This paper proposes an improved procedure for stochastic volatility model estimation with an application in risk management. This procedure is composed of the following instrumental components: Fourier transform method for volatility estimation with a price correction scheme, and importance sampling for extremal event probability estimation with applications to estimate Value-at-Risk and condit...

In both estimation and calibration studies, the notion of ergodicity plays a fundamental role, permitting time series averages to be regarded as approximations to population means. As it turns out, many economic models routinely used for quantitative modeling do not satisfy the classical ergodicity conditions. In this paper we develop a new set of ergodicity conditions orientated towards econom...

The paper presents the results of some simulations of the effect of the invasion of non-cooperating subjects into a community adopting a cooperative convention. The convention is described by an indefinitely repeated prisoner-dilemma game. We check the effects on the robustness of the cooperating convention of two characteristics of the game, namely the number of cooperators and the "intelligen...

We propose a decision making process meant to mimic human behavior. This process is implemented with computational agents. We use this computational testbed to run simulations of two coordination games, the minimum-effort coordination game and the battle of the sexes game. We find that the computational agents exhibit behavior similar to human subjects from previous experimental work. We then u...

We show how to calibrate CES production and utility functions when indirect taxation affecting inputs and consumption is present. These calibrated functions can then be used in computable general equilibrium models. Taxation modifies the standard calibration procedures since any taxed good has two associated prices and a choice of reference value units has to be made. We also provide an example...

In this paper we study a binomial model with random time steps and explain how to calculate values for European and American call and put options. We prove both weak convergence of the discrete processes to the Black}Scholes setup and convergence of the values for European and American put options. Computational experiments exhibit a smooth convergence structure and suggest that we can obtain a...

This paper extends the club model of religion to better account for observed patterns of extremism. We adapt existing models to a multi-agent framework and analyze the distribution of agents and clubs. We find that extremism is more successful when religious groups are able to produce close substitutes for standard goods and that increased access to publicly provided goods can reduce the extrem...

We explore the effect of the limited ability to process information on the convergence of firms toward equilibrium. In the context of a Cournot oligopoly with a unique and symmetric Nash equilibrium, firms are modeled as adaptive economic agents through a genetic algorithm. Computational experiments show that while market production is close to equilibrium, firm production is relatively far fro...

We show existence of equilibria in distributional strategies for a wide class of private value auctions, including the rst general existence result for double auctions. The set of equilibria is invariant to the tie-breaking rule. The model incorporates multiple unit demands, all standard pricing rules, reserve prices, entry costs, and stochastic demand and supply. Valuations can be correlated a...

The UK Government is committed to abolishing fuel poverty amongst vulnerable households by the year 2010 and in the general population by 2016, but definition and measurement of fuel poverty remains controversial. We define a new measure of subjective household experience and explore links between this measure and the official objective definition, using a unique data set and the Family Expendi...