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Common Bubble Detection In Large Dimensional Financial Systems, Ye Chen, Peter C. B. Phillips, Shuping Shi Aug 2023

Common Bubble Detection In Large Dimensional Financial Systems, Ye Chen, Peter C. B. Phillips, Shuping Shi

Research Collection School Of Economics

Price bubbles in multiple assets are sometimes nearly coincident in occurrence. Such near-coincidence is strongly suggestive of co-movement in the associated asset prices and is likely driven by certain factors that are latent in the financial or economic system with common effects across several markets. Can we detect the presence of such common factors at the early stages of their emergence? To answer this question, we build a factor model that includes I(1), mildly explosive, and stationary factors to capture normal, exuberant, and collapsing phases in such phenomena. The I(1) factor models the primary driving force of market fundamentals. The …


Multivariate Stochastic Volatility Models Based On Generalized Fisher Transformation, Han Chen, Yijie Fei, Jun Yu Jul 2023

Multivariate Stochastic Volatility Models Based On Generalized Fisher Transformation, Han Chen, Yijie Fei, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

Modeling multivariate stochastic volatility (MSV) can be challenging, particularly when both variances and covariances are time-varying. In this paper, we address these challenges by introducing a new MSV model based on the generalized Fisher transformation of Archakov and Hansen (2021). Our model is highly exible and ensures that the variance-covariance matrix is always positive-definite. Moreover, our approach separates the driving factors of volatilities and correlations. To conduct Bayesian analysis of the model, we use a Particle Gibbs Ancestor Sampling (PGAS) method, which facilitates Bayesian model comparison. We also extend our MSV model to cover the leverage effect in volatilities and …


The Impact Of Upzoning On Housing Construction In Auckland*, Ryan Greenaway-Mcgrevy, Peter C. B. Phillips Jul 2023

The Impact Of Upzoning On Housing Construction In Auckland*, Ryan Greenaway-Mcgrevy, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

There is a growing debate about whether upzoning is an effective policy response to housing shortages and unaffordable housing. This paper provides empirical evidence to further inform debate by examining the various impacts of recently implemented zoning reforms on housing construction in Auckland, the largest metropolitan area in New Zealand. In 2016, the city upzoned approximately three quarters of its residential land to facilitate construction of more intensive housing. We use a quasi-experimental approach to analyze the short-run impacts of the reform on construction, allowing for potential shifts in construction from non-upzoned to upzoned areas (displacement effects) that would, if …


Uniform Nonparametric Inference For Spatially Dependent Panel Data, Jia Li, Zhipeng Liao, Wenyu Zhou Jul 2023

Uniform Nonparametric Inference For Spatially Dependent Panel Data, Jia Li, Zhipeng Liao, Wenyu Zhou

Research Collection School Of Economics

This article proposes a uniform functional inference method for nonparametric regressions in a panel-data setting that features general unknown forms of spatio-temporal dependence. The method requires a long time span, but does not impose any restriction on the size of the cross section or the strength of spatial correlation. The uniform inference is justified via a new growing-dimensional Gaussian coupling theory for spatio-temporally dependent panels. We apply the method in two empirical settings. One concerns the nonparametric relationship between asset price volatility and trading volume as depicted by the mixture of distribution hypothesis. The other pertains to testing the rationality …


Volatility Puzzle: Long Memory Or Anti-Persistency, Shuping Shi, Jun Yu Jul 2023

Volatility Puzzle: Long Memory Or Anti-Persistency, Shuping Shi, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

The log realized volatility (RV) is often modeled as an autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average model ARFIMA(1,d,01,d,0). Two conflicting empirical results have been found in the literature. One stream shows that log RV has a long memory (i.e., the fractional parameter d > 0). The other stream suggests that the autoregressive coefficient α is near unity with antipersistent errors (i.e., d α close to 0 and d close to 0.5) from Model 2Model 2 (ARFIMA(1,d,01,d,0) with α close to unity and d close to –0.5). An intuitive explanation is given. For the 10 financial assets considered, despite that no definitive conclusions …


