Although latent attributes that follow a hierarchical structure are anticipated in many areas of educational and psychological assessment, current psychometric models are limited in their capacity to objectively evaluate the presence of such attribute hierarchies. This paper introduces the...

Pollard showed for k-means clustering and a very broad class of sampling distributions that the optimal cluster means converge to the solution of the related population criterion as the size of the data set increases. We extend this consistency result to k-parameters clustering, a method derived...

Classification analysis is an important tool to support decision making in customer-centric applications like, e.g., proactively identifying churners or selecting responsive customers for direct-marketing campaigns. Whereas the development of novel classification algorithms is a popular avenue...

The execution and outcome of credit rating policies of banks are highly relevant to banks' decisions in investments, loans, and their measurement of default risks. They also have impacts on capital flows and utilisation of corporate borrowers. Therefore, it is essential to establish a...

The execution and outcome of credit rating policies of banks are highly relevant to banks' decisions in investments, loans, and their measurement of default risks. They also have impacts on capital flows and utilisation of corporate borrowers. Therefore, it is essential to establish a...

This paper examines the roles of domestic and international variables in predicting expansion and recession regimes of the growth rate cycle for Germany, France, Italy and the UK over the period 1972 to 2003, using a range of real and financial variables as leading indicators. The output gap,...

This paper examines the roles of domestic and international variables in predicting classical business cycle regimes in Germany, France, Italy and the UK over the period 1970 to 2001. A range of real and financial variables are used as leading indicators in domestic models, with these variables...