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Three essays on empirical Bayesian econometrics
Adam, Tomáš ; Komárek, Luboš (advisor) ; Feldkircher, Martin (referee) ; Herrala, Risto (referee) ; Melecký, Martin (referee)
The dissertation consists of three papers which apply Bayesian econometric techniques to monitoring macroeconomic and macro-financial developments in the economy. Its aim is to illustrate how Bayesian methods can be employed in standard areas of economic research (estimating systemic risk in the banking sectors, nowcasting GDP growth) and also in a more original area (monitoring developments in sovereign bond markets). In the first essay, we address a task which analytical departments in central banks or commercial banks face very often - nowcasting foreign demand of a small open economy. On the example of the Czech economy, we propose an approach to nowcast foreign GDP growth rates for the Czech economy. For presentation purposes, we focus on three major trading partners: Germany, Slovakia and France. We opt for a simple method which is very general and which has proved successful in the literature: the method based on bridge equation models. A battery of models is evaluated based on a pseudo-real- time forecasting exercise. The results for Germany and France suggest that the models are more successful at backcasting, nowcasting and forecasting than the naive random walk benchmark model. At the same time, the various models considered are more or less successful depending on the forecast horizon....
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Spillovers from euro area monetary policy: a focus on emerging Europe
Benecká, Soňa ; Fadajeva, Ludmila ; Feldkircher, Martin
This paper investigates the international effects of a euro area monetary policy shock, focusing on countries from Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe (CESEE). To that end, we use a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model and employ shadow rates as a proxy for the monetary policy stance during normal and zero-lower-bound periods. We propose a new way of modeling euro area countries in a multi-country framework, accounting for joint monetary policy, and a novel approach to simultaneously identifying shocks. Our results show that in most euro area and CESEE countries, prices adjust and output falls in response to a euro area monetary tightening, but with a substantial degree of heterogeneity.
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Three essays on empirical Bayesian econometrics
Adam, Tomáš ; Komárek, Luboš (advisor) ; Feldkircher, Martin (referee) ; Herrala, Risto (referee) ; Melecký, Martin (referee)
The dissertation consists of three papers which apply Bayesian econometric techniques to monitoring macroeconomic and macro-financial developments in the economy. Its aim is to illustrate how Bayesian methods can be employed in standard areas of economic research (estimating systemic risk in the banking sectors, nowcasting GDP growth) and also in a more original area (monitoring developments in sovereign bond markets). In the first essay, we address a task which analytical departments in central banks or commercial banks face very often - nowcasting foreign demand of a small open economy. On the example of the Czech economy, we propose an approach to nowcast foreign GDP growth rates for the Czech economy. For presentation purposes, we focus on three major trading partners: Germany, Slovakia and France. We opt for a simple method which is very general and which has proved successful in the literature: the method based on bridge equation models. A battery of models is evaluated based on a pseudo-real- time forecasting exercise. The results for Germany and France suggest that the models are more successful at backcasting, nowcasting and forecasting than the naive random walk benchmark model. At the same time, the various models considered are more or less successful depending on the forecast horizon....
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A theoretical and empirical analysis of the nominal convergence in transition countries with a particular attention to the Czech economy
Žďárek, Václav ; Komárek, Luboš (advisor) ; Dědek, Oldřich (referee) ; Feldkircher, Martin (referee)
This PhD thesis aims at exploring price convergence in the European Union with a particular emphasis paid to the Czech Republic and new EU member states. Fundamental issues are discussed in the first chapter, starting with the notion and term `convergence' since many alternative definitions have been proposed in the literature. Apart from that, main indicators utilized when investigating price convergence are defined (for example purchasing power parity/purchasing power standard, PPP/PPS, comparative price level, CPL) and a brief review of the literature is added. The second chapter deals with several issues accompanying price convergence in general and in transforming countries in particular such as the club convergence hypothesis, issues of tradability, availability of datasets and their strenghts and weaknesses, the link between price levels and rates of inflation, and determinants. Both `standard' and `modern' approaches are utilized in the last chapter so that several hypotheses can be verified. For the sake of comparability, individual CPLs for EU-27 countries for the period 1995(9)-2011 are employed. Firstly, stylised facts for both old EU and NMS are presented (including effects stemming from the on-going financial crisis). Secondly, the club convergence hypothesis is examined with help of two different ways - cluster analysis and the Phillips-Sul test (both for the EU and its `subgroups'). Both of them do confirm the existence of convergence clubs in the EU (including its old and new part). Following the previous findings, a somewhat broader and richer view on price level dynamics is supplemented via utilization of the so-called Stochastic kernel (Quah, 1993). This methodology shows both convergence and divergence (divergence/polarization/stratification) in the EU. Finally, the last section of this chapter is focused on a thorough search for determinants of price levels in the EU. The Bayesian approach is employed (Bayesian model averaging, BMA) and our results confirm both the importance of both `traditional' determinants such as labour costs and output gap and new ones such as broadly defined institutional factors. Main findings of this thesis are summarized and commented in the conclusion aiming at providing implications for policymakers and some guidance for future research.
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