Young Women In Cities, Yumi Koh, Li Jing, Yifan Wu, Junjian Yi, Hanzhe Zhang Jul 2023

Young Women In Cities, Yumi Koh, Li Jing, Yifan Wu, Junjian Yi, Hanzhe Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Young women outnumber young men in cities in many countries during periods of economic growth and urbanization. This gender imbalance among young urbanites is more pronounced in larger cities. We use the gradual rollout of special economic zones across China as a quasi-experiment to establish the causes of this gender imbalance. Our analysis suggests that a key contributor is gender-differential incentives to migrate due to rural women’s higher likelihood of marrying and marrying up in cities when urbanization creates more economic opportunities and an abundance of high-income marriage-age men.


The Importance Of The First Generic Substitution: Evidence From Sweden, Aljoscha Janssen, David Granlund Jul 2023

The Importance Of The First Generic Substitution: Evidence From Sweden, Aljoscha Janssen, David Granlund

Research Collection School Of Economics

We analyze changes in the willingness to substitute from prescribed pharmaceuticals to more affordable generic equivalents in response to the first experience with a substitution. Using Swedish individual-level data of prescribed and dispensed pharmaceuticals, we em-ploy a dynamic event study and an instrumental variable approach to show that an initial substitution reduces the probability of opposing subsequent substitutions by 39 percent-age points. We recommend that policy-makers target patients with a history of opposed substitution and offer additional discounts to promote substitution as long-term savings outweigh one-time costs.


Disagreement In Market Index Options, Guilherme Salome, George Tauchen, Jia Li Jun 2023

Disagreement In Market Index Options, Guilherme Salome, George Tauchen, Jia Li

Research Collection School Of Economics

We generate new evidence on disagreement among traders in the S&P 500 options market from high-frequency intraday price and volume data. Inference on disagreement is based on a model where investors observe public information but agree to disagree on its interpretation; disagreement among investors is captured by the volume–volatility elasticity. For options, there are two natural variables related to disagreement: moneyness and tenor, which we relate to disagreement about the distribution of the market index at different quantiles and times. The estimated volume–volatility elasticity equals unity for options near the money and close to expiration, which is consistent with the …


Brothers, Sisters, And Support To Older Parents: Separate Spheres Across And Within Support Types?, Christine Ho, Kathleen Mcgarry Jun 2023

Brothers, Sisters, And Support To Older Parents: Separate Spheres Across And Within Support Types?, Christine Ho, Kathleen Mcgarry

Research Collection School Of Economics

Parents in many countries exhibit a strong preference for sons over daughters; a preference that is often observed regarding transfers to children. Here, we ask whether son preference also drives differences in behavior regarding transfers from sons and daughters. We use data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) to examine the patterns of giving to parents and find strong evidence of such differentiation. Coresidential support comes almost exclusively from sons as do large transfers, while daughters are more likely to make small transfers. Moreover, crowding-out of financial transfers by siblings occurs primarily within gender: sons give less …


The Distributional Impacts Of Transportation Networks In China, Lin Ma, Tang Yang May 2023

The Distributional Impacts Of Transportation Networks In China, Lin Ma, Tang Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper evaluates the distributional impacts of transportation networks in China.We show that the quality of roads and railroads vary substantially over time and space, and ignoring these variations biases the estimates of travel time. To account for quality differences, we construct a new panel dataset and approximate quality using the design speed of roads and railroads that varies by vintage, class, and terrain at the pixel level. We then build a dynamic spatial general equilibrium model that allows for multiple modes and routes of transportation and forward-looking migration decision.We find aggregate welfare gain and less spatial income inequality led …


Economic Forecasting In A Pandemic: Some Evidence From Singapore, Hwee Kwan Chow-Tan, Keen Meng Choy May 2023

Economic Forecasting In A Pandemic: Some Evidence From Singapore, Hwee Kwan Chow-Tan, Keen Meng Choy

