In this paper we present an exact maximum likelihood treatment for the estimation of a Stochastic Volatility in Mean (SVM) model based on Monte Carlo simulation methods. The SVM model incorporates the unobserved volatility as an explanatory variable in the mean equation. The same extension is...

We provide a detailed discussion of the time series modelling of daily tax revenues. The main feature of daily tax revenue series is the pattern within calendar months. Standard seasonal time series techniques cannot be used since the number of banking days per calendar month varies and because...

In this paper we compare the predictive abilility of Stochastic Volatility (SV) models to that of volatility forecasts implied by option prices. We develop an SV model with implied volatility as an exogeneous var able in the variance equation which facilitates the use of statistical tests for...

We investigate changes in the time series characteristics of postwar U.S. inflation. In a model-based analysis the conditional mean of inflation is specified by a long memory autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average process and the conditional variance is modelled by a stochastic...

We study the relation between the credit cycle and macro economic fundamentals in an intensity based framework. Using rating transition and default data of U.S. corporates from Standard and Poor’s over the period 1980–2005 we directly estimate the credit cycle from the micro rating data. We...

We develop a proposal or importance density for state space models with a nonlinear non-Gaussian observation vector y ∼ p(y¦θ) and an unobserved linear Gaussian signal vector θ ∼ p(θ). The proposal density is obtained from the Laplace approximation of the smoothing density p(θ¦y). We...

SUMMARY We consider the dynamic factor model and show how smoothness restrictions can be imposed on factor loadings by using cubic spline functions. We develop statistical procedures based on Wald, Lagrange multiplier and likelihood ratio tests for this purpose. The methodology is illustrated by...