This note examines the stochastic properties of US term spreads with parametric and semi-parametric fractional integration techniques. Since the observed data (rather than the estimated residuals from a cointegrating regression) are used for the analysis, standard methods can be applied. The...

We model EU countries' bank ratings using financial variables and allowing for intercept and slope heterogeneity. Our aim is to assess whether "old" and "new" EU countries are rated differently and to determine whether "new" ones are assigned lower ratings, ceteris paribus, than "old" ones. We...

The aim of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the impact of international financial integration on the long-run Real Exchange Rate (RER) in 39 developing countries belonging to three different geographical regions (Latin America, Asia and MENA). It covers the period 1979-2004,...

This paper analyses trade specialisation dynamics in two Eastern European countries (Romania and Bulgaria - EEC-2) vis-à-vis the core EU member states (EU-15) over the period 1990-2006. Specifically, we focus on whether there is a shift towards intra-industry trade leading to economic...

We investigate the role of crude oil spot and futures prices in the process of price discovery by using a cost-of-carry model with an endogenous convenience yield and daily data over the period from January 1990 to December 2008. We provide evidence that futures markets play a more important...

This paper presents some empirical evidence on the relationship between the yield curve and macroeconomic variables in the G7. The econometric methodology followed takes into account stationarity, cointegration and exogeneity features of the data, which is typically not done in the existing...

In this paper we examine the causal linkages between the G-7 long-term interest rates by using a new technique, which enables the researcher to analyse relations between a set of I(1) series without imposing any identification conditions based on economic theory. Specifically, we apply the...

In this note the empirical evidence presented by Karfakis and Moschos (1990) and Katsimbris and Miller (1993) on interest rate linkages in the EMS is reinterpreted and their finding of non-stationarity of interest rate differentials in the EMS is rationalized. It is argued that their results are...