The identification of improved methods for characterizing crop yield densities has experienced a recent surge in activity due in part to the central role played by crop insurance in the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 (estimates of yield densities are required for the determination of...

This paper addresses the following question: How much information do the kernel function and the bandwidth provide for nonparametric kernel estimation? The question is addressed by showing that kernel estimation of a cumulative distribution function (CDF) is an information transmission procedure...

We apply parametric and nonparametric regression discontinuity methodology within a multinomial choice setting to examine the impact of public health care user fee abolition on health facility choice using data from South Africa. The nonparametric model is found to outperform the parametric...

Many practical problems require nonparametric estimates of regression functions, and local polynomial regression has emerged as a leading approach. In applied settings practitioners often adopt either the local constant or local linear variants, or choose the order of the local polynomial to be...

We consider the problem of obtaining appropriate weights for averaging M approximate (misspecified) models for improved estimation of an unknown conditional mean in the face of non-nested model uncertainty in heteroskedastic error settings. We propose a “jackknife model averaging” (JMA)...

We propose a consistent kernel-based specification test for conditional density models when the dependent variable is categorical/discrete. The method is applicable to popular parametric binary choice models such as the logit and probit specification and their multinomial and ordered...

This paper uses panel data and the Local Linear Kernel Estimator (LLKE) to investigate the effects of aid on economic growth in developing countries. Specifically, we investigate the robustness of a popular parametric specification of the aid/economic growth re lationship in Less Developed...

This paper uses panel data and the Local Linear Kernel Estimator (LLKE) to investigate the effects of aid on economic growth in developing countries. Specifically, we investigate the robustness of a popular parametric specification of the aid/economic growth re lationship in Less Developed...