The purpose of this paper is to explore and evaluate smooth approximation methods for value functions. These approximation methods are increasingly important in numerical dynamic programming since they allow researchers to solve models with a multitude of continuous state variables. In this...

We develop a demand model for goods that are subject to habit formation. We show that consumption plans of forward-looking individuals depend on preferences, current period prices, and individual beliefs about the evolution of future prices. Moreover, an increase in price uncertainty reduces...

Almost all economic data sets are discretized or rounded to some extent. This paper proposes a regression and a density estimator that work especially well when the data is very discrete. The estimators are a weighted average of the data, and the weights are composed of cubic B-splines. Unlike...

We consider expectations of the form E[logy|x] = Σ_j=1-super-d α_j log x_j as a good starting point for a more general analysis. We show why this naturally leads to the following flexible functional form: E[y|x] = f(Σ_j=1-super-dh_j(x_j)), where f(ċ) and the h_j(ċ)'s are estimated by cubic splines....

This paper proposes a new nonparametric estimator for general regression functions with multiple regressors. The method used here is motivated by a remarkable result derived by Kolmogorov (1957) and later tightened by Lorentz (1966). In short, any continuous function f(x_1,...,x_d) has the...

This paper proposes a new nonparametric estimator for general regression functions with multiple regressors. The method used here is motivated by a remarkable result derived by Kolmogorov (1957) and later tightened by Lorentz (1966). In short, they show that any continuous function of multiple...

We examine market volatility across an automated periodic auction mechanism and a continuous automated auction, using data on five futures contracts traded on the GLOBEX trading system. The analysis is supplemented by a comparison of the periodic market with floor trading. Our data permit...

In this paper, we consider expectations of the form E[log(y)|x] = a'log(x) as a good starting point for a more general analysis. We show why this naturally leads to the following flexible functional form E[y|x] = f(h(x)), where all functions are estimated by cubic splines. One of the main goals...