We propose two new procedures for comparing the mean squared prediction error (MSPE) of a benchmark model to the MSPEs of a small set of alternative models that nest the benchmark. Our procedures compare the benchmark to all the alternative models simultaneously rather than sequentially, and do...

We address the efficiency of expenditure in education provision by comparing the output (PISA results) from the educational system of 25, mostly OECD, countries with resources employed (teachers per student, time spent at school). We estimate a semi-parametric model of the education production...

This paper applies linear and neural network-based "thick" models for forecasting inflation based on Phillips-curve formulations in the USA, Japan and the euro area. Thick models represent "trimmed mean" forecasts from several neural network models. They outperform the best performing linear...

This paper re-examines two data issues concerning euro area money demand: aggregation of national data and measurement of the own rate. The main purpose is to study if euro area money demand is subject to parameter non-constancies using formal tests rather than informal diagnostics. As a...

Conditional heteroskedasticity is an important feature of many macroeconomic and financial time series. Standard residual-based bootstrap procedures for dynamic regression models treat the regression error as i.i.d. These procedures are invalid in the presence of conditional heteroskedasticity....

We propose a sieve bootstrap framework to conduct pointwise and simultaneous inference for time-varying coefficient regression models based on a nonparametric local linear estimator. The asymptotic validity of the sieve bootstrap in the presence of autocorrelation is established. We find that it...

This paper provides inference methods for best linear approximations to functions which are known to lie within a band. It extends the partial identification literature by allowing the upper and lower functions defining the band to carry an index, and to be unknown but parametrically or...

Machine learning and artificial intelligence methods are often referred to as \black boxes" when compared to traditional regression-based approaches. However both traditional and machine learning methods are concerned with modeling the joint distribution between endogenous (target) and exogenous...