The aim of this volume is to provide an extensive account of the most recent advances in statistics for discretely observed Lévy processes. These days, statistics for stochastic processes is a lively topic, driven by the needs of various fields of application, such as finance, the biosciences, and telecommunication. The three chapters of this volume are completely dedicated to the estimation of Lévy processes, and are written by experts in the field. The first chapter by Denis Belomestny and Markus Reiß treats the low frequency situation, and estimation methods are based on the empirical characteristic function. The second chapter by Fabienne Comte and Valery Genon-Catalon is dedicated to non-parametric estimation mainly covering the high-frequency data case. A distinctive feature of this part is the construction of adaptive estimators, based on deconvolution or projection or kernel methods. The last chapter by Hiroki Masuda considers the parametric situation. The chapters cover the main aspects of the estimation of discretely observed Lévy processes, when the observation scheme is regular, from an up-to-date viewpoint.

Focusing on the breadth of the topic, this volume explores Lévy processes and applications, and presents the state-of-the-art in this evolving area of study. These expository articles help to disseminate important theoretical and applied research to those studying the field.

This book provides an up-to-date series of advanced chapters on applied financial econometric techniques pertaining the various fields of commodities finance, mathematics & stochastics, international macroeconomics and financial econometrics. Financial Mathematics, Volatility and Covariance Modelling: Volume 2 provides a key repository on the current state of knowledge, the latest debates and recent literature on financial mathematics, volatility and covariance modelling. The first section is devoted to mathematical finance, stochastic modelling and control optimization. Chapters explore the recent financial crisis, the increase of uncertainty and volatility, and propose an alternative approach to deal with these issues. The second section covers financial volatility and covariance modelling and explores proposals for dealing with recent developments in financial econometrics This book will be useful to students and researchers in applied econometrics; academics and students seeking convenient access to an unfamiliar area. It will also be of great interest established researchers seeking a single repository on the current state of knowledge, current debates and relevant literature.

"The authors present the latest update of their aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (1) voice and accountability; (2) political instability and violence; (3) government effectiveness; (4) regulatory quality; (5) rule of law, and (6) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. The authors present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country ... " -- Cover verso.