The purpose of this paper is to explore and evaluate smooth approximation methods for value functions. These approximation methods are increasingly important in numerical dynamic programming since they allow researchers to solve models with a multitude of continuous state variables. In this...

This paper proposes a new nonparametric estimator for general regression functions with multiple regressors. The method used here is motivated by a remarkable result derived by Kolmogorov (1957) and later tightened by Lorentz (1966). In short, they show that any continuous function of multiple...

We examine market volatility across an automated periodic auction mechanism and a continuous automated auction, using data on five futures contracts traded on the GLOBEX trading system. The analysis is supplemented by a comparison of the periodic market with floor trading. Our data permit...

In this paper, we consider expectations of the form E[log(y)|x] = a'log(x) as a good starting point for a more general analysis. We show why this naturally leads to the following flexible functional form E[y|x] = f(h(x)), where all functions are estimated by cubic splines. One of the main goals...

The goal of this paper is to analyze consumer demand in markets with large price uncertainty. We develop a demand model for goods that are subject to habit formation. We show that consumption plans of forward looking individuals depend not only on preferences and current period prices, but also...

In this paper, we derive nonparametric average difference estimators. We show that this estimator is consistent and root-$N$ asymptotically normally distributed. Furthermore, the average difference estimator converges to the well-known average derivative estimator as the increment used to...

We develop a demand model for goods that are subject to habit formation. We show that consumption plans of forward looking individuals depend on preferences, current period prices, and individual beliefs about the evolution of future prices. Moreover, an increase in price uncertainty reduces...

We develop a demand model for goods that are subject to habit formation. We show that consumption plans of forward-looking individuals depend on preferences, current period prices, and individual beliefs about the evolution of future prices. Moreover, an increase in price uncertainty reduces...