This paper investigates the impact of institutions or structural policies on the volatilityof income or GDP per capita in transition countries and in Kazakhstan in particular. Inthe first part of the paper we compare Kazakhstan’s institutional framework with othertransition economies based on...

The use of log-transformed data has become standard in macroeconomic forecasting with VAR models. However, its appropriateness in the context of out-of-sample forecasts has not yet been exposed to a thorough empirical investigation. With the aim of filling this void, a broad sample of VAR models...

This paper analyzes the mechanics of VAR forecast pooling and quantifies the forecast performance under varying conditions. To fill the gap between empirical and purely theoretical research we run a Monte Carlo study and simulate the data from different New Keynesian DSGE models. We find that...

The use of log-transformed data has become standard in macroeconomic forecasting with VAR models. However, its appropriateness in the context of out-of-sample forecasts has not yet been exposed to a thorough empirical investigation. With the aim of filling this void, a broad sample of VAR models...

Since the seminal article of Bates and Granger (1969), a large number of theoretical and empirical studies have shown that pooling different forecasts of the same event tends to outperform individual forecasts in terms of forecast accuracy. However, the results remain heterogenous regarding the...

This paper deals with the economics of Bitcoins in two ways. First, it broadens the discussion on how to capture Bitcoins using economic terms. Center stage in this analysis take the discussion of some unique characteristics of this market as well as the comparison of Bitcoins and gold. Second,...

Als Folge des Ölpreisrekordhochs 2008 wurde sowohl in der allgemeinen Öffentlichkeit als auch in der akademischen Welt über die Ursachen dieses Anstiegs debattiert. Die Ausgabe der Reihe »Kurz zum Klima« fasst diese Diskussion zusammen und verweist auf einen Aspekt, der zwar an sich...