This paper provides a test of convexity of a regression function. This test is based on the least squares splines. The test statistic is shown to be asymptotically of size equal to the nominal level, while diverging to infinity if the convexity is misspecified. Therefore, the test is consistent...

There has been an on-going debate about choices of the most suitable model amongst avariety of model specifications and parameterizations. The first dissertation essay investigateswhether asymmetric leptokurtic return distributions such as Hansen’s (1994) skewed tdistributioncombined with...

The recent paper by Ling and Tong (2005) considered a quasi-likelihood ratio test for the threshold in moving average models with errors. This article generalizes their results to the case with GARCH errors, and a new quasi-likelihood ratio test is derived. The generalization is not direct since...

This paper investigates the effects of inward FDI on per-capita income and growth of the US states since the mid-1970s. Using a Markov chain approach, it shows that both quantitative and qualitative characteristics of FDI affect per-capita income and growth. Employment-intensive FDI,...

We address the problem how to estimate default probabilities for sovereign countries based on market data of traded debt. A structural Merton-type model is applied to a sample of emerging market and transition countries. In this context, only few and heterogeneous default probabilities are...

There has been an on-going debate about choices of the most suitable model amongst a variety of model specifications and parameterizations. The first dissertation essay investigates whether asymmetric leptokurtic return distributions such as Hansen's (1994) skewed tdistribution combined with...

In this paper, we propose a likelihood ratio and Markov chain based method to evaluate density forecasting. This method can jointly evaluate the unconditional forecasted distribution and dependence of the outcomes. This method is an extension of the widely applied evaluation method for interval...

Observational studies are widely used to evaluate the effect of treatment when it is not feasible to conduct controlled experiment. This article considers the use of parametric analyses for estimating the causal treatment effect. The proposed approach is an alternative to the widely used...

This paper investigates a quasi-likelihood ratio (LR) test for the thresholds in buffered autoregressive processes. Under the null hypothesis of no threshold, the LR test statistic converges to a function of a centered Gaussian process. Under local alternatives, this LR test has nontrivial...