This paper considers a plethora of time-series measures of uncertainty for inflation and real output growth, which are widely used in empirical studies. Their relative performances are compared to a benchmark measure using the uncertainty measure reported by individual forecasters in the Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF) for the period 1982-2008. The results show that the use of real-tim...

This paper considers a state space model with integrated latent variables. The model provides an effective framework to specify, identify and extract common stochastic trends for a set of integrated time series. The model can be readily estimated by the standard Kalman filter, whose asymptotics are fully developed in the paper. In particular, we establish the consistency and asymptotic mixed no...

This paper confronts exchange rate-trade balance hypotheses derived from the elasticity, absorption/switching and monetary approaches to the balance of payments and short-run disequilibrium effects such as the J and S curves with data from a wide range of developing countries. We find strong evidence that the exchange rate affects the trade balance long-run equilibrium even when money and incom...

We analyze the relations between Granger (G) non-causality and a notion of structural causality arising naturally from a general nonseparable recursive dynamic structural system. Building on classical notions of G non-causality, we introduce interesting and natural extensions, namely weak G non-causality and retrospective weakG non-causality. We show that structural non-causality and certain (r...

This paper describes an empirical comparison of four specifications of the exponential family of random graph models (ERGM), distinguished by model specification (dyadic independence, Markov, partial conditional dependence) and, for the Markov model, by estimation method (Maximum Pseudolikelihood, Maximum Likelihood). This was done by reanalyzing 102 student networks in 57 junior high school cl...

We propose a methodology that is generalizable to a broad class of repeated games in order to facilitate operability of belief learning models with repeated-game strategies. The methodology consists of (1) a generalized repeated-game strategy space, (2) a mapping between histories and repeated-game beliefs, and (3) asynchronous updating of repeated-game strategies. We implement the proposed met...

We study semiparametric two-step estimators which have the same structure as parametric doubly robust estimators in their second step, but retain a fully nonparametric specification in the first step. Such estimators exist in many economic applications, including a wide range of missing data and treatment effect models. We show that these estimators are √ n-consistent and asymptotically normal ...

This paper proposes a new approach for analyzing the relationship between macroeconomic factors and the income distribution. The conventional method of analysis is regression of summary inequality indices on variables such as the unemployment and inflation rates. Building on the lessons from recent advances in time-series econometrics, we suggest instead that one should first fit a parametric f...

Dependence Measures in Bivariate Gamma Frailty Models Bivariate duration data frequently arise in economics, biostatistics and other areas. In “bivariate frailty models”, dependence between the frailties (i.e., unobserved determinants) induces dependence between the durations. Using notions of quadrant dependence, we study restrictions that this imposes on the implied dependence of the duration...

In the context of a dynamic, stochastic, general equilibrium model, we perform classical maximum-likelihood and Bayesian estimations of the contribution of anticipated shocks to business cycles in the postwar United States. Our theoretical framework is a real-business-cycle model augmented with investment adjustment costs, variable capacity utilization, habit formation in consumption, and prefe...