We demonstrate that the parameters controlling skewness and kurtosis in popular equity return models estimated at daily frequency can be obtained almost as precisely as if volatility is observable by simply incorporating the strong information content of realized volatility measures extracted...

Revenue forecasting is one of the most critical and often difficult tasks in governmental budgeting. It is critical because it determines the parameters upon which the budget is based. It is difficult because many outside influences can impact revenue results and cause variances with the...

The Grand Rapids industrial market started slow and steady in the first quarter of 2008 but made up for lost time during the remainder of the year. The vacancy rate decreased from 9.4 percent during the first quarter of 2008 to 7.5 percent at year-end. The consolidation, relocation, and...

Using a log-linearized approximation to an aggregate budget constraint, it is possible to show that the ratio of consumption to total (human and non-human) wealth summarizes agents' expectations concerning both future labor income and future asset returns. In a series of recent papers, Lettau...

Includes bibliographical references (p. 17).

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 37-38)

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for determining the time standard of items based on several characters, where part of them is quantitative and some of them are qualitative (dichotomic). The method of determining the time standard of an item is based on Multiple Linear Regression...

The goal of this thesis is twofold: it aims, firstly, at a description of cycles in SouthAfrican financial variables and, secondly, at the evaluation of the relationshipbetween cycles in financial variables and the South African business cycle. The studyis based on the original business cycle...

Forecasting the inflation path is an important task for central banks in an inflation targeting regime. Therefore, central banks must continuously evaluate the forecasting accuracy of the models used to generate inflation forecasts. This paper evaluates the performance of most of the models that...

The introduction of new industrial legislation in 1987, in the former Soviet Union, followed a policy of decentralization in which factories were given increased authority to seek their own customers and suppliers, agree prices, and to engage directly in foreign trade. Additionally, from 1987,...