Accurate forecasts of incoming calls are crucial to optimal staffing decisions in call centers. This paper evaluates a wide range of models and forecast combination techniques by means of statistical and economic criteria. Relative to the previous literature, this paper is novel in several...

We study the performance of tests of distributional symmetry based on the coefficient of skewness and on L-moments and present a bootstrap implementation of such tests that is suitable in time series applications. We show with Monte Carlo simulations that both tests are correctly sized –...

We present a weekly structural Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model of the US crude oil market. Exploiting weekly data we can explain short-run crude oil price dynamics, including those related with the COVID-19 pandemic and with the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The model is set identified with...

We assess the degree of connectedness among 16 metals that are critical for the production of clean energy technologies. These commodities are the constituents of the Energy Transition Metals (ETMs) price index maintained by the International Monetary Fund and comprise base, precious, and minor...

Putting a price on carbon - with taxes or developing carbon markets - is a widely used policy measure to achieve the target of net-zero emissions by 2050. This paper tackles the issue of producing point, direction-of-change, and density forecasts for the monthly real price of carbon within the...

We assess the degree of connectedness among 16 metals that are critical for the production of clean energy technologies. These commodities are the constituents of the Energy Transition Metals (ETMs) price index maintained by the International Monetary Fund and comprise base, precious, and minor...

We study the impact of oil price shocks on U.S. stock market volatility. We derive three different structural oil shock variables (i.e. aggregate demand, oil-supply, and oil-demand shocks) and relate them to stock market volatility, using bivariate structural VAR models, one for each oil price...

In this paper I have used copula functions to forecast the Value-at-Risk (VaR) of an equally weighted portfolio comprising a small cap stock index and a large cap stock index for the oil and gas industry. The following empirical questions have been analyzed: (i) are there nonnormalities in the...

In this paper we use the hybrid integrated model WITCH to quantify and analyze the investments and financial flows stimulated by a climate policy to stabilize Greenhouse Gases concentrations at 550ppm CO2-eq at the end of the century. We focus on investments to decarbonize the power sector and...