Recent literature on panel data emphasizes the importance of accounting for time-varying unobservable individual effects, which may stem from either omitted individual characteristics or macro-level shocks that affect each individual unit differently. In this paper, we propose a simple...

The Reversible Jump algorithm is one of the most widely used Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms for Bayesian estimation and model selection. A generalized multiple-try version of this algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is based on drawing several proposals at each step and randomly choosing...

Recent literature on panel data has emphasized the importance of accounting for time-varying unobserved heterogeneity, which may stem either from time-varying omitted variables or macro-level shocks that affect each individual unit differently. In this paper, we propose a computationally...

We propose a strategy for ranking scientific journals starting from a set of available quantitative indicators that represent imperfect measures of the unobservable "value" of the journals of interest. After discretizing the available indicators, we estimate a latent class model for polytomous...

A class of Item Response Theory (IRT) models for binary and ordinal polytomous items is illustrated and an R package for dealing with these models, named MultiLCIRT, is described. The models at issue extend traditional IRT models allowing for multidimensionality and discreteness of latent...

Given a random sample of observations, mixtures of normal densities are often used to estimate the unknown continuous distribution from which the data come. The use of this semi-parametric framework is proposed for testing symmetry about an unknown value. More precisely, it is shown how the null...

We propose a causal analysis of the mother’s educational level on the health status of the newborn, in terms of gestational weeks and weight. The analysis is based on a finite mixture structural equation model, the parameters of which have a causal interpretation. The model is applied to a...

A growing economic literature regards the analysis of job satisfaction; however, as for young people the investigations are still scarce. In this paper we analyse job satisfaction among Russian young workers by using the data collected for four items, the first of which concerns the general...