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper aims to investigate whether the predictive performance and behaviour of professional forecasters are different during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared with the global financial crisis of 2008 and normal times. To this end, we use a survey of professional forecasters in Singapore collated by the central bank to analyse the forecasting records for GDP growth and CPI inflation for the period 2000Q1–2021Q4. We first examine the point forecasts to document the extent of forecast failure duringthe two crises and explore various explanations for it, such as leader-following and herding behaviour. Then, using percentile-based summary measures of probability distribution …


Inflation Dynamics And Expectations In Singapore, Hwee Kwan Chow-Tan May 2023

Inflation Dynamics And Expectations In Singapore, Hwee Kwan Chow-Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Inflation dynamics in Singapore have primarily been shaped by foreign factors, including global inflationary pressures and external macroeconomic shocks. More recently, the normalisation phase of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis has led to domestic price pressures from pent-up demand and supply-chain disruptions. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has resulted in a hike in the global prices of food, energy, and industrial commodities. Using inflation forecasts from the MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters as our measure of inflation expectations, we show that short-term inflation expectations have shifted up recently. Moreover, greater disagreement amongst survey respondents in the more recent surveys suggests individual …


Teaching In The Right Context: Textbook Supply Program, Language, And Vocabulary Ability In Vietnam, Tomoki Fujii, Maki Nakajima, Sijia Xu May 2023

Teaching In The Right Context: Textbook Supply Program, Language, And Vocabulary Ability In Vietnam, Tomoki Fujii, Maki Nakajima, Sijia Xu

Research Collection School Of Economics

An ethnic gap in education is prevalent around the world. This remains the case in Vietnam, a country that has achieved phenomenal economic growth and raised the educational attainment of the public. This paper examines the impact of language policy reorientation represented by the textbook supply program in Vietnam on the ethnic gap in children's learning measured by a vocabulary test. Applying difference-in-differences estimation to the Young Lives data between 2006 and 2015, we show that the program became more effective in narrowing the ethnic gap as the education policy became reoriented toward ethnic minority children. A causal mediation analysis …


Competing Auctions With Non-Identical Objects, Massimiliano Landi, Domenico Menicucci, Andrey Sarychev May 2023

Competing Auctions With Non-Identical Objects, Massimiliano Landi, Domenico Menicucci, Andrey Sarychev

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study a competition model with two sellers that auction non-identical objects, unlike most of the literature on competing auctions. Each bidder has bidimensional private information, his values for the objects, and chooses the auction in which he participates (if any) after each seller has set a reserve price for her auction. We show that in some cases the duopoly reserve price is greater than the reserve price for a monopolist auctioning a single object; thus, an increase in the number of sellers may make some bidder’s types worse off. In our analysis we first characterize the unique symmetric equilibrium …


Growth And Risk: A View From International Trade, Pravin Krishna, Andrei A. Levchenko, Lin Ma, William F. Maloney May 2023

Growth And Risk: A View From International Trade, Pravin Krishna, Andrei A. Levchenko, Lin Ma, William F. Maloney

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the cross-country patterns of risky innovation and growth through the lens of international trade. We use a simple theoretical framework of risky quality upgrading by firms under varying levels of financial development to derive two predictions. First, the mean rate of quality growth and the corresponding cross-sectional variance of quality growth in a country are positively correlated. Second, both the mean and variance of quality changes are positively correlated with the country's level of financial development. We then test these two hypotheses using data on disaggregated (HS10) bilateral exports to the United States. The patterns in the …


Improved Marginal Likelihood Estimation Via Power Posteriors And Importance Sampling, Yong Li, Nianling Wang, Jun Yu May 2023

Improved Marginal Likelihood Estimation Via Power Posteriors And Importance Sampling, Yong Li, Nianling Wang, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

