Hamilton (2001) makes a number of comments on our paper (Harding and Pagan, 2002b). The objectives of this rejoinder are, firstly, to note the areas in which we agree; secondly, to define with greater clarity the areas in which we disagree; and, thirdly, to point to other papers, including a longer...

We describe different ways of measuring the business cycle. Insti- tutions such as the NBER, OECD and IMF do this through locating the turning points in series taken to represent the aggregate level of economic activity. The turning points are determined according to rules that either come from...

Macroeconometric and financial researchers often use binary data constructed in a way that creates serial dependence. We show that this dependence can be allowed for if the binary states are treated as Markov processes. In addition, the methods of construction ensure that certain sequences are...

Macroeconometric and fi?nancial researchers often use secondary or constructed binary random variables that differ in terms of their sta- tistical properties from the primary random variables used in micro- econometric studies. One important difference between primary and secondary binary...

To match the NBER business cycle features it is necessary to employ Gen- eralised dynamic categorical (GDC) models that impose certain phase re- strictions and permit multiple indexes. Theory suggests additional shape re- strictions in the form of monotonicity and boundedness of certain...

Macroeconometric and fi?nancial researchers often use secondary or constructed binary random variables that differ in terms of their sta- tistical properties from the primary random variables used in micro- econometric studies. One important difference between primary and secondary binary...

The decision to introduce a national FuelWatch scheme provides a timely case study of `evidence-based- policy' making in Australia. The government based its decision on econometric work by the ACCC who refuse to release the data. They claim that their analysis is robust because it has been...

Using data supplied by InformedSources I find additional flaws in the ACCC analysis of FuelWatch. First, the drop in petrol prices that is so visually convincing in the ACCC chart S1 is in fact an artifact of the method of data construction and can be attributed primarily to increases in prices...

Macroeconometric and Financial researchers often use secondary or constructed binary random variables that differ in terms of their statistical properties from the primary random variables used in microeconometric studies. One important di¤erence between primary and secondary binary variables...

Macroeconomics has a long tradition of inspecting and interpreting patterns in graphs of aggregate data. However, the move towards more precise quantification of macroeconomic phenomena has seen academics shift away from a study of turning points, which are a natural and obvious way of...