The purpose of this paper is to differentiate between several asymptotically valid methods for confidence set construction for the autoregressive coefficient in AR(1) models. We show that the nonparametric grid bootstrap procedure suggested by Hansen (1999, Review of Economics and Statistics 81, 594–607) achieves a second order refinement in the local-to-unity asymptotic approach when compared with a modified version of Stock’s (1991, Journal of Monetary Economics 28, 435–459) and Andrews’ (1993, Econometrica 61, 139–165) grid testing procedures. We establish a second order expansion of the t-statistic in an AR(1) model in the local-to-unity asymptotic approach, which differs drastically from the usual Edgeworth-type expansions by approximating the statistic around a nonstandard and nonpivotal limit.

It is known that Efron’s bootstrap of the mean of a distribution in the domain of attraction of the stable laws with infinite variance is not consistent, in the sense that the limiting distribution of the bootstrap mean is not the same as the limiting distribution of the mean from the real sample. Moreover, the limiting bootstrap distribution is random and unknown. The conventional remedy for this problem, at least asymptotically, is either the m out of n bootstrap or subsampling. However, we show that both these procedures can be unreliable in other than very large samples. We introduce a parametric bootstrap that overcomes the failure of Efron’s bootstrap and performs better than the m out of n bootstrap and subsampling. The quality of inference based on the parametric bootstrap is examined in a simulation study, and is found to be satisfactory with heavy-tailed distributions unless the tail index is close to 1 and the distribution is heavily skewed.

We study a family of nonparametric tests of density ratio ordering between two continuous probability distributions on the real line. Density ratio ordering is satisfied when the two distributions admit a nonincreasing density ratio. Equivalently, density ratio ordering is satisfied when the ordinal dominance curve associated with the two distributions is concave. To test this property, we consider statistics based on the Lp-distance between an empirical ordinal dominance curve and its least concave majorant. We derive the limit distribution of these statistics when density ratio ordering is satisfied. Further, we establish that, when 1 ≤ p ≤ 2, the limit distribution is stochastically largest when the two distributions are equal. When 2 < p ≤ ∞, this is not the case, and in fact the limit distribution diverges to infinity along a suitably chosen sequence of concave ordinal dominance curves. Our results serve to clarify, extend, and amend assertions appearing previously in the literature for the cases p = 1 and p = ∞. We provide numerical evidence confirming their relevance in finite samples.

This paper proposes a new two-stage estimation and inference procedure for a class of partially identified models. The procedure can be considered an extension of classical minimum distance estimation procedures to accommodate inequality constraints and partial identification. It involves no tuning parameter, is nonconservative, and is conceptually and computationally simple. The class of models includes models of interest to applied researchers, including the static entry game, a voting game with communication, and a discrete mixture model. Besides, a technical contribution is an implicit correspondence lemma which generalizes the implicit function theorem to multivalued implicit maps.

We derive conditions for the identification of the structural parameters in Markov decision model under the assumptions of Rust (1987, Econometrica 55, 999–1033) when the payoff function is parametrically specified. Identification in this class of dynamic problems is difficult to establish since the parameters of interest enter the value function nonlinearly, and the value function is only defined implicitly as a fixed point of some functional equation. We show it is sufficient to verify identification in the pseudomodel, which is more tractable as it is originally designed to reduce the computational burden in the estimation problem, for the identification of the data generating parameter of the underling model. Our results extend naturally to a class of dynamic discrete action games commonly used in empirical industrial organizations.

In a Gaussian, heterogeneous, cross-sectionally independent panel with incidental intercepts, Moon, Perron, and Phillips (2007, Journal of Econometrics 141, 416–459) present an asymptotic power envelope yielding an upper bound to the local asymptotic power of unit root tests. In case of homogeneous alternatives this envelope is known to be sharp, but this paper shows that it is not attainable for heterogeneous alternatives. Using limit experiment theory we derive a sharp power envelope. We also demonstrate that, among others, one of the likelihood ratio based tests in Moon et al. (2007, Journal of Econometrics 141, 416–459), a pooled generalized least squares (GLS) based test using the Breitung and Meyer (1994, Applied Economics 25, 353–361) device, and a new test based on the asymptotic structure of the model are all asymptotically UMP (Uniformly Most Powerful). Thus, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, pooled regression-based tests may yield optimal tests in case of heterogeneous alternatives. Although finite-sample powers are comparable, the new test is easy to implement and has superior size properties.

This paper investigates a general semiparametric stochastic discount factor formulation that avoids functional form misspecification. A new semiparametric estimation procedure is proposed which combines orthogonality conditions and local linear fitting to give a semiparametric generalized estimating equation approach. Asymptotic properties of the estimators are established and we explore the empirical usefulness of the proposed approach to value-weighted stock returns.

Model selection and associated issues of post-model selection inference present well known challenges in empirical econometric research. These modeling issues are manifest in all applied work but they are particularly acute in multivariate time series settings such as cointegrated systems where multiple interconnected decisions can materially affect the form of the model and its interpretation. In cointegrated system modeling, empirical estimation typically proceeds in a stepwise manner that involves the determination of cointegrating rank and autoregressive lag order in a reduced rank vector autoregression followed by estimation and inference. This paper proposes an automated approach to cointegrated system modeling that uses adaptive shrinkage techniques to estimate vector error correction models with unknown cointegrating rank structure and unknown transient lag dynamic order. These methods enable simultaneous order estimation of the cointegrating rank and autoregressive order in conjunction with oracle-like efficient estimation of the cointegrating matrix and transient dynamics. As such they offer considerable advantages to the practitioner as an automated approach to the estimation of cointegrated systems. The paper develops the new methods, derives their limit theory, discusses implementation, reports simulations, and presents an empirical illustration with macroeconomic aggregates.

In this paper, we derive the asymptotic properties of the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator in dynamic panel data models with individual and time effects when both N and T, the dimensions of cross-section and time series, are large. Specifically, we show that the two-step system GMM estimator is consistent when a suboptimal weighting matrix where off-diagonal blocks are set to zero is used. Such consistency results theoretically support the use of the system GMM estimator in large N and T contexts even though it was originally developed for large N and small T panels. Simulation results indicate that the large N and large T asymptotic results approximate the finite sample behavior reasonably well unless persistency of data is strong and/or the variance ratio of individual effects to the disturbances is large.