This discussion paper resulted in a publication in (I. Edward George (eds.)), 2001, Bayesian methods with applications to science, policy and official statistics, Eurostat, 31-40.<P> Internationally operating firrns naturally face the decision whether or not to hedge the currencyrisk implied by...</p>

This paper tests for robust multidimensional poverty comparisons across six countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Two dimensions are considered, nutritional status and assets. The estimation of the asset index is based on two factorial analysis methods. The first...

The standard introductory texts to mathematical statistics leave the Bayesian approach to be taught later in advanced topics courses -- giving students the impression that Bayesian statistics provide but a few techniques appropriate in only special circumstances. Nothing could be further from...

Two methods of identifying cointegrating vectors are commonly used: linear restrictions and the nonlinear method of Johansenos maximum likelihood procedure. That linear method can produce invalid estimates while the Johansen approach always produces valid estimates has been recognised in several...

The elicitation of power prior distributions is based on the availability of historical data, and is realized by raising the likelihood function of the historical data to a fractional power. However, an arbitrary positive constant before the like- lihood function of the historical data could...

In this paper we have demonstrated the implications of incorrectly normalising the parameters of a reduced rank regression model to achieve global identification, and presented a method for estimating this model without using the ordering restrictions imposed in previous Bayesian and frequentist...

We test the out-of-sample trading performance of model-free reinforcement learning (RL) agents and compare them with the performance of equally-weighted portfolios and traditional mean-variance (MV) optimization benchmarks. By dividing European and U.S. indices constituents into factor datasets,...

We test the out-of-sample trading performance of model-free reinforcement learning (RL) agents and compare them with the performance of equally-weighted portfolios and traditional mean-variance (MV) optimization benchmarks. By dividing European and U.S. indices constituents into factor datasets,...

Stock picking is the field of financial analysis that is of particular interest for many professional investors and researchers. In this study stock picking is implemented via binary classification trees. Optimal tree size is believed to be the crucial factor in forecasting performance of the...

Optimal capacity allocation for investments in electricity generation assets can be deterministically derived by comparing technology specific long-term and short-term marginal costs. In an uncertain market environment, Mean-Variance Portfolio (MVP) theory provides a consistent framework to...