Most economists intuitively consider purchasing power parity (PPP) to be true. Nevertheless, quite surprisingly, the empirical literature is not very supportive for PPP. In this paper, however, we find evidence in favor of PPP using a new test. The test is embedded in a Markov regime-switching...

We propose a method to forecast the winner of a tennis match, not only at the beginning of the match, but also (and in particular) during the match.The method is based on a fast and exible computer program TENNISPROB, and on a statistical analysis of a large data set from Wimbledon, both at...

This paper examines the performance of two different (s,Q) inventory models for spare parts in a production plant of confectionery in The Netherlands, a simple and an advanced model. The simple approach is more or less standard: undershoot of the reorder level is not taken into account, the...

The random walk is often used to model exchange rates. According to the Lucas critique, however, policy shifts may lead to breaks in the trend of exchange rates and hence to long swings. We use a Markov regime-switching model to allow for such swings and we reject the random walk in favor of the...

The literature on inventory control discusses many methods to establish the level of decision parameters -like reorder levels or safety factors-, necessary to attain a prescribed service level. In general, however, these methods are not easy applicable: they often use time-consuming iterations,...

This paper uses monthly survey data for the G7 countries for the time period 1989 - 2007 to explore the link between expectations on nominal wages, prices and unemployment rate as suggested by the traditional and Samuelson-and-Solow-type Phillips curve. Three major findings stand out: First, we...