perform a comparative spillover analysis between a model that considers covariances and a model that...