We extend the simulation results given in Santos-Silva and Tenreyro (2006, "The Log of Gravity", The Review of Economics and Statistics, 88, pp.641-658) by considering data generated as a finite mixture of gamma variates. Data generated in this way can naturally have a large proportion of zeros...

This paper gives a short overview of Monte Carlo studies on the usefulness of Heckman's (1976, 1979) twostep estimator for estimating a selection model. It shows that exploratory work to check for collinearity problems is strongly recommended before deciding on which estimator to apply. In the...

High nonresponse rates have become a rule in survey sampling. In panel surveys there occur additional sample losses due to panel attrition, which are thought to worsen the bias resulting from initial nonresponse. However, under certain conditions an initial wave nonresponse bias may vanish in...

Recently, several institutions have increased their forecast horizons, and many institutions rely on their past forecast errors to estimate measures of forecast uncertainty. This work addresses the question how the latter estimation can be accomplished if there are only very few errors available...

Modern systems of official statistics require the timely estimation of area-specific densities of sub-populations. Ideally estimates should be based on precise geo-coded information, which is not available due to confidentiality constraints. One approach for ensuring confidentiality is by...

In self-reported data usually a phenomenon called 'heaping' occurs, i.e. survey participants round the values of their income, weight or height to some degree. Additionally, respondents may be more prone to round off or up due to social desirability. By ignoring the heaping process a severe bias...

Among a variety of small area estimation methods, one popular approach for the estimation of linear and non-linear indicators is the empirical best predictor. However, parameter estimation using standard maximum likelihood methods is not possible, when the dependent variable of the underlying...