This paper investigates the determinants of equilibrium real exchange rates for the new EU member states and candidate countries, relying on an asset model inspired by Aglietta et al. (1998) and Alberola et al. (1999, 2002). The impact of productivity gains on both the Balassa-Samuelson effect...

We study the robustness of block resampling procedures for time series. We first derive a set of formulas to characterize their quantile breakdown point. For the moving block bootstrap and the subsampling, we find a very low quantile breakdown point. A similar robustness problem arises in...

This paper deals with nonparametric inference for second order stochastic dominance of two random variables. If their distribution functions are unknown they have to be inferred from observed realizations. Thus, any results on stochastic dominance are influenced by sampling errors. We establish...

The so-called leverage hypothesis is that negative shocks to prices/returns affect volatility more than equal positive shocks. Whether this is attributable to changing financial leverage is still subject to dispute but the terminology is in wide use. There are many tests of the leverage...

Development aid does not always exert the desired positive effect on economic growth in recipient countries and it is even feared that it may reduce total factor productivity (TFP) and may discourage recipient countries ́efforts. This study seeks to contribute to the research on aid...

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