This paper applies semiparametric regression models to shed light on the relationship between body weight and labor market outcomes in Germany. We find conclusive evidence that these relationships are poorly described by linear or quadratic OLS specifications, which have been the main approaches...

Developed countries have used several place-based policies to address the socioeconomic underdevelopment of their lagging regions ranging from tax exemptions to soft loans. Among these place-based policies, investment subsidies to private firms are one of the most popular in the EU. However, the...

We measure technical efficiency in R&D of Italian regions with the aim of understanding whether the variation in transport infrastructure endowment across regions might be the cause of efficiency disparities. We use a semi-parametric method where in the first step we estimate bootstrapped...

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In this paper we provide a brief overview of some of the most recent empirical research on spatial econometric models and spatial data mining. Data mining in general is the search for hidden patterns that may exist in large databases. Spatial data mining is a process to discover interesting,...

The production of ethanol and sugar from sugar cane has sharply increased for the last 20 years. If there are overall incentives to substitute the consumption of fossil fuels by biofuels, the increase of production and the expansion of new cultivated areas of sugar cane have eventually an impact...

This paper proposes a procedure to detect collusion in asymmetric first-price procurement. The main objective is twofold. First, to provide a methodology to detect collusion using a structural approach, and second to apply the methodology to field data on procurement auctions for highway...

This paper shows a methodological approach and applicative potential of a forecast model of public administration labor cost. The econometric model affords a tool for analysis and forecasting for the dynamics shaping the future evolution of compensation of employees in Public Administration, at...

We examine the unconditional distribution of the realized variance of three European stock market indexes obtained from intraday transaction prices. We find that they share common distributional features: a significant mass close to zero, a sharp decrease afterwards and a significant right tail....

The forecasting literature has identified three important and broad issues: the predictive content is unstable over time, in-sample and out-of-sample discordant results and the problematic statistical inference with highly persistent predictors. In this paper, we simultaneously address these...