In this paper the issue of detecting and handling outliers in the GARCH(1,1) model is addressed. Simulation evidence shows that neglecting even a single outlier has a dramatic on parameter estimates. To detect and correct for outliers, we propose an adaptation of the iterative in Chen and Liu...

Volatility breaks are tested and documented for 19 important monthly macroeconomic time series across the G7 countries. Across all conditional mean specifications considered, including both linear and nonlinear models with and without a structural break, volatility breaks are found to be...

We develop a parsimonious panel model for quarterly regional house prices, for which both the cross-section and the time series dimension is large. The model allows for stochastic trends, cointegration, cross-equation correlations and, most importantly, latent-class clustering of regions. Class...

Nonlinear time series models have become fashionable tools to describe and forecast a variety of economic time series. A closer look at reported empirical studies, however, reveals that these models apparently fit well in-sample, but rarely show a substantial improvement in out-of-sample...

In this paper we address the question whether countries on the African continent have lower average growth rates in real GDP per capita than countries in Asia and Latin America. In contrast to previous studies, we do not aggregate the data, nor do we a priori assign countries to clusters....

The interest in business cycle asymmetry has been steadily increasing over the last fifteen years. Most research has focused on the different behaviour of macroeconomic variables during expansions and contractions, which by now is well documented. Recent evidence suggests that such a two-phase...

A time series (t=921) of weekly survey data on vote intentions in the Netherlands for the period 1978-1995 shows that the percentage of undecided voters follows a cyclical pattern over the election calendar. The otherwise substantial percentage of undecided voters decreases sharply in weeks...

We introduce the realized co-range, utilizing intraday high-low price ranges to estimate asset return covariances. Using simulations we find that for plausible levels of bid-ask bounce and infrequent and non-synchronous trading the realized co-range improves upon the realized covariance, which...

This paper studies the economic development process, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for a large panel of countries. We propose a methodology that identifies groups of countries (convergence clubs) that show similar GDP structures, while allowing for changes in club memberships over...

This paper considers the properties of the tests of the null hypothesis of a random walk against the alternative of a stochastic unit root when the data are generated by a process related to, but not exactly equal to, the processes under the null and alternative. The extensive Monte Carlo...