This dissertation contains three essays. They are related to the exponential seriesestimation of copulas and the application of parametric copulas in financialeconometrics. Chapter II proposes a multivariate exponential series estimator (ESE) toestimate copula density nonparametrically. The ESE...

Investigation into the relations between market fundamentals and US natural gas prices is carried out in the regime-switching framework. To test the hypothesis that US natural gas market may switch between two states of market: bullish market and bearish market, a 2-state regime-switching model...

Using supermarket scanner data, we test a variety of hypotheses from trade journals about the invasion of private-label food products. According to conventional industry wisdom, name-brand firms defended their brands against new private-label products by lowering their prices, engaging in...

The infant formula rebate program of the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) requires each state to hold an auction where the low-bidder among the three major manufacturers of infant formula became the sole provider of formula to the state, which issues WIC voucher...