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One of the growing agricultural subsectors in developing countries is livestock. Livestock and livestock products account for a third of the agricultural gross output. However, the lack of viable livestock market information systems to increase efficiency of markets and support the decision making of traders, pastoralists, and policy makers are still an obstacle for a full development of this subsector. It is along these lines that the USAID, through the Global Livestock-Collaborative Research Support Program, supported the introduction of livestock market information systems in Kenya and Tanzania in 2003, and later in Mali in 2007. The overall objective of the dissertation is to test for cattle markets integration in three African developing countries of Mali, Kenya, and Tanzania. One way of assessing the efficiency of market and the impacts of liberalization policies is to test for market integration and price transmission. We also analyzed price leadership among the markets in each of the three case studies. Autoregressive models (vector autoregressive models and error correction model) were used to determine the level of cattle market integration. The results show a low level of cattle markets integration in Mali. The cattle markets in Mali are more-or-less independent with regard to price transmission among markets. Kenya cattle markets showed a good level of integration among the markets. Chepareria market in the Rift Valley region (west) seemed to lead other markets in price signal transmission. Tanzanian cattle markets exhibited a higher level of integration with Pugu market, in Dar es Salaam, leading other cattle markets in price signal transmission. In conclusion, the cattle markets in Tanzania and Kenya appeared to have a relatively higher level of market integration compared to the cattle markets in Mali. There is a reasonable belief that the time the livestock market information system has been in place, in each country, played a role in the market integration process. More time and better communications seem to have allowed the market actors to learn arbitrage skills and strengthen their trade relationships that ultimately led to the market integration.

Consider a sequence of random variables which obeys a first order autoregressive model with unknown parameter alpha. Under suitable assumptions on the error structure of the model, the limiting distribution of the normalized least squares estimator of alpha is discussed. The choice of the normalizing constant depends on whether alpha is less than one, equals one, or is greater than one in absolute value. In particular, the limiting distribution is normal provided that the absolute value of alpha is less than one, but is a function of Brownian motion whenever the absolute value of alpha equals one. Some general remarks are made whenever the sequence of random variables is a first order moving average process.

Dans l’analyse des séries temporelles multivariées, la plupart des modèles existants sont utilisés à des fins de prévision, c’est-à-dire pour estimer les valeurs futures du système étudié à partir d’un historique de valeurs observées dans le passé. Une autre tâche consiste à extraire des causalités entre les variables d’un système dynamique. C’est pour ce dernier problème à visée explicative que nous développons une série d’outils. À cette fin, nous définissons dans cette thèse une nouvelle famille de modèles autorégressifs vectoriels non paramétriques construits à partir de noyaux à valeur opérateur. En faisant l’hypothèse d’une structure sous-jacente creuse, la parcimonie du modèle est contrôlée en imposant dans la fonction de coût des contraintes de parcimonie aux paramètres du modèle (qui sont en l’occurrence des vecteurs qui pondèrent une combinaison linéaire de noyaux). Les noyaux étudiés possèdent parfois des hyperparamètres qui doivent être appris selon la nature du problème considéré. Lorsque des hypothèses de travail ou des connaissances expertes permettent de fixer les paramètres du noyau, le problème d’apprentissage se réduit à la seule estimation des paramètres du modèle. Pour optimiser la fonction de coût correspondante, nous développons un algorithme proximal. A contrario, lorsqu’aucune hypothèse relative aux variables n’est disponible, les paramètres de certains noyaux ne peuvent être fixés a priori. Il est alors nécessaire d’apprendre conjointement les paramètres du modèle et ceux du noyau. Pour cela, nous faisons appel à un schéma d’optimisation alterné qui met en jeu des méthodes proximales. Nous proposons ensuite d’extraire un estimateur de la matrice d’adjacence encodant le réseau causal sous-jacent en calculant une statistique des matrices jacobiennes instantanées. Dans le cas de la grande dimension, c’est-à-dire un nombre insuffisant de données par rapport au nombre de variables, nous mettons en oeuvre une approche d’ensemble qui partage des caractéristiques du boosting et des forêts aléatoires. Afin de démontrer l’efficacité de nos modèles, nous les appliquons à deux jeux de données : des données simulées à partir de réseaux de régulation génique et des données réelles sur le climat. / In multivariate time series analysis, existing models are often used for forecasting, i.e. estimating future values of the observed system based on previously observed values. Another purpose is to find causal relationships among a set of state variables within a dynamical system. We focus on the latter and develop tools in order to address this problem. In this thesis, we define a new family of nonparametric vector autoregressive models based on operator-valued kernels. Assuming a sparse underlying structure, we control the model’s sparsity by defining a loss function that includes sparsity-inducing penalties on the model parameters (which are basis vectors within a linear combination of kernels). The selected kernels sometimes involve hyperparameters that may need to be learned depending on the nature of the problem. On the one hand, when expert knowledge or working assumptions allow presetting the parameters of the kernel, the learning problem boils down to estimating only the model parameters. To optimize the corresponding loss function, we develop a proximal algorithm. On the other hand, when no prior knowledge is available, some other kernels may exhibit unknown parameters. Consequently, this leads to the joint learning of the kernel parameters in addition to the model parameters. We thus resort to an alternate optimization scheme which involves proximal methods. Subsequently, we propose to build an estimate of the adjacency matrix coding for the underlying causal network by computing a function of the instantaneous Jacobian matrices. In a high-dimensional setting, i.e. insufficient amount of data compared to the number of variables, we design an ensemble methodology that shares features of boosting and random forests. In order to emphasize the performance of the developed models, we apply them on two tracks : simulated data from gene regulatory networks and real climate data.

