This paper proposes a new approach of valuing portfolios that contain illiquid assets. The approach has three major advantages. First, the estimators are arithmetic averages of individual asset returns or their proxies, so they strictly correspond to actual portfolio returns. Second, the...

This paper develops a real-time structural model of price formation, and uses it to investigate the dynamics of effective quotes and bid-ask spreads between consecutive trades. There is some evidence that the effective bid-ask spreads increase over time when no orders arrive. The effective...

For estimating a rare event via the multivariate extreme value theory, the so-called tail dependence function has to be investigated (see [L. de Haan, J. de Ronde, Sea and wind: Multivariate extremes at work, Extremes 1 (1998) 7-45]). A simple, but effective estimator for the tail dependence...

For the estimation of the mean of a heavy tailed distribution with tail index -[alpha]<-1, the asymptotic distribution of the sample mean is not normal as [alpha]<2. In this paper we propose an alternative estimator whose limiting distribution, under a second order condition, is normal for any [alpha]>1.

For samples of random variables with a regularly varying tail estimating the tail index has received much attention recently. For the proof of asymptotic normality of the tail index estimator second-order regular variation is needed. In this paper we first supplement earlier results on...

Asymptotic expansions of densities of the normalized sums of random vectors with at least finite third moment have been studied extensively (Normal Approximation and Asymptotic expansions. Wiley, New York.). In this note, we obtain the asymptotic expansions of densities of the normalized sums of...

Illiquid assets are widely spread within the economy but their indices are difficult to measure. This paper proposes a Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) repeat sales regression for estimating illiquid asset price indices. This method has estimators that are arithmetic averages of individual...

This paper analyzes the implications of cross-sectional heteroskedasticity in the repeat sales regression (RSR). RSR estimators are essentially geometric averages of individual asset returns because of the logarithmic transformation of price relatives. We show that the cross-sectional variance...