Power posteriors have become popular in estimating the marginal likelihood of a Bayesian model. A power posterior is referred to as the posterior distribution that is proportional to the likelihood raised to a power b∈[0,1]. Important power-posterior-based algorithms include thermodynamic integration (TI) of Friel and Pettitt (2008) and steppingstone sampling (SS) of Xie et al. (2011). In this paper, it is shown that the Bernstein–von Mises (BvM) theorem holds for power posteriors under regularity conditions. Due to the BvM theorem, power posteriors, when adjusted by the square root of the auxiliary constant, have the same limit distribution as the original …


On The Spectral Density Of Fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Process: Approximation, Estimation, And Model Comparison, Shuping Shi, Jun Yu, Chen Zhang May 2023

On The Spectral Density Of Fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Process: Approximation, Estimation, And Model Comparison, Shuping Shi, Jun Yu, Chen Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper introduces a novel method for accurately approximating the spectral density of the discretely-sampled fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (fOU) process. We utilize this approximated spec-tral density to develop an estimation method called the approximated Whittle maximum likelihood method (AWML) for fOU. Additionally, we develop a likelihood-ratio (LR) test using the approxi-mated spectral densities to distinguish between the fractional Brownian motion (fBm) and fOU pro-cesses, two popular models in the volatility literature. Simulation studies demonstrate that the AWML method improves the estimation speed and accuracy compared to existing ones and that the LR test is effective in distinguishing between the two processes …


Continuous Implementation With Payoff Knowledge, Yi-Chun Chen, Takashi Kunimoto, Yifei Sun Apr 2023

Continuous Implementation With Payoff Knowledge, Yi-Chun Chen, Takashi Kunimoto, Yifei Sun

Research Collection School Of Economics

The literature on robust mechanism design assumes players' knowledge about a fixed payoff environment and investigates global robustness of optimal mechanisms to large changes in the information structure. Acknowledging global robustness as a demanding requirement, we propose continuous implementation as a notion of local robustness. Keeping the assumption of payoff knowledge, we say that an SCF is continuously implementable if there exists a mechanism which yields the outcome close to the desired one for all types close to the planner's initial model. We show that when a generic correlation condition is imposed on the class of interdependent-value environments, any (interim) …


Local Dominance, Emiliano Catonini, Jingyi Xue Apr 2023

Local Dominance, Emiliano Catonini, Jingyi Xue

Research Collection School Of Economics

We define notions of dominance between two actions in a dynamic game. Local dominance considers players who have a blurred view of the future and compare the two actions by first focusing on the outcomes that may realize at the current stage. When considering the possibility that the game may continue, they can only check that the local comparison is not overturned under the assumption of "continuing in the same way" after the two actions (in a newly defined sense). Despite the lack of forward planning, local dominance solves dynamic mechanisms that were found easy to play and implements social …


Migration And Spatial Misallocation In China, Xiaolu Li, Lin Ma, Yang Tang Apr 2023

Migration And Spatial Misallocation In China, Xiaolu Li, Lin Ma, Yang Tang

Research Collection School Of Economics

We structurally estimate the firm-level frictions across prefectures in China and quantify their aggregate and distributional implications. Based on a general equi-librium model with input and output distortions and migration, we show that the firm-level frictions are less dispersed and less correlated with productivity in richer prefectures. Counterfactual exercises show that reducing the within-prefecture mis-allocation increases the aggregate welfare, discourages migration towards large cities, and narrows the spatial inequality. Moreover, internal migration alleviates the impacts of micro-frictions on aggregate welfare and worsens their impacts on spatial inequality.


