This paper proposes a semiparametric method for estimating duration models when there are inequality constraints on some parameters and the error distribution may be unknown. Thus, the setting considered here is particularly suitable for practical applications. The parameters in duration models...

This paper investigates the performance and efficiency of the public sector in 74 countries worldwide for the years 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2000. Similar to what is done in Afonso / Schuhknecht / Tanzi (2005, Public Choice), I calculate performance measures for various fields of government policy,...

Given a model that can be simulated, conditional moments at a trial parameter value can be calculated with high accuracy by applying kernel smoothing methods to a long simulation. With such conditional moments in hand, standard method of moments techniques can be used to estimate the parameter....

This paper uses panel data on pensioners’ subjective evaluations of their financial positions to construct equivalence scales for pensioners. A pensioner couple is estimated to require an income 44% higher than a comparable single pensioner to reach the same standard of living. This is...

This article proposes a general class of joint diagnostic tests for parametric conditional mean and variance models of possibly nonlinear and/or non-Markovian time series sequences. The new tests are based on a generalized spectral approach and, contrary to existing procedures, they do not need...

In this paper we analyze the business cycles of 15 European countries and the US. We locate the expansionary and recessionary periods by dating the turning points of an industrial production index using the Bry-Boschan procedure. We find that there is high concordance in the business cycles of...

We present and estimate a model of short term interest rate dynamics where we incorporate the convergent behavior of interest rates implied by the transition to EMU. We apply this model to data of two EMU countries -Spain and Italy- and compare the performance, in terms of accuracy of bond...

This paper proposes a consistent test for the goodness-of-fit of parametric regression models which overcomes two important problems of the existing tests, namely, the poor empirical power and size performance of the tests due to the curse of dimensionality and the choice of subjective...

Economic theories in dynamic contexts usually impose certain restrictions on the conditional mean of the underlying economic variables. Omnibus specification tests are the primary tools to test such restrictions when there is no information on the possible alternative. In this paper we study in...

This paper provides a further generalization of co-integration tests in a nonparametric setting. We adopt Bierens' approach in order to give an extension for processes I(d), with a fixed integer d. A generalized eigenvalue problem is solved, and the test statistics involved are obtained starting...