Analysis of Austrian stocks: Testing for stability and randomness

This paper is concerned with subjecting two popular assumptions about the behavior of stock market prices to empirical tests: first, the random walk hypothesis developed by Bachelier (1900), Osborne (1959), and Mandelbrot (1963); second, the stable distributions hypothesis by Mandelbrot (1963) and Fama (1965). For this purpose, ten time series from the Vienna Stock Exchange were used. The first hypothesis was tested using both non-parametric and parametric methods. To obtain evidence with regard to the seond hypothesis, a graphical procedure and statistical estimation on the basis of the empirical characteristic function were applied. On analysis of our data, it turned out that, at least for the time period under consideration (1985–1990), severe doubts are cast on the above assumptions.We gratefully acknowledge the help of Peter Mitter, Institute for Advanced Studies, and Franz Köstl, Österreichische Kontrollbank, who provided us with the necessary data, and the comments of the anonymous referees.     

Marginal distributions of sequential and generalized order statistics

Expressions for marginal distribution functions of sequential order statistics and generalized order statistics are presented without any restrictions imposed on the model parameters. The results are related to the relevation transform, to the distribution of the product of Beta distributed random variables, and to Meijers G-functions. Some selected applications in the areas of moments, conditional distributions, recurrence relations, and reliability properties are shown. Key words:Order statistics; Generalized order statistics; Sequential order statistics; Record values; Distribution theory; Meijers G-function; Recurrence relations; Reliability properties.     

Modularization of hybrid censoring schemes and its application to unified progressive hybrid censoring

In this paper, a structural analysis of hybrid censoring models is presented. This new modularization approach to hybrid censoring models enables a convenient derivation of distributional results. For instance, it allows to derive the exact distribution of the MLEs under an exponential assumption for very complex hybrid scenarios. In order to illustrate the benefit of this idea, we apply it to four new unified progressive hybrid censoring schemes. They are extensions of already proposed unified Type-I/II/III/IV hybrid censoring schemes to progressively Type-II censored data. The resulting analysis shows that the modularization approach provides a powerful, efficient, and elegant tool to study even more complex hybrid censoring models.     

Widerstände und Hindernisse auf dem Wege zur sozialen Marktwirtschaft

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Die Geldnachfrage in Österreich

Ohne ZusammenfassungDiese Arbeit wurde als Forschungsprojekt am Institut für höhere Studien, Wien, verfaßt. Die Verfasser danken Dr. H. Otruba, Assistent am Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Universität Wien, für eine kritische Durchsicht des Manuskripts und für wertvolle Kommentare.     

Germany's international competitiveness

Germany's merits as a business location are being increasingly questioned. Is the competitiveness of the German economy actually in jeopardy? How could possible weaknesses be rectified?