This discussion paper has resulted in a publication in the <I>Journal of Business and Economic Statistics<I>.<p>In this discussion paper we introduce time-varying parameters in the dynamic Nelson–Siegel yield curve model for the simultaneous analysis and forecasting of interest rates of different...</p></i></i>

We consider the dynamic factor model where the loading matrix, the dynamic factors and the disturbances are treated as latent stochastic processes. We present empirical Bayes methods that enable the efficient shrinkage-based estimation of the loadings and the factors. We show that our estimates...

We propose a new model for dynamic volatilities and correlations of skewed and heavy-tailed data. Our model endows the Generalized Hyperbolic distribution with time-varying parameters driven by the score of the observation density function. The key novelty in our approach is the fact that the...

This paper is the first attempt to assess the impact of official FOREX interventions of the three major central banks in terms of the dynamics of the currency components of the major exchange rates (EUR/USD and YEN/USD) over the period 1989-2003. We identify the currency components of the mean...

We consider the problem of smoothing data on two-dimensional grids with holes or gaps. Such grids are often referred to as difficult regions. Since the data is not observed on these locations, the gap is not part of the domain. We cannot apply standard smoothing methods since they smooth over...

This discussion paper led to a publication in <A href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1198/jbes.2011.10070">'Journal of Business & Economic Statistics'</A>, 29(4), 552-63.<P>We propose a new class of observation-driven time-varying parameter models for dynamic volatilities and correlations to handle time series from heavy-tailed distributions. The model adopts...</p></a>

This paper contributes to the productivity literature by using results from firm-level productivity studies to improve forecasts of macro-level productivity growth. The paper employs current research methods on estimating firm-level productivity to build times-series components that capture the...

A growing literature uses changes in residual volatility for identifying structural shocks in vector autoregressive (VAR) analysis. A number of different models for heteroskedasticity or conditional heteroskedasticity are proposed and used in applications in this context. This study reviews the...

This article explains the balance of payments constraint imposed on Ecuador's economic growth during the period 1970 – 2007. By using the Thirlwall’s model (1979), a modification is made, stating that the real exchange rate (RER) should not be considered constant in the long term due to the...

This paper investigates the relationship among energy, emissions and economic growth in Malaysia with the presence of trade activities. We employ Johansen’s (1995) approach to investigate the relationship. Using annual data from 1971 to 2007, the empirical results shows that there are long-run...