On the statistical estimation of diffusion processes - a partial survey

Data available on continuous-time diffusions are always sampled discretely in time. In most cases, the likelihood function of the observations is not directly computable. This survey covers a sample of the statistical methods that have been developed to solve this problem. We concentrate on some recent contributions to the literature based on three di§erent approaches to the problem: an improvement of the Euler-Maruyama discretization scheme, the employment of Martingale Estimating Functions, and the application of Generalized Method of Moments (GMM).

Financial integration and public financial institutions

This article highlights the problems associated with the existence of financiai institutions owned by a State which is a member of a federation. We show that these financiai institutions allow the States to transfer deficits to the federal government. This possibility creates incentives to higher deficits at State and federal leveis, implying an inefficiently high inflation rate. The main policy implication is that stabilization policies are more difficult to be implemented in countries such as Brazil, and Argentina which allow the members of the federation to own financiai institutions. A second policy implication is that Economic Blocks such as the European Community or Mercosur should not allow regional central banks if they create a monetary authority to help the members in financiai difficulty.

A stochastic discount factor approach to asset pricing using panel data

Using the Pricing Equation, in a panel-data framework, we construct a novel consistent estimator of the stochastic discount factor (SDF) mimicking portfolio which relies on the fact that its logarithm is the ìcommon featureîin every asset return of the economy. Our estimator is a simple function of asset returns and does not depend on any parametric function representing preferences, making it suitable for testing di§erent preference speciÖcations or investigating intertemporal substitution puzzles.

A general-equilibrium closed-form solution to the welfare costs of inflation (Forthcoming, Revista Brasileira de Economia)

This work presents closed-form solutions to Lucasís (2000) generalequilibrium expression for the welfare costs of ináation, as well as to the di§erence between the general-equlibrium measure and Baileyís (1956) partial-equilibrium measure. In Lucasís original work only numerical solutions are provided.

Moratória interna, dívida pública e juros reais

Desenvolve-se, neste trabalho, um modelo de oferta e de demanda de dívida pública. Através dele estuda-se a dinâmica da dívida pública e dos juros reais. Introduz-se a possibilidade de moratória interna e seus efeitos são analisados. Para o caso do Brasil, descobre-se que a seigniorage do governo é uma variável aleatória independente da taxa de inflação, quando esta atinge valores elevados. Através de estimativas, são feitas simulações para o caso brasileiro. Um dos resultados é que, sem a possibilidade de moratória interna, o governo não teria problemas em financiar sua dívida. Porém, uma pequena chance de ocorrência desta moratória interna faz com que os juros reais e a relação dívida/PIB explodam.

A resposta japonesa aos choques de oferta: 1973/1981

This paper discusses some theoretical aspects of supply shocks and describes the impact of supply shocks on the japanese economy using some comparasions with USA and Brazil. The outstanding results on adjusting on "Oil shocks were due to a tight and orthodox monetary policy associate with some peculiarites of the japanese labor market .

Unbounded exchange economies with satiation: how far can we go?

We unify and generalize the existence results in Werner (1987), Dana, Le Van and Magnien (1999), Allouch, Le Van and Page (2006) and Allouch and Le Van (2008). We also show that, in terms of weakening the set of assumptions, we cannot go too far.

Trade and co-operation in the EU-MERCOSUL free trade agreement

Rio de Janeiro

Exclusão e multidimensionalidade de tipos em leilões ótimos

Em um modelo de leil˜oes com valores privados independentes demonstramos que se os tipos s˜ao multidimensionais ent˜ao no leil˜ao ´otimo h´a exclus˜ao de tipos.

Laws of large numbers for non-additive probabilities

We apply the concept of exchangeable random variables to the case of non-additive robability distributions exhibiting ncertainty aversion, and in the lass generated bya convex core convex non-additive probabilities, ith a convex core). We are able to rove two versions of the law of arge numbers (de Finetti's heorems). By making use of two efinitions. of independence we rove two versions of the strong law f large numbers. It turns out that e cannot assure the convergence of he sample averages to a constant. e then modal the case there is a true" probability distribution ehind the successive realizations of the uncertain random variable. In this case convergence occurs. This result is important because it renders true the intuition that it is possible "to learn" the "true" additive distribution behind an uncertain event if one repeatedly observes it (a sufficiently large number of times). We also provide a conjecture regarding the "Iearning" (or updating) process above, and prove a partia I result for the case of Dempster-Shafer updating rule and binomial trials.