Recent research on macroeconomic growth has been focused on resolving several key issues, two of which, specification uncertainty of the growth process and variable uncertainty, have received much attention in the recent literature. The standard procedure has been to assume a linear growth...

Monotonicity of the equilibrium bidding strategy is a key property of structural auction models. Traditional nonparametric estimators provide a flexible means of uncovering salient features of auction data, but do not formally impose the monotonicity assumption that is inherent in the models...

We propose semi-parametric CUSUM tests to detect a change point in the correlation structures of non--linear multivariate models with dynamically evolving volatilities. The asymptotic distributions of the proposed statistics are derived under mild conditions. We discuss the applicability of our...

In this paper, we consider the distribution of bilateral distances between all pairs of cities to estimate K-densities using the methodology by Duranton and Overman (2005), identifying different spatial patterns. By using data from different definitions of US cities in 2010 (places, urban areas,...

The paper develops the bootstrap theory and extends the asymptotic theory of rank estimators, such as the Maximum Rank Correlation Estimator (MRC) of Han (1987), Monotone Rank Estimator (MR) of Cavanagh and Sherman (1998) or Pairwise-Difference Rank Estimators (PDR) of Abrevaya (2003). It is...

We examine the accuracy of survey-based expectations of the Chilean exchange rate relative to the US dollar. Our out-of-sample analysis reveals that survey-based forecasts outperform the Driftless Random Walk (DRW) in terms of Mean Squared Prediction Error at several forecasting horizons. This...

This paper focuses on the spatial city size distribution in the United States. We propose a new distance-based approach to analyse the influence of distance on the city size distribution parameter, by considering the Pareto distribution and using data from different definitions of US cities in...

This paper analyses whether the size distribution of nearby cities is lognormally distributed by using a distance-based approach. We use data from three different definitions of US cities in 2010, considering all possible combinations of cities within a 300-mile radius. The results indicate that...

In this paper we show that the exchange rates of some commodity exporter countries have the ability to predict the price of spot and future contracts of aluminum. This is shown with both in-sample and out-of-sample analyses. The theoretical underpinning of these results relies on the...

If the population of a given country evolves according to Gibrat'�s Law, its growth rate will be independent of its initial size. This short paper further investigates this empirical regularity by the application of a suitable panel unit root test and non-parametric methods. The evidence...