We propose a simple dynamic stochastic model of sterilization and contraceptive use and we estimate its structural parameters using a sample of married couples from the 1995 Spanish Family and Fertility Survey. The estimated structural model improves on previous studies in terms of its ability...

This paper considers a job search model in which the environment is not constant throughout the unemployment spell and where jobs do not last for ever. In this situation, reservation wages can be lower than they would be in a model without consideration of such separations, but they can...

This paper examines whether the dismantling of apartheid has resulted in an improvement in the standard of living for the vast majority of South Africans. The study is based on a panel data set from the Kwazulu-Natal province. We use weighted quantile regressions to examine the distribution of...

It has been claimed that the deviations from purchasing power parity are highly persistent and have quite long half-lives under the assumption of a linear adjustment of real exchange rates. However, inspired by trade cost models, nonlinear adjustment has been widely employed in recent empirical...

We consider the problem of estimating parametric multivariate density models when unequal amounts of data are available on each variable. We focus in particular on the case that the unknown parameter vector may be partitioned into elements relating only to a marginal distribution and elements...

A flexible decomposition of a time series into stochastic cycles under possible non-stationarity is specified, providing both a useful data analysis tool and a very wide model class. A Bayes procedure using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is introduced with a model averaging approach which...

We revisit the work of Butler et al. (1998) who examine the effect of mathematical preparation on grades received in intermediate economic theory courses. Using a Bayesian approach under reasonably 'diffuse' priors, we are able to replicate their two-step point estimates almost exactly. We also...

Most health insurance in the USA is provided by employers until eligibility for public health insurance (Medicare) begins at age 65. Retiring before 65 exposes workers who lack retiree health insurance coverage to the risk of catastrophic medical expenditure. We solve and estimate a dynamic...

According to several empirical studies US inflation and nominal interest rates as well as the real interest rate can be described as unit root processes. These results imply that nominal interest rates and expected inflation do not move one-for-one in the long run, which is incongruent with...