In this paper, using the Monte Carlo (MC) method we propose an estimation and (at the same time) a test procedure for the stability parameter of a-stable distributions. One powerful advantage of the MC method is that it provides an exact significance level for finite samples, whose distribution...

Under the symmetric α-stable distributional assumption for the disturbances, Blattberg et al (1971) consider unbiased linear estimators for a regression model with non-stochastic regressors. We consider both the rate of convergence to the true value and the asymptotic distribution of the...

Since Mandelbrot's seminal work (1963), alpha-stable distributions with infinite variance have been regarded as a more realistic distributional assumption than the normal distribution for some economic variables, especially financial data. After providing a brief survey of theoretical results on...

This paper sets out to help explain why estimates of asset correlations based on equity prices tend to be considerably higher than estimates based on default rates. Resolving this empirical puzzle is highly important because, firstly, asset correlations are a key driver of credit risk and,...

We introduce a new, factor based bootstrap approach which is robust under heteroskedastic error terms for inference in functional coefficient models. Modeling the functional coefficient parametrically, the bootstrap approximation of an F statistic is shown to hold asymptotically. In simulation...

In this paper we discuss parameter identification and likelihood evaluation for multinomial multiperiod Probit models. It is shown in particular that the standard autoregressive specification used in the literature can be interpreted as a latent common factor model. However, this specification...

We study the modelling of large data sets of high frequency returns using a long memory stochastic volatility (LMSV) model. Issues pertaining to estimation and forecasting of datasets using the LMSV model are studied in detail. Furthermore, a new method of de-seasonalising the volatility in high...

Most dimension reduction methods based on nonparametric smoothing are highly sensitive to outliers and to data coming from heavy tailed distributions. We show that the recently proposed MAVE and OPG methods by Xia et al. (2002) allow us to make them robust in a relatively straightforward way...