The main goal of this dissertation is to expand upon the use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in macroeconomic forecasting, particularly in cases where traditional principal components fail to account for all of the systematic information making up common macroeconomic and financial indicators. At the outset, PCA is viewed as a statistical model derived from the reparameterization of the Multivariate Normal model in Spanos (1986). To motivate a PCA forecasting framework prioritizing sound model assumptions, it is demonstrated, through simulation experiments, that model mis-specification erodes reliability of inferences. The Vector Autoregressive (VAR) model at the center of these simulations allows for the Markov (temporal) dependence inherent in macroeconomic data and serves as the basis for extending conventional PCA. Stemming from the relationship between PCA and the VAR model, an operational out-of-sample forecasting methodology is prescribed incorporating statistically adequate, temporal principal components, i.e. principal components which capture not only Markov dependence, but all of the other, relevant information in the original series. The macroeconomic forecasts produced from applying this framework to several, common macroeconomic indicators are shown to outperform standard benchmarks in terms of predictive accuracy over longer forecasting horizons. / Doctor of Philosophy / The landscape of macroeconomic forecasting and nowcasting has shifted drastically in the advent of big data. Armed with significant growth in computational power and data collection resources, economists have augmented their arsenal of statistical tools to include those which can produce reliable results in big data environments. At the forefront of such tools is Principal Component Analysis (PCA), a method which reduces the number of predictors into a few factors containing the majority of the variation making up the original data series. This dissertation expands upon the use of PCA in the forecasting of key, macroeconomic indicators, particularly in instances where traditional principal components fail to account for all of the systematic information comprising the data. Ultimately, a forecasting methodology which incorporates temporal principal components, ones capable of capturing both time dependence as well as the other, relevant information in the original series, is established. In the final analysis, the methodology is applied to several, common macroeconomic and financial indicators. The forecasts produced using this framework are shown to outperform standard benchmarks in terms of predictive accuracy over longer forecasting horizons.

We propose a large-scale Bayesian VAR model with factor stochastic volatility to investigate the macroeconomic consequences of international uncertainty shocks on the G7 countries. The factor structure enables us to identify an international uncertainty shock by assuming that it is the factor most correlated with forecast errors related to equity markets and permits fast sampling of the model. Our findings suggest that the estimated uncertainty factor is strongly related to global equity price volatility, closely tracking other prominent measures commonly adopted to assess global uncertainty. The dynamic responses of a set of macroeconomic and financial variables show that an international uncertainty shock exerts a powerful effect on all economies and variables under consideration. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Os modelos autoregressivos simétricos são modelos de regressão em que os erros são correlacionados -- AR(1) -- e pertencem à classe de distribuições simétricas. O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir métodos de diagnóstico de influência para esses modelos. Para ilustrar a metodologia, são apresentados exemplos do modelo de precificação de ativos (CAPM). / The symmetric autoregressive models are regression models in which the errors are correlated and belong to the class of symmetrical distributions. The aim of this work is to discuss influence diagnostic methods for those models. To illustrate the methodology, examples of Capital Asset Pricing Models (CAPM) are presented.

Housing prices are of crucial importance in financial stability management. The severe financial crises that originated in the housing market in the US and subsequently spread throughout the world highlighted the crucial role that the housing market plays in preserving financial stability. After the severe housing market crash, many financial institutions in the US suffered from high default rates, severe liquidity shortages, and even bankruptcy. Against this background, researchers have sought to use econometric models to capture and forecast prices of homes. Available empirical research indicates that nonlinear models may be suitable for modelling price cycles. Accordingly, this thesis focuses primarily on using nonlinear models to empirically investigate cyclical patterns in housing prices. More specifically, the content of this thesis can be summarised in three essays which complement the existing literature on price modelling by using nonlinear models. The first essay contributes to the literature by testing the ability of regime switching models to capture and forecast house prices. The second essay examines the impact of banking factors on house price fluctuations. To account for house price characteristics, the regime switching model and generalised autoregressive conditionally heteroscedastic (GARCH) in-mean model have been used. The final essay investigates the effect of structural breaks on the unit root test and shows that a time-varying GARCH in-mean model can be used to estimate the housing price cycle in the UK.

In this paper, we estimate a Bayesian vector autoregressive (VAR) model with factor stochastic volatility in the error term to assess the effects of an uncertainty shock in the Euro area (EA). This allows us to incorporate uncertainty directly into the econometric framework and treat it as a latent quantity. Only a limited number of papers estimates impacts of uncertainty and macroeconomic consequences jointly, and most literature in this sphere is based on single countries. We analyze the special case of a shock restricted to the Euro area, whose countries are highly related by definition. Among other variables, we find significant results of a decrease in real activity measured by GDP in most Euro area countries over a period of roughly a year following an uncertainty shock. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Os modelos autoregressivos simétricos são modelos de regressão em que os erros são correlacionados -- AR(1) -- e pertencem à classe de distribuições simétricas. O objetivo deste trabalho é discutir métodos de diagnóstico de influência para esses modelos. Para ilustrar a metodologia, são apresentados exemplos do modelo de precificação de ativos (CAPM). / The symmetric autoregressive models are regression models in which the errors are correlated and belong to the class of symmetrical distributions. The aim of this work is to discuss influence diagnostic methods for those models. To illustrate the methodology, examples of Capital Asset Pricing Models (CAPM) are presented.