We use a real-time boosting approach to study the time-varying out-of-sample informational content of various predictor variables (inflation rate, exchange-rate fluctuations, stock market returns and interest rates) for forecasting gold-price fluctuations. While the predictor variables have...

Economic theory predicts that, in a small open economy, the dynamics of the real price of gold should be linked to real interest rates and the rate of change of the real exchange rate. Using data for Australia, we use a real-time forecasting approach to analyze whether real interest rates and...

Drawing on recent empirical research, we study whether the international business cycle, as measured in terms of the output gaps of the G7 countries, has out-of-sample predictive power for gold-price fluctuations. To this end, we use a real-time forecasting approach that accounts for model...

We study whether asymmetric macroeconomic shocks help to explain changes in the international comovement of monthly stock returns in major industrialized countries over the period 1975-2004. Based on a time-varying parameter model, we trace out how the pattern of international comovement of...

Globalization may impose a double-burden on low-skilled workers. On the one hand, the relative supply of low-skilled labor increases. This suppresses wages of low-skilled workers and/or increases their unemployment rates. On the other hand, low-skilled workers typically face more limited access...