Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-02T19:26:19.243Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

OPTIMAL TESTS FOR NESTED MODEL SELECTION WITH UNDERLYING PARAMETER INSTABILITY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2005

Barbara Rossi
Affiliation:
Duke University

Abstract

This paper develops optimal tests for model selection between two nested models in the presence of underlying parameter instability. These are joint tests for both parameter instability and a null hypothesis on a subset of the parameters. They modify the existing tests for parameter instability to allow the parameter vector to be unknown. These test statistics are useful if one is interested in testing a null hypothesis on some parameters but is worried about the possibility that the parameters may be time varying. The paper provides the asymptotic distributions of this class of test statistics and their critical values for some interesting cases.I thank M. Watson for the idea of this paper and for numerous discussions, suggestions, comments, and teaching. I am grateful to T. Clark, G. Chow, R. Gallant, F. Sowell, N. Swanson, E. Tamer, and A. Tarozzi and also to the co-editor and two referees and to seminar participants at the University of Virginia, ECARES Université Libre de Brussels, the 2001 Triangle Econometrics Conference, the 2002 NBER Summer Institute, the 2003 Summer Meetings of the Econometric Society, and the 2003 EC2 Conference for comments. Financial support from IFS Summer Research, Princeton University, is gratefully acknowledged. All mistakes are mine.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Andrews, D.W.K. (1991) Heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix estimation. Econometrica 59, 817858.Google Scholar
Andrews, D.W.K. (1993) Tests for parameter instability and structural change with unknown change point. Econometrica 61, 821856.Google Scholar
Andrews, D.W.K., I. Lee, & W. Ploberger (1996) Optimal change-point tests for normal linear regression. Journal of Econometrics 70, 938.Google Scholar
Andrews, D.W.K. & W. Ploberger (1993) Admissibility of the likelihood ratio test when a nuisance parameter is present only under the alternative. Annals of Statistics 23, 16091629.Google Scholar
Andrews, D.W.K. & W. Ploberger (1994) Optimal tests when a nuisance parameter is present only under the alternative. Econometrica 62, 13831414.Google Scholar
Bai, J. & P. Perron (1998) Estimating and testing linear models with multiple structural changes. Econometrica 66, 4778.Google Scholar
Chow, G.C. (1960) Tests of equality between sets of coefficients in two linear regressions. Econometrica 28, 591605.Google Scholar
Clark, T.E. & M.W. McCracken (2005) The power of tests of predictive ability in the presence of structural breaks. Journal of Econometrics 124, 131.Google Scholar
Corradi, V. & N. Swanson (2005) Bootstrap conditional distribution tests in the presence of dynamic misspecification. Journal of Econometrics, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Elliott, G. & U.K. Müller (2003) Optimally testing general breaking processes in linear time series models. University of California at San Diego Discussion Paper 2003-07.
Engle, R. (1984) Wald, likelihood ratio, and Lagrange multiplier tests in econometrics. In Z. Griliches & M. Intriligator (eds.), Handbook of Econometrics, vol. 2, pp. 775826. North-Holland.
Ghysels, E., A. Guay, & A. Hall (1998) Predictive tests for structural change with unknown breakpoint. Journal of Econometrics 82, 209233.Google Scholar
Ghysels, E. & A.R. Hall (1990) A test for structural stability of Euler conditions parameters estimated via the generalized method of moments estimator. International Economic Review 31, 355364.Google Scholar
Hall, A.R. & A. Sen (1999) Structural stability testing in models estimated by generalized method of moments. Journal of Business & Economic Statistics 17, 335348.Google Scholar
King, M. (1980) Robust tests for spherical symmetry and their application to least square regression. Annals of Statistics 80, 12651271.Google Scholar
King, M. & G. Hillier (1985) Locally best invariant tests of the error covariance matrix of the linear regression model. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, series B 47, 98102.Google Scholar
Nabeya, S. & K. Tanaka (1988) Asymptotic theory of a test for the constancy of regression coefficients against the random walk alternative. Annals of Statistics 16, 218235.Google Scholar
Newey, W. & D. McFadden (1994) Large sample estimation and hypothesis testing. In R. Engle & D. McFadden (eds.), Handbook of Econometrics, vol. 4, pp. 21112245. North-Holland.
Newey, W. & K. West (1987) A simple, positive semi-definite, heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix. Econometrica 55, 703708.Google Scholar
Nyblom, J. (1989) Testing for the constancy of parameters over time. Journal of the American Statistical Association 84, 223230.Google Scholar
Nyblom, J. & T. Mäkeläinen (1983) Comparisons of tests for the presence of random walk coefficients in a simple linear model. Journal of the American Statistical Association 78, 856864.Google Scholar
Ploberger, W. & W. Krämer (1990) The local power of the cusum and cusum of squares tests. Econometric Theory 6, 335347.Google Scholar
Ploberger, W. & W. Krämer (1992) The CUSUM test with OLS residuals. Econometrica 60, 271286.Google Scholar
Quandt, R.E. (1960) Tests of the hypothesis that a linear regression system obeys two separate regimes. Journal of the American Statistical Association 55, 324330.Google Scholar
Rossi, B. (2005) Are Exchange Rates Really Random Walks? Some Evidence Robust to Parameter Instability. Macroeconomic Dynamics, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Sowell, F. (1996) Optimal tests for parameter instability in the generalized method of moments framework. Econometrica 64, 10851107.Google Scholar
Stock, J. & M. Watson (1998) Median unbiased estimation of coefficient variance in a time-varying parameter model. Journal of the American Statistical Association 93, 349358.Google Scholar