The theory of Markov decision processes (MDP) can be used to analyze a wide variety of stopping time problems in economics. In this paper, the nature of such problems is discussed and then the underlying theory is applied to the question of arranged marriages. We construct a stylized model of arranged marriages and, inter alia, it is shown that a decision maker' s optimal policy depends only on...

A linear latent growth curve mixture model is presented which includes switching between growth curves. Switching is accommodated by means of a Markov transition model. The model is formulated with switching as a highly constrained multivariate mixture model and is fitted using the freely available Mx program. The model is illustrated by analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Y...

JEL Classification Code(s): J 31, J 71) "Perceptions of Discrimination, Effort to Obtain Psychological Balance, and Relative Wages: Can We Infer a Happiness Gradient?" There is a substantial literature that finds a linkage between happiness and relative economic well being as measured by earnings or wages. There is also a well documented racial gap in wages. One explanation for this is disparat...

We show that small switching costs can have surprisingly dramatic effects in infinitely repeated games if these costs are large relative to payoffs in a single period. This shows that the results in Lipman and Wang do have analogs in the case of infinitely repeated games [Lipman, B., Wang, R., 2000. Switching costs in frequently repeated games. J. Econ. Theory 93, August 2000, 149–190]. We also...

Markov state switching models are a type of specification which allows for the transition of states as an intrinsic property of the econometric model. Such type of statistical representations are well known and utilised in different problems in the field of economics and finance. This paper gives an overview of MS Regress, a MATLAB toolbox specially designed for the estimation, simulation and f...

This paper proposes a dynamic politico-economic theory of intergenerational contracts, whose driving force is the intergenerational conflict over government spending. Embedding a repeated probabilistic voting setup in a standard OLG model with human capital accumulation, we find that the empowerment of elderly constituencies is key in order to enforce productive policies. The paper characterize...

We extend the basic random walk Markov-Switching model in two ways and evaluate the out-of-sample forecasting performance on the Japanese yen during 1995-2004. First, we estimate both a twoand also a three-regime Markov switching models. Second, we add four exogenous variables as suggested in the monetary theory. According to the modified DieboldMariano forecast equivalence test, the result sho...