Event data can often be analysed using different concepts of waiting time. Our application offers three choices: calendar-time, age, and duration of residence in New Orleans. We exploit the semi-parametric features of Cox regression and estimate parallel specifications in which mortality risk is...

This paper demonstrates that the unobserved heterogeneity commonly assumed to be the source of overdispersion in count data models has predictable implications for the probability structure of such mixture models. In particular, the common observation of excess zeros is a strict implication of...

In this paper, the authors test the convergence hypothesis in a cross-section of 119 countries by means of bootstrap multimodality tests and non parametric density estimation techniques. By looking at the density distribution of GDP across countries in 1970, 1980 and 1989, we find low mobility...

In this paper we consider the use of bootstrap methods to compute interval estimates and perform hypothesis tests for decomposable measures of economic inequality. Two applications of this approach using the Gini coefficient and Theil's entropy measures of inequality, are provided. Our first...

In Bayesian analysis of vector autoregressive models, and especially in forecasting applications, the Minnesota prior of Litterman is frequently used. In many cases other prior distributions provided better forecasts and are preferable from a theoretical standpoint. Several of these priors...