We estimate the density and its derivatives using a local polynomial approximation to the logarithm of an unknown density function f. The estimator is guaranteed to be non-negative and achieves the same optimal rate of convergence in the interior as on the boundary of the support of f. The estimator is therefore well-suited to applications in which non-negative density estimates are required, such as in semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation. In addition, we show that our estimator compares favorably with other kernel-based methods, both in terms of asymptotic performance and computational ease. Simulation results confirm that our method can perform similarly or better in finite samples compared to these alternative methods when they are used with optimal inputs, that is, an Epanechnikov kernel and optimally chosen bandwidth sequence. We provide code in several languages.

Spatial units typically vary over many of their characteristics, introducing potential unobserved heterogeneity which invalidates commonly used homoskedasticity conditions. In the presence of unobserved heteroskedasticity, methods based on the quasi-likelihood function generally produce inconsistent estimates of both the spatial parameter and the coefficients of the exogenous regressors. A robust generalized method of moments estimator as well as a modified likelihood method have been proposed in the literature to address this issue. The present paper constructs an alternative indirect inference (II) approach which relies on a simple ordinary least squares procedure as its starting point. Heteroskedasticity is accommodated by utilizing a new version of continuous updating that is applied within the II procedure to take account of the parameterization of the variance–covariance matrix of the disturbances. Finite-sample performance of the new estimator is assessed in a Monte Carlo study. The approach is implemented in an empirical application to house price data in the Boston area, where it is found that spatial effects in house price determination are much more significant under robustification to heterogeneity in the equation errors.

An unobserved components and a conventional first-order autoregressive (AR) model with constant are analyzed with the adjusted profile likelihood of Cox and Reid (1987, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B 49, 1–39; 1993, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B 55, 467–71). Both the unobserved components model and the Cox–Reid adjustment can provide more accurate estimates of an AR coefficient of unity. The unobserved components model yields more powerful unit-root tests. In general the most powerful test utilizes the adjustment. Under the unobserved components model the adjusted statistics follow the asymptotic distributions better than the unadjusted.The basis of this research is my D. Phil. thesis (1997) for the University of Oxford. I am grateful to David Hendry for supervision and to Pentti Saikkonen for most helpful advice. I appreciate also the CBRT Young Economist Award with which I was honored after presenting a previous version at the 1998 erc/METU International Conference on Economics. I remain responsible for any errors. Financial support by the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation and Academy of Finland is gratefully acknowledged.

We consider an omnibus test for the correct specification of the dynamics of a sequence $\left\{ {x\left( t \right)} \right\}_{t \in Z^d } $ in a lattice. As it happens with causal models and d = 1, its asymptotic distribution is not pivotal and depends on the estimator of the unknown parameters of the model under the null hypothesis. One first main goal of the paper is to provide a transformation to obtain an asymptotic distribution that is free of nuisance parameters. Secondly, we propose a bootstrap analog of the transformation and show its validity. Thirdly, we discuss the results when $\left\{ {x\left( t \right)} \right\}_{t \in Z^d } $ are the errors of a parametric regression model. As a by product, we also discuss the asymptotic normality of the least squares estimator of the parameters of the regression model under very mild conditions. Finally, we present a small Monte Carlo experiment to shed some light on the finite sample behavior of our test.

We provide new asymptotic theory for kernel density estimators, when these are applied to autoregressive processes exhibiting moderate deviations from a unit root. This fills a gap in the existing literature, which has to date considered only nearly integrated and stationary autoregressive processes. These results have applications to nonparametric predictive regression models. In particular, we show that the null rejection probability of a nonparametric t test is controlled uniformly in the degree of persistence of the regressor. This provides a rigorous justification for the validity of the usual nonparametric inferential procedures, even in cases where regressors may be highly persistent.

Wu introduced a new technique for proving consistency of least-squares estimators in nonlinear regression. This paper extends his results in three directions. First, we consider the minimization of arbitrary functions (M-estimators instead of least squares). Second, we use an improved type 2 inequality. Third, an extension of Kronecker's lemma yields a more powerful result.

The limiting distribution of the least squares estimate of the derived process of a noninvertible and nearly noninvertible moving average model with infinite variance innovations is established as a functional of a Lévy process. The form of the limiting law depends on the initial value of the innovation and the stable index α. This result enables one to perform asymptotic testing for the presence of a unit root for a noninvertible moving average model through the constructed derived process under the null hypothesis. It provides not only a parallel analog of its autoregressive counterparts, but also a useful alternative to determine “over-differencing” for time series that exhibit heavy-tailed phenomena.

The aim of this paper is to construct a robust nonparametric estimator for the production frontier. We study this problem under a regression model with one-sided errors, where the regression function defines the achievable maximum output, for a given level of inputs-usage, and the regression error defines the inefficiency term. The main tool is a concept of partial regression boundary defined as a special probability-weighted moment. This concept motivates a robustified unconditional alternative to the pioneering class of nonparametric conditional expected maximum production functions. We prove that both the resulting benchmark partial frontier and its estimator share the desirable monotonicity of the true full frontier. We derive the asymptotic properties of the partial and full frontier estimators, and unravel their behavior from a robustness theory point of view. We provide numerical illustrations and Monte Carlo evidence that the presented concept of unconditional expected maximum production functions is more efficient and reliable in filtering out noise than the original conditional version. The methodology is very easy and fast to implement. Its usefulness is discussed through two concrete datasets from the sector of Delivery Services, where outliers are likely to affect the traditional conditional approach.

Least absolute deviations (LAD) estimation of linear time series models is considered under conditional heteroskedasticity and serial correlation. The limit theory of the LAD estimator is obtained without assuming the finite density condition for the errors that is required in standard LAD asymptotics. The results are particularly useful in application of LAD estimation to financial time series data.

