C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods

• Cash Management and Payment Choices: A Simulation Model with International Comparisons

  Staff Working Paper 2013-53 Carlos Arango, Yassine Bouhdaoui, David Bounie, Martina Eschelbach, Lola Hernández

  Despite various payment innovations, today, cash is still heavily used to pay for low-value purchases. This paper develops a simulation model to test whether standard implications of the theory on cash management and payment choices can explain the use of payment instruments by transaction size.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Bank notes, Financial services, International topics JEL Code(s): C, C6, C61, E, E4, E41, E47

• A Distributional Approach to Realized Volatility

  Staff Working Paper 2013-49 Selma Chaker, Nour Meddahi

  This paper proposes new measures of the integrated variance, measures which use high-frequency bid-ask spreads and quoted depths. The traditional approach assumes that the mid-quote is a good measure of frictionless price.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Financial markets JEL Code(s): C, C1, C14, C5, C51, C58

• Volatility Forecasting when the Noise Variance Is Time-Varying

  Staff Working Paper 2013-48 Selma Chaker, Nour Meddahi

  This paper explores the volatility forecasting implications of a model in which the friction in high-frequency prices is related to the true underlying volatility. The contribution of this paper is to propose a framework under which the realized variance may improve volatility forecasting if the noise variance is related to the true return volatility.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, Financial markets JEL Code(s): C, C1, C14, C5, C51, C58

• Heterogeneous Returns to U.S. College Selectivity and the Value of Graduate Degree Attainment

  Staff Working Paper 2013-46 Mai Seki

  Existing studies on the returns to college selectivity have mixed results, mainly due to the difficulty of controlling for selection into more-selective colleges based on unobserved ability.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Labour markets JEL Code(s): C, C3, C30, I, I2, I21