We formulate a family of direct utility functions for the consumption of a differentiated good. This is used to generate a family of demand systems with flexible substitution patterns. Demand models for market shares can be estimated by regression enabling the use of instrumental variables....

In this work we found first derivatives for the log likelihood function of the multivariate probit model.

This paper focuses on the dynamics of welfare by studying the persistence and transition of poverty risk, social transfers, employment and unemployment in the four European Country Clubs as defined by Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) and Bertola et al. (2001). We model their evolution in a multistate...

We examine the attribution of premium growth rates for the five main insurance sectors of the United Kingdom for the period 1969-2005; in particular, Property, Motor, Pecuniary, Health & Accident, and Liability. In each sector, the growth rates of aggregate insurance premiums are viewed as portfolio...

This paper compares the performance of three methods for pricing vanilla options in models with known characteristic function: (1) Direct integration, (2) Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), (3) Fractional FFT. The most important application of this comparison is the choice of the fastest method for...

Even if the name futures indicates a simple instrument, bond futures are complex. Several special features are embedded in the instrument. In particular the future is not written on one specific bond but on a basket of bonds, from which the short side can deliver the cheapest. This paper focuses...

We address the problem of seasonal adjustment of a nonlinear transformation of the original time series, such as the Box-Cox transformation of a time series measured on a ratio scale, or the Aranda-Ordaz transformation of proportions, which aims at enforcing two essential features: additivity...

This paper proposes a new method for approximating vector autoregressions by a finite-state Markov chain. The method is more robust to the number of discrete values and tends to outperform the existing methods over a wide range of the parameter space, especially for highly persistent vector...

The paper examines the heterogeneity with respect to the impact of a financial reform - Activity Based Financing (ABF) - on hospital efficiency in Norway. Measures of technical efficiency and of cost-efficiency are considered. The data set is from a contiguous ten-year panel of 47 hospitals...

This paper uses data contained in the Regional Public Accounts database to investigate the heterogeneity of the impact of public infrastructure across Italian regions basing the analysis also on institutional and political ground. The issue is here addressed linking the analysis of the impact of...