We study the temporal fluctuations in time-dependent stock prices (both individual and composite) as a stochastic phenomenon using general techniques and methods of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. In particular, we analyze stock price fluctuations as a non-Markovian stochastic process using the first-passage statistical concepts of persistence and survival. We report the results of empiri...

This paper introduces a new model of trend inflation. In contrast to many earlier approaches, which allow for trend inflation to evolve according to a random walk, ours is a bounded model which ensures that trend inflation is constrained to lie in an interval. The bounds of this interval can either be fixed or estimated from the data. Our model also allows for a time-varying degree of persisten...

This paper considers the impact of heterogeneous gain learning in an asset pricing model. A relatively stylized model is shown to generate persistent swings of asset prices from their fundamental values which replicates long range samples of U.S financial data. The detailed mechanisms of the learning models are then explored. Evidence suggests that agents’ perceptions of risk and its dynamics a...

This paper proposes a new theory of the sources of time-varying second (and higher) moments in financial time series. The key idea is that fully rational agents must infer the stochastic degree of persistence of fundamental shocks. Endogenous changes in their uncertainty determine the evolution of conditional moments of returns. The model accounts for the principal observed features of volatili...

We describe a new application-controlled le persistence model in which applications select the desired stability from a range of persistence guarantees. This new abstraction extends conventional abstractions by allowing applications to specify a le's volatility and methods for automatic reconstruction in case of loss. The model allows applications, particularly ones with weak persistence requir...

One of the main shortcomings of the profit persistence literature is the fact that it looks only at surviving companies. This paper uses a unique dataset to analyze profit persistence in two different stationary series: 85 surviving US companies from 1950-1999 and 72 exiters. While the exiters perform more competitive than the survivors there is still significant evidence for profit persistence...

Prices in the hog industry in Taiwan are determined according to an auction system. There are significant differences in hog prices before, during and after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). The paper models growth rates and volatility in daily hog prices in Taiwan from 23 March 1999 to 30 June 2007, which enables an analysis of the effects of joining the WTO. The empirical results ha...

In this paper, we propose a new stochastic volatility model, called A-LMSV, to cope simultaneously with the leverage effect and long-memory. We derive its statistical properties and compare them with the properties of the FIEGARCH model. We show that the dependence of the autocorrelations of squares on the parameters measuring the asymmetry and the persistence is different in both models. The k...

Presidential address for the Twelfth World Congress of the International Economic Association, summarising semi-formally the author's recent work and concerns. Uncertainty and incomplete markets breed demand volatility as well as price and wage rigidities. The conjunction of these leads to multiple, volatile supply-constrained equilibria, typically reflecting coordination failures and apt to di...