This paper proposes a novel shrinkage estimator for high-dimensional covariance matrices by extending the Oracle Approximating Shrinkage (OAS) of Chen et al. (2009) to target the diagonal elements of the sample covariance matrix. We derive the closed-form solution of the shrinkage parameter and...

The World Economic Outlook (WEO) is a key source of forecasts of global economic conditions. It is therefore important to review the performance of these forecasts against both actual outcomes and alternative forecasts. This paper conducts a series of statistical tests to evaluate the quality of...

We use daily data on bank reserves and overnight interest rates to document a striking pattern in the high-frequency behavior of the U.S. market for federal funds: depository institutions tend to hold more reserves during the last few days of each “reserve maintenance period,” when the...

This paper develops a small open economy dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model with macrofinancial linkages. The model includes a financial accelerator--entrepreneurs are assumed to partially finance investment using domestic and foreign currency debt--to assess the importance of...

We analyze the performance of kernel density methods applied to grouped data to estimate poverty (as applied in Sala-i-Martin, 2006, QJE). Using Monte Carlo simulations and household surveys, we find that the technique gives rise to biases in poverty estimates, the sign and magnitude of which...

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. MACROECONOMIC-BASED MODELS -- III. CREDIT SCORING (OR ACCOUNTING-BASED) MODELS -- IV. RATINGS-BASED MODELS -- V. HYBRID MODELS -- VI. CONCLUSIONS -- REFERENCES.

Intro -- Contents -- I. INTRODUCTION -- II. BIASES OF ORDINARY-LEAST-SQUARES (OLS) AND LEAST-SQUARES-WITH-DUMMY VARIABLES ( LSDV) ESTIMATORS: ANALYTICAL SOLUTIONS -- III. MONTE CARLO EXPERIMENTS -- IV. CONCLUSION -- References.

Intro -- Contents -- I. MARKET-BASED DEFAULT PROBABILITIES AND FINANCIAL SURVEILLANCE -- II. CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS -- III. BONDS -- IV. EQUITY PRICES -- V. FROM RISK-NEUTRAL PROBABILITIES TO REAL-WORLD PROBABILITIES -- VI. CONCLUSIONS -- REFERENCES.

We propose a model of the interbank money market with an explicit role for central bank intervention and periodic reserve requirements, and study the interaction of profit-maximizing banks with a central bank targeting interest rates at high frequency. The model yields predictions on biweekly...