The main instrument of monetary policy in industrialized countries is currently a short-term interest rate. It typically remains unchanged during long spans of time. This paper tries to answer three questions. Why do Central Banks change targeted interest rates so seldom? How should we estimate...

In this paper we apply a bivariate probit model to investigate the implications of bank lending policy. In the first equation we model the bank´s decision to grant a loan, in the second the probability of default. We confirm that banks provide loans in a way that is not consistent with default...

The discrete choice or ”referendum” contingent valuation technique has become a popular tool for assessing the value of non-market goods. Surveys used in these studies frequently suffer from large non-response which can lead to significant bias in parameter estimates and in the estimate of...

To evaluate loan applicants, banks use a large variety of systems. The objective of such credit scoring models typically is to minimize default rates or the number of incorrectly classified loans. Thereby they fail to take into account that loans are multiperiod contracts. From a utility...

This paper extends the truncated and endogenously stratified Poisson and negative binomial models to three alternative discrete distributions, namely the generalized Poisson, geometric, and Borel distributions. Our primary intention here is to demonstrate how improper treatment of the data...

In this paper we test for existence of cointegration between health expenditure and GDP using data from 19 OECD countries for the period 1960-1995. Country-by-country and panel results based on the Johansen multivariate likelihood-based inference and a new panel test for cointegration rank are...

In this paper I present two new Lagrange multiplier test statistics designed for testing the null of GARCH (1,1), against the alternative of asymmetric GARCH. For one test the alternative is the generalized QARCH (1,1) model of Sentana [1995], and for the other the alternative is the logistic...

This paper investigates the effects of different health systems on cost efficiency in inpatient health care among the OECD countries. The results indicate that public contract systems are less efficient and that public integrated health systems are more efficient than public reimbursement systems.

This paper proposes an approach to specify and estimate multiple input, multiple output production frontiers and technical efficiency using a stochastic ray frontier production model A possible model extension is to incorporate a technical efficiency effects model to allow estimation of the...

When testing for cointegration, the asymptotic inference typically in use can be plagued by size distortion due to an inadequate first order approximation. Hence, for practical purposes the inference can be completely misleading and result in false conclusions regarding the presence of long-run...