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We analyse monthly data on six European industrial production series to ascertain the presence of common cycles and trends. Particular attention is paid to the exchange rate regime, with the Bretton Woods and Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) regimes being analysed separately. We employ recently developed techniques in vector autoregressive (VAR) modelling (a) to test for and estimate both common trends and common cycles, (b) to estimate VAR models subject to these 'common feature' restrictions, (c) to compare and contrast these models with those obtained from an alternative approach, that of estimating unrestricted levels VAR models, and (d) to present a permanent–transitory decomposition of the series that is based on the common trends found in the systems. We find limited evidence of convergence during the ERM, and this is of a long‐run nature. In the short run, asymmetric shocks seem to have produced a divergence compared with the earlier Bretton Woods regime. There is also some evidence of German 'leadership' over Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

This study investigates the possibility of adverse selection in the U.K. mortgage market. Long‐ and short‐run equations for the supply and demand for building society net advances are estimated using the Johansen procedure and three‐stage least squares. We identify a long‐run backward‐bending mortgage supply curve with a bank‐optimal nominal mortgage rate of 11·86 per cent, and from the cointegrating vectors we are able to estimate good error‐correction representations of supply and demand using three‐stage least squares. We find that the adjustment of supply and demand towards their long‐run equilibrium values is fairly slow.

Investigates the hypothesis of increased financial integration within the European Union (EU) based on an examination of covered and nominal interest rate differentials between March 1979 and August 1992 using cointegration and time‐varying parameter econometric techniques. Discovers evidence of increased financial integration from about 1983, although this is not universal for all countries within the EU. In particular the UK seems to have more financial independence, perhaps reflecting its non‐membership of the exchange rate mechanism, while Belgium is the country most closely tied to German monetary policy.

ABSTRACTThis paper offers new insights into Beveridge curve analysis by modelling the unemployment–vacancy rate relationship within a Markov regime‐switching environment in which the probabilities of curve‐shifting are determined endogenously by shift factors. Shift factors include structural factors such as labour market participation and net migration, while cyclical variables include GDP growth, the real rate of interest, and labour productivity. This approach enables us to estimate regime‐specific parameters and to assess the role played by these factors in influencing the transition probabilities of switching between regimes. Using New Zealand data, we show that increases in the participation rate have shifted the Beveridge curve inward, while increases in net migration have shifted the curve outward.

This paper tests for nonlinearities in the behavior of volatility expectations based on model-free implied volatility indices. Using Markov regime-switching models, the empirical evidence from the German, Japanese and U.S. markets suggests that there are indeed regime-specific levels of volatility expectations. Whereas the regimes seem to be governed by the degree of serial correlation and adjustment to forecast errors, there is no evidence of significant leverage effects. The frequency of regime shifts in volatility expectations is affected by the onset of financial crises, which have the effect of increasing the likelihood of regimes driven by lower autoregressive effects and faster speeds of adjustment. The evidence suggests that despite the heterogeneous beliefs of market participants, implied volatility indices provide a measure of consensus expectations that can be useful in understanding the nonlinear behavior of volatility expectations during periods of financial instability.

In this paper, we test for the stationarity of European Union budget deficits over the period 1971-2006, using a panel of thirteen member countries. Our testing strategy addresses two key concerns with regard to unit root panel data testing, namely (1) the presence of cross-sectional dependence among the countries in the panel and (2) the identification of potential structural breaks that might have occurred at different points in time. To address these concerns, we employ an AR-based bootstrap approach that allows us to test the null hypothesis of joint stationarity with endogenously determined structural breaks. In contrast to the existing literature, we find that the EU countries considered are characterised by fiscal stationarity over the full sample period irrespective of us allowing for structural breaks. This conclusion also holds when analysing sub-periods based on before and after the Maastricht treaty. © Springer-Verlag 2009.

In this paper, we test for the stationarity of EU current account deficits. Our testing strategy addresses two key concerns with regard to unit-root panel data testing, namely (i) the identification of which panel members are stationary, and (ii) the presence of cross-sectional dependence. For this purpose, we employ an AR-based bootstrap approach to the Hadri (2000) test. While there is only mixed evidence that current account stationarity applies when examining individual countries, this does not appear to be the case when considering panels comprising both EU and non-EU members. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

For more than four decades, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) has conducted a two-question, quarterly survey of architect forecasts of public and private sector construction expenditure. This qualitative survey is published one week after the end of each quarter and nine weeks ahead of the official quantitative data thereby giving architect opinion nowcasting status. This paper covers selected aspects of this unexplored series with particular reference to residential housing construction and the value-added information from architects as nowcasters. Specifically, we consider several qualitative-to-quantitative conversion methods, in-sample and out-of-sample performance, cyclical features and respondent dynamics. Although our work relates to architects — a sub-sector of the service industry — our results have a wider application to business survey questions using ordered qualitative responses.