Three Essays In Applied Spatial And Time Series Econometrics

This dissertation is composed of four chapters. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the paper by highlighting some of the key economic questions, econometric methods, and conclusions that this paper chronicles. In Chapter 2, I conduct a range of unit root tests on the unemployment rates of 30 OECD countries. The objective of these tests are to use modern data and methods to update an old line of research that endeavors to uncover the most appropriate way to model unemployment. I find less evidence supporting Structural theories of unemployment than have prior studies in this field. In Chapter 3, I turn my attention to US monetary policy. Specifically, I utilize a new estimation technique called the Beverage-Nelson Filter to construct output gaps for use in an introductory Taylor Rule study. I revisit a marquee paper from John Taylor, conduct a structural change test of Bai and Perron, and utilize a wide modeling of monetary policy rules. I find that the Federal Funds Rate displayed as strong an adherence to baseline Taylor Rules through the 1960s as in any other era. Chapter 4 then turns the focus to New Zealand monetary policy and their role as the world's first inflation targeting country. In this chapter, I study the effects of the inflation rate and it's forecasted value for the following two years on New Zealand's Official Cash Rate and the country's Industrial Production Index. Using a set of Threshold Regressions and VAR Regressions, I find that New Zealand's interest rate responds much more strongly to the medium-run projected inflation than it does to inflation that is realized or projected to occur in the short run. I also find evidence that production in New Zealand is more responsive to changes in projected inflation than to changers in the interest rate.

The purpose of models is not to fit the data but to sharpen the questions. S. Karlin, 11th R. A. Fisher Memorial Lecture, Royal Society, 20 April 1983 We are proud to offer this volume in honour of the remarkable career of the Father of Spatial Econometrics, Professor Jean Paelinck, presently of the Tinbergen Institute, Rotterdam. Not one to model solely for the sake of modelling, the above quotation nicely captures Professor Paelinck's unceasing quest for the best question for which an answer is needed. His FLEUR model has sharpened many spatial economics and spatial econometrics questions! Jean Paelinck, arguably, is the founder of modem spatial econometrics, penning the seminal introductory monograph on this topic, Spatial Econometrics, with Klaassen in 1979. In the General Address to the Dutch Statistical Association, on May 2, 1974, in Tilburg, "he coined the term [spatial econometrics] to designate a growing body of the regional science literature that dealt primarily with estimation and testing problems encountered in the implementation of multiregional econometric models" (Anselin, 1988, p. 7); he already had introduced this idea in his introductory report to the 1966 Annual Meeting of the Association de Science Regionale de Langue Fran~aise.