The paper analyses the effect of fixed-term contracts on the probability of finding a permanent job in the Italian labour market. I estimate a continuous proportional hazard model with nonparametric smoothing splines for time varying continuous covariates. It will be shown that such a method...

We propose a new method to find spatially adaptive smoothing splines. This new method breaks down the interval [0, 1] into p disjoint sub-intervals. Then we define p functional components in [0, 1], which have two importantfeatures. First, the purpose of each of these p components is to estimate...

The U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) is inherently highly stochastic. Yet,many existing decision support tools for air traffic flow management take a deterministic approach to problem solving. In this study, we focus on the flight departure delays because such delays serve as inputs to many...

This research deals with some statistical modeling problems that are motivated by credit risk analysis. Credit risk modeling has been the subject of considerable research interest in finance and has recently drawn the attention of statistical researchers. In the first chapter, we provide an...

In the common nonparametric regression model we consider the problem of constructing optimal designs, if the unknown curve is estimated by a smoothing spline. A new basis for the space of natural splines is derived, and the local minimax property for these splines is used to derive two...

Estimates of the real term structure for the euro area implied by French index-linked bonds are obtained by means of a smoothing spline methodology. The real term structure allows computation of the constant-maturity inflation compensation, which is compared with the surveyed inflation...