The Importance Of Considering Debt And Young Children In Activation: A Survival Analysis Of Return To Welfare, Irene N. Y. Ng, Jian Qi Tan, Mathews Mathew, Kong Weng Ho, Yi Ting Ting Apr 2023

The Importance Of Considering Debt And Young Children In Activation: A Survival Analysis Of Return To Welfare, Irene N. Y. Ng, Jian Qi Tan, Mathews Mathew, Kong Weng Ho, Yi Ting Ting

Research Collection School Of Economics

While there has been much research on welfare exit and entry into employment, less research has looked at return to government assistance. Applying survival analysis on data from a national government assistance programme in Singapore, we found two important factors of welfare return to which activation programmes need to pay greater attention. First, return was more likely if former beneficiaries accumulated a higher number of types of arrears rather than higher dollar values of arrears. This new finding contributes to the emerging literature on bandwidth tax, and suggests the importance of designing programmes that relieve mental accounting due to debt …


The Unintended Consequences Of International Student Shortage: Evidence From A Policy Reform In South Korea, Syngjoo Choi, Chung-Yoon Choi, Kim, Jongkwan Lee Apr 2023

The Unintended Consequences Of International Student Shortage: Evidence From A Policy Reform In South Korea, Syngjoo Choi, Chung-Yoon Choi, Kim, Jongkwan Lee

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study the role of international students in the higher education sector and the local economy by exploiting a policy reform in South Korea that significantly restricted the admission of foreign students to local universities. By comparing the pre- and post-reform differences between universities with different pre-reform shares of international student enrollment, we find limiting the inflow of international students significantly worsened the financial outcomes of local universities. We also document that a reduction in the number of international students in local areas resulted in decreases in native employment, mainly in sectors such as agriculture and business support services, suggesting …


Asymptotic Properties Of Least Squares Estimator In Local To Unity Processes With Fractional Gaussian Noises, Xiaohu Wang, Weilin Xiao, Jun Yu Apr 2023

Asymptotic Properties Of Least Squares Estimator In Local To Unity Processes With Fractional Gaussian Noises, Xiaohu Wang, Weilin Xiao, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper derives asymptotic properties of the least squares estimator of the autoregressive parameter in local to unity processes with errors being fractional Gaussian noises with the Hurst parameter H 2 (0; 1). It is shown that the estimator is consistent for all values of H 2 (0; 1). Moreover, the rate of convergence is n 1 when H 2 [0:5; 1). The rate of convergence is n 2H when H 2 (0; 0:5). Furthermore, the limiting distribution of the centered least squares estimator depends on H. When H = 0:5, the limiting distribution is the same as that obtained …


Adjustment With Many Regressors Under Covariate-Adaptive Randomizations, Liang Jiang, Liyao Li, Ke Miao, Yichong Zhang Apr 2023

Adjustment With Many Regressors Under Covariate-Adaptive Randomizations, Liang Jiang, Liyao Li, Ke Miao, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Our paper identifies a trade-off when using regression adjustments (RAs) in causal inference under covariate-adaptive randomizations (CARs). On one hand, RAs can improve the efficiency of causal estimators by incorporating information from covariates that are not used in the randomization. On the other hand, RAs can degrade estimation efficiency due to their estimation errors, which are not asymptotically negligible when the number of regressors is of the same order as the sample size. Failure to account for the cost of RAs can result in over-rejection of causal inference under the null hypothesis. To address this issue, we develop a unified …


Economic Forecasting In Singapore: The Covid-19 Experience, Hwee Kwan Chow-Tan, Keen Meng Choy Apr 2023

Economic Forecasting In Singapore: The Covid-19 Experience, Hwee Kwan Chow-Tan, Keen Meng Choy

Research Collection School Of Economics

This Special Feature considers how accurately professional forecasters have predicted GDP growth and inflation in Singapore, especially during rare events such as the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and COVID-19. It also illustrates the value of forecast probability distributions in inferring forecasters’ uncertainty when making predictions, and the degree of consensus between projections from different forecasters. The authors find that one-year ahead forecast errors for GDP growth and inflation increased during the GFC and the COVID-19 pandemic. While professional forecasters did not appear to have followed the Government’s forecasts when predicting growth during the GFC, they may have exhibited ”leader-following” behaviour …


Hypothesis Testing Via Posterior-Test-Based Bayes Factors, Yong Li, Nianling Wang, Jun Yu, Yonghui Zhang Mar 2023

