We provide a new and superior measure of U.S. GDP, obtained by applying optimal signal-extraction techniques to the (noisy) expenditure-side and income-side estimates. Its properties - particularly as regards serial correlation - differ markedly from those of the standard expenditure-side...

It is well-known that the market prices of options produce implied volatilities that inexplicably vary by exercise price in a pattern often referred to as the volatility smile. This paper shows that not only do market prices produce volatility smiles, but so do model prices. This result occurs...

This paper focuses on how survey misreporting of food stamp receipt can bias demographic estimation of program participation. Food stamps is a federally funded program which subsidizes the nutrition of low-income households. In order to improve the reach of this program, studies on low program...

The term "information risk" or "information uncertainty" is defined as the risk of a misleading signal. This risk is understood Bayesianly in terms of the likelihood function f(S|φ). In Bayesian method, f(S|φ) captures the quality of signal S with respect to parameter φ. The Bayesian position...

This paper provides a general framework for the quantitative analysis of stochastic dynamic models. We review convergence properties of some numerical algorithms and available methods to bound approximation errors. We then address convergence and accuracy properties of the simulated moments. Our...

A review of the literature suggests that when pension values are measured by the wealth equivalent of promised DB pension benefits and DC balances for those approaching retirement, pensions account for more support in retirement than is suggested when their contribution is measured by incomes...

We study how estimators used to impute consumption in survey data are inconsistent due to measurement error in consumption. Previous research suggests instrumenting consumption to overcome this problem. We show that, if additional regressors are present, then instrumenting consumption may still...

Many economic decisions involve a binary choice - for example, when consumers decide to purchase a good or when firms decide to enter a new market. In such settings, agents' choices often depend on imperfect expectations of the future payoffs from their decision (expectational error) as well as...

The computation of standard errors for estimates based on EU-SILC is confronted with several challenges. This working Paper proposes a simple and flexible approach for standard error estimation, yet methodologically justified. It can accommodate nearly all sampling designs and indicators based...

This paper shows that the consumption-based asset pricing model (C-CAPM) with low-probability disaster risk rationalizes large pricing errors, i.e., Euler equation errors. This result is remarkable, since Lettau and Ludvigson (2009) show that leading asset pricing models cannot explain sizeable...