Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Chambers College of Business and Economics

Department

Economics

Committee Chair

Stratford Douglas

Committee Co-Chair

Arabinda Basistha

Committee Member

Naomi Boyd

Committee Member

George Hammond

Committee Member

Feng Yao

Abstract

Nonlinear models have many applications in the economic and financial fields. The following works focus on their use for forecasting. Neural networks, in conjunction with an Affine Term Structure Model, are used to discover possible yield curve arbitrage opportunities. A G/ARCH model is employed to test and forecast the conditional variance of state-level employment growth. A Space-Time Autoregressive (STAR) model is applied to state employment growth to ensure that any measure of volatility in the series is not misdirected as employment movements between neighboring states.

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