We use household data to estimate the cost of participating to financial markets and the cross sectional dispersion of stock market optimism. Our analysis is based on a mean-variance framework, within which we derive structural decision rules for individual composition of the risky assets...

USAGE is a 500 industry dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the US economy being developed at Monash University in collaboration with the US International Trade Commission. In common with the MONASH model of Australia, USAGE is designed for four modes of analysis: Historical, where...

This paper tests stylized facts and theories from behavioral economics and laboratory experiments using a randomized field experiment of our design. A major South African consumer credit lender issued 60,000 scripted direct mail solicitations where several marketing “treatments†were...

The measurement of income inequality plays a pivotal role in the assessment of economic welfare and the design and implementation of social policies. A primary input of such measurement is data provided by household surveys. It is a well-documented fact that in these surveys some variables are...

We analyze the issue of the impact of multiple breaks on monetary neutrality results, using annual data on real output and monetary aggregates for Argentina (1884-1996), Australia (1870-1997), Brazil (1912-1995), Canada (1870-2001), Italy (1870-1997), Mexico (1932-2000), Sweeden (1871-1988), and...

In this paper, we consider testing marginal distributional assumptions. Special cases that we consider are the Pearson's family like the Gaussian, Student, Gamma, Beta and uniform distributions. The test statistics we consider are based on the first moment conditions derived by Hansen and...

There is a growing literature on unit root testing in threshold autoregressive models. This paper makes two contributions to the literature. First, an asymptotic theory is developed for unit root testing in a threshold autoregression, in which the errors are allowed to be dependent and...

Techniques for simulated maximum likelihood (SML) estimation, filtering, and assessing the fit of stochastic volatility models are examined. Both one- and two-factor models (with leverage effects) are considered. The techniques are computationally efficient, robust, straightforward to implement,...

This paper develops a dynamic stochastic model to examine the joint patent application and renewal behavior under an international patent protection regime. This framework makes it possible to utilize both the cross-sectional (multi-country filing) and the time-series (patent renewal) dimensions...

This paper develops a new simulation estimation algorithm that is particularly useful for estimating dynamic panel data models with unobserved endogenous state variables. The new approach can deal with the commonly encountered and widely discussed ``initial conditions problem,'' as well as the...