Lyapunov exponents may be used to provide information on attractors of nonlinear models and, if strange, their aperiodic dynamics, in much the same way as eigenvalues of a linear model. An advantage of calculating these from an estimated model, rather than calculating the largest ones from a time series, is that economic theory is used to help distinguish between deterministic and stochastic behavior. Estimates of the Bergstrom/Wymer model of the United Kingdom, and of some other models of a similar form, were unstable in a classical sense, to some extent being caused by policy parameters. The Lyapunov exponents show that this model, and variants of it, have strange attractors in the neighborhood of the estimated parameter values and hence are stable but with aperiodic oscillations.

A simple formula for computing the best linear unbiased estimate of the mean of an autoregressive process as well as its variance is given. Numerical results show that the estimate can have much lower variance than that of the usual sample mean.

See solution below.

This article investigates the instrumental variable quantile regression model (Chernozhukov and Hansen, 2005, Econometrica 73, 245–261; 2013, Annual Review of Economics, 5, 57–81) with a binary endogenous treatment. It offers two identification results when the treatment status is not directly observed. The first result is that, remarkably, the reduced-form quantile regression of the outcome variable on the instrumental variable provides a lower bound on the structural quantile treatment effect under the stochastic monotonicity condition. This result is relevant, not only when the treatment variable is subject to misclassification, but also when any measurement of the treatment variable is not available. The second result is for the structural quantile function when the treatment status is measured with error; the sharp identified set is characterized by a set of moment conditions under widely used assumptions on the measurement error. Furthermore, an inference method is provided in the presence of other covariates.

Recently, Cavaliere, Georgiev, and Taylor (2018, Econometric Theory 34, 302–348) (CGT) considered the augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) test for a unit-root model with linear noise driven by i.i.d. infinite variance innovations and showed that ordinary least squares (OLS)-based ADF statistics have the same distribution as in Chan and Tran (1989, Econometric Theory 5, 354–362) for i.i.d. infinite variance noise. They also proposed an interesting question to extend their results to the case with infinite variance GARCH innovations as considered in Zhang, Sin, and Ling (2015, Stochastic Processes and their Applications 125, 482–512). This paper addresses this question. In particular, the limit distributions of the ADF for random walk models with short-memory linear noise driven by infinite variance GARCH innovations are studied. We show that when the tail index $\alpha <2$ , the limit distributions are completely different from that of CGT and the estimator of the parameters of the lag terms used in the ADF regression is not consistent. This paper provides a broad treatment of unit-root models with linear GARCH noises, which encompasses the commonly entertained unit-root IGARCH model as a special case.

This paper proposes Pearson-type statistics based on implied probabilities to detect structural change. The class of generalized empirical likelihood estimators (see Smith 1997, The Economic Journal107, 503–519) assigns a set of implied probabilities to each observation such that moment conditions are satisfied. The proposed test statistics for structural change are based on the information content in these implied probabilities. We consider cases of structural change with unknown breakpoint that can occur in the parameters of interest or in the overidentifying restrictions used to estimate these parameters. We also propose a structural change test based on implied probabilities that is robust to weak identification or cases in which parameters are completely unidentified. The test statistics considered here have competitive size and power properties. Moreover, they are computed in a single step, which eliminates the need to compute the weighting matrix required for generalized method of moments estimation.

This paper provides a systematic approach to semiparametric identification that is based on statistical information as a measure of its “quality.” Identification can be regular or irregular, depending on whether the Fisher information for the parameter is positive or zero, respectively. I first characterize these cases in models with densities linear in an infinite-dimensional parameter. I then introduce a novel “generalized Fisher information.” If positive, it implies (possibly irregular) identification when other conditions hold. If zero, it implies impossibility results on rates of estimation. Three examples illustrate the applicability of the general results. First, I consider the canonical example of average densities. Second, I show irregular identification of the median willingness to pay in contingent valuation studies. Finally, I study identification of the discount factor and average measures of risk aversion in a nonparametric Euler equation with nonparametric measurement error in consumption.

Functional coefficient (FC) regressions allow for systematic flexibility in the responsiveness of a dependent variable to movements in the regressors, making them attractive in applications where marginal effects may depend on covariates. Such models are commonly estimated by local kernel regression methods. This paper explores situations where responsiveness to covariates is locally flat or fixed. The paper develops new asymptotics that take account of shape characteristics of the function in the locality of the point of estimation. Both stationary and integrated regressor cases are examined. The limit theory of FC kernel regression is shown to depend intimately on functional shape in ways that affect rates of convergence, optimal bandwidth selection, estimation, and inference. In FC cointegrating regression, flat behavior materially changes the limit distribution by introducing the shape characteristics of the function into the limiting distribution through variance as well as centering. In the boundary case where the number of zero derivatives tends to infinity, near parametric rates of convergence apply in stationary and nonstationary cases. Implications for inference are discussed and a feasible pre-test inference procedure is proposed that takes unknown potential flatness into consideration and provides a practical approach to inference.

In testing for correlation of the errors in regression models, the power of tests can be very low for strongly correlated errors. This counterintuitive phenomenon has become known as the “zero-power trap.” Despite a considerable amount of literature devoted to this problem, mainly focusing on its detection, a convincing solution has not yet been found. In this article, we first discuss theoretical results concerning the occurrence of the zero-power trap phenomenon. Then, we suggest and compare three ways to avoid it. Given an initial test that suffers from the zero-power trap, the method we recommend for practice leads to a modified test whose power converges to $1$ as the correlation gets very strong. Furthermore, the modified test has approximately the same power function as the initial test and thus approximately preserves all of its optimality properties. We also provide some numerical illustrations in the context of testing for network generated correlation.