Comment to "Weak instruments robust tests in GMM and the New Keynesian Phillips curve" by Frank Kleibergen and Sophocles Mavroeidis

I discuss the identifiability of a structural New Keynesian Phillips curve when it is embedded in a small scale dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. Identification problems emerge because not all the structural parameters are recoverable from the semi-structural ones and because the objective functions I consider are poorly behaved. The solution and the moment mappings are responsible for the problems.Identification, DSGE models, New Keynesian Phillips curve, Identification robust estimation methods

Testing for convergence clubs in income per-capita: A predictive density approach

The paper proposes a technique to jointly test for groupings of unknown size in the cross sectional dimension of a panel and estimates the parameters of each group, and applies it to identifying convergence clubs in income per-capita. The approach uses the predictive density of the data, conditional on the parameters of the model. The steady state distribution of European regional data clusters around four poles of attraction with different economic features. The distribution of income per-capita of OECD countries has two poles of attraction and each group has clearly identifiable economic characteristics.Heterogeneities, panel data, predictive density, income inequality

The many dimensions of poverty in Albania: income, wealth and perceptions

This paper aims at assessing poverty in Albania through the use of an asset index whose effectiveness is compared with consumption in explaining differences in results of health and educational outcomes. Firstly, an asset index is constructed by the use of factor analysis and principal component techniques; then, two probit models are estimated assessing enrolment rate for secondary education and chronic disability in Albania using the asset index as an independent variable to compare its effectiveness with expenditures. The World Bank LSMS Survey of 2002 is used in the analysis.asset index; wealth; multidimensional poverty

Methods for Applied Macroeconomic Research

The last twenty years have witnessed tremendous advances in the mathematical, statistical, and computational tools available to applied macroeconomists. This rapidly evolving field has redefined how researchers test models and validate theories. Yet until now there has been no textbook that unites the latest methods and bridges the divide between theoretical and applied work. Fabio Canova brings together dynamic equilibrium theory, data analysis, and advanced econometric and computational methods to provide the first comprehensive set of techniques for use by academic economists as well as professional macroeconomists in banking and finance, industry, and government. This graduate-level textbook is for readers knowledgeable in modern macroeconomic theory, econometrics, and computational programming using RATS, MATLAB, or Gauss. Inevitably a modern treatment of such a complex topic requires a quantitative perspective, a solid dynamic theory background, and the development of empirical and numerical methods--which is where Canova's book differs from typical graduate textbooks in macroeconomics and econometrics. Rather than list a series of estimators and their properties, Canova starts from a class of DSGE models, finds an approximate linear representation for the decision rules, and describes methods needed to estimate their parameters, examining their fit to the data. The book is complete with numerous examples and exercises. Today's economic analysts need a strong foundation in both theory and application. Methods for Applied Macroeconomic Research offers the essential tools for the next generation of macroeconomists.Keywords: mathematical, statistical, computational, models, dynamic equilibrium theory, data analysis, econometrics

What explains the Great Moderation in the US? A structural analysis

This paper investigates what has caused output and inflation volatility to fall in the US using a small scale structural model using Bayesian techniques and rolling samples. There are instabilities in the posterior of the parameters describing the private sector, the policy rule and the standard deviation of the shocks. Results are robust to the specification of the policy rule. Changes in the parameters describing the private sector are the largest, but those of the policy rule and the covariance matrix of the shocks explain the changes most.New Keynesian model, Bayesian methods, Monetary policy, Great Moderation

How much structure in empirical models?

This chapter highlights the problems that structural methods and SVAR approaches have when estimating DSGE models and examining their ability to capture important features of the data. We show that structural methods are subject to severe identification problems due, in large part, to the nature of DSGE models. The problems can be patched up in a number of ways but solved only if DSGEs are completely reparametrized or respecified. The potential misspecification of the structural relationships give Bayesian methods an hedge over classical ones in structural estimation. SVAR approaches may face invertibility problems but simple diagnostics can help to detect and remedy these problems. A pragmatic empirical approach ought to use the flexibility of SVARs against potential misspecification of the structural relationships but must firmly tie SVARs to the class of DSGE models which could have have generated the data.DSGE models, SVAR models, Identification, Invertibility, Misspecification, Small Samples.

The transmission of US shocks to Latin America

I study whether and how US shocks are transmitted to eight Latin American countries. US shocks are identified using sign restrictions and treated as exogenous with respect to Latin American economies. Posterior estimates for individual and average effects are constructed. US monetary shocks produce significant fluctuations in Latin America, but real demand and supply shocks do not. Floaters and currency boarders display similar output but different inflation and interest rate responses. The financial channel plays a crucial role in the transmission. US disturbances explain important portions of the variability of Latin American macrovariables, producing continental cyclical fluctuations and, in two episodes, destabilizing nominal exchange rate effects. Policy implications are discussed.Shocks, inflation

Errata and comments for "Numerical and analytical modeling of busbar systems"

This note covers two parts. The first one provides an errata to the paper "Numerical and analytical modeling of busbar systems". We mainly give the correction for three equations affected by a typographical mistake. Despite the corrections that we are providing with this note, we think that the implementation of these equations can be quite onerous. Hence, in the second part of this document we provide the download link to our implementation of the equations (developed in MATLAB environment). Moreover, to help in using these functions, we explain their behavior by means of some examples.Comment: 5 page

Non-universal critical behaviour of a mixed-spin Ising model on the extended Kagome lattice

The mixed spin-1/2 and spin-3/2 Ising model on the extended Kagom\'e lattice is solved by establishing a mapping correspondence with the eight-vertex model. Letting the parameter of uniaxial single-ion anisotropy tend to infinity, the model becomes exactly soluble as a free-fermion eight-vertex model. Under this restriction, the critical points are characterized by critical exponents from the standard Ising universality class. In a certain subspace of interaction parameters that corresponds to a coexistence surface between two ordered phases, the model becomes exactly soluble as a symmetric zero-field eight-vertex model. This surface is bounded by a line of bicritical points that have non-universal interaction-dependent critical exponents.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure