In longitudinal studies with subjects measured repeatedly across time, an important problem is how to select a model generating data choosing between a linear regression model and a linear latent growth model. Approaches based both on information criteria and on asymptotic hypothesis test on the...

Poverty maps are an important source of information on the regional distribution of poverty and are currently used to support regional policy making and to allocate funds to local jurisdictions. But obtaining accurate poverty maps at low levels of disaggregation is not straightforward because of...

The use of Monte Carlo methods to generate exam data sets is nowadays a well-established practice among econometrics examiners all over the world. Its advantages are well known: providing each student a different data set ensures that estimates are actually computed individually, rather than...

The comparison of the means of two independent samples is one of the most popular problems in real-world data analysis. In the multivariate context, two-sample Hotelling's T² frequently used to test the equality of means of two independent Gaussian random samples assuming either the same or a...

In the context of Dynamic Factor Models (DFM), we compare point and interval estimates of the underlying unobserved factors extracted using small and big-data procedures. Our paper differs from previous works in the related literature in several ways. First, we focus on factor extraction rather...

In economics, insurance and finance, value at risk (VaR) is a widely used measure of the risk of loss on a specific portfolio of financial assets. For a given portfolio, time horizon, and probability alfa, the 100alfa% VaR is defined as a threshold loss value, such that the probability that the...

Recent years are characterized by both a rise in life expectancy and a further fall in fertility in the developing countries (DCs). These processes coexist with large heterogeneity according to the specific living conditions of countries. The aim of our research is to analyze the trends of...

The diffusion of temporary job contracts in contemporary European societies has raised concern that these jobs, even while deemed useful for combating unemployment, may also constitute a source of insecurity and precariousness for young workers. Little is known about their possible social and...

In this paper we introduce a Random Walk test for Functional Autoregressive Processes of Order One. The test is non parametric, based on Bootstrap and Functional Principal Components. The power of the test is shown through an extensive Montecarlo simulation. We apply the test to two real...

We study quantitative information flow, from the perspective of an analyst who is interested in maximizing its expected gain in the process of discovering a secret, or settling a hypothesis, represented by an unobservable <i>X</i>, after observing some <i>Y</i> related to <i>X</i>. In our framework, inspired by...