Hypothesis Testing Via Posterior-Test-Based Bayes Factors, Yong Li, Nianling Wang, Jun Yu, Yonghui Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

Hypothesis testing via p-value has been criticized in recent years. Bayes factors (BFs) have been tipped as a possible replacement of p-value for hypothesis testing. However, the standard BFs suffer from some theoretical and practical difficulties. For example, they are not well defined under improper priors and are subject to Jeffreys-Lindley-Bartlett’s paradox under vague priors. Moreover, they are difficult to compute for many models. In this paper, we propose to compare sampling distributions of the posterior-test-based statistics for hypothesis testing. Two posterior-test-based BFs are constructed from the posterior version of the likelihood ratio test and the Wald test, respectively. Under …


On The Welfare Role Of Redundant Assets With Heterogenous Forecasts, Shurojit Chatterji, Atsushi Kajii Mar 2023

On The Welfare Role Of Redundant Assets With Heterogenous Forecasts, Shurojit Chatterji, Atsushi Kajii

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study a multiperiod model with a nominal bond that matures in one period and identify the set of e¢ cient allocations that can be sustained as Walrasian equilibria with heterogeneous forecasts. We next add a long maturity bond, which under perfect foresight would be a redundant asset, and show that it fundamentally expands the set of e¢ cient allocations that can be sustained as Walrasian equilibria. Indeed all wealth transfers compatible with e¢ ciency can arise endogenously. The key feature driving this conclusion are forecasting errors, which lead to ex post arbitrage opportunities that induce these income transfers.


Cities In A Pandemic: Evidence From China, Badi H. Baltagi, Ying Deng, Li Jing, Zhenlin Yang Mar 2023

Cities In A Pandemic: Evidence From China, Badi H. Baltagi, Ying Deng, Li Jing, Zhenlin Yang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the impact of urban density, city government efficiency, and medical resources on COVID-19 infection and death outcomes in China. We adopt a simultaneous spatial dynamic panel data model to account for (i) the simultaneity of infection and death outcomes, (ii) the spatial pattern of the transmission, (iii) the intertemporal dynamics of the disease, and (iv) the unobserved city-specific and time-specific effects. We find that, while population density increases the level of infections, government efficiency significantly mitigates the negative impact of urban density. We also find that the availability of medical resources improves public health outcomes conditional on …


Asymptotic Theory For Explosive Fractional Ornstein–Uhlenbeck Processes, Hui Jiang, Yajuan Pan, Weilin Liao, Qingshan Yang, Jun Yu Mar 2023

Asymptotic Theory For Explosive Fractional Ornstein–Uhlenbeck Processes, Hui Jiang, Yajuan Pan, Weilin Liao, Qingshan Yang, Jun Yu

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper proposes estimators for the parameters of an explosive fractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. The asymptotic properties for the diffusion estimators are developed under the in-fill asymptotic scheme, while the asymptotic properties for the drift estimators are developed under the double asymptotic scheme for the full range of the Hurst parameter. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed estimators, and the asymptotic distributions provide a good approximation in finite samples. Empirical applications are presented to demonstrate the model’s usefulness and the practical value of the asymptotic theory.


High-Dimensional Vars With Common Factors, Ke Miao, Peter C. B. Phillips, Liangjun Su Mar 2023

High-Dimensional Vars With Common Factors, Ke Miao, Peter C. B. Phillips, Liangjun Su

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies high-dimensional vector autoregressions (VARs) augmented with common factors that allow for strong cross-sectional dependence. Models of this type provide a convenient mechanism for accommodating the interconnectedness and temporal co-variability that are often present in large dimensional systems. We propose an ℓ1-nuclear-norm regularized estimator and derive the non-asymptotic upper bounds for the estimation errors as well as large sample asymptotics for the estimates. A singular value thresholding procedure is used to determine the correct number of factors with probability approaching one. Both the LASSO estimator and the conservative LASSO estimator are employed to improve estimation precision. The conservative …