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This paper re-examines the stochastic time series behaviour of the monthly unemployment rate in 50 states of the United States (US) for the period 1976-2017 using a number of state-of-the-art unit root tests. The new developments incorporate structural break, nonlinearity, asymmetry, and cross-sectional correlation within panel-data estimation including the use of a sequential panel selection method. While not previously considered, sequential panel selection enabled us to determine and separate the stationary and nonstationary series in the sample. The empirical findings are in support of the stationarity of unemployment rate in 47 states. The findings confirm a natural rate hypothesis for the labour markets in the most US states, indicating that labour market shocks have solely temporary effects on state-level unemployment. This empirical study provides significant state-specific policy implications.

This paper investigates the relationship between international oil price and stock prices applying the time varying causality testing over the period of 2000 M1 -2017 M3 . The panel unit root and panel cointegration tests considering cross-section dependence are also employed. A time varying panel smooth transition vector error correction (TV-PSTRVEC) model is a developed and estimated for testing the presence of non-linear short-run and long-run causality, and cointegrating relationship between stock and oil prices. The empirical findings indicate that short and long-run causalities between oil price and stock prices are time-dependent. Moreover, oil price cause stock prices in the long-run. In the short-run, neutral effect exists between oil price and stock prices. These two findings are evidence of a strong exogeneity of oil price in time-dependent regimes which is also supporting the recent arguments and empirical findings.