Asymptotic theory for the estimation of nonlinear vector error correction models that exhibit regime-specific short-run dynamics is developed. In particular, regimes are determined by the error correction term, and the transition between regimes is allowed to be discontinuous, as in, e.g., threshold cointegration. Several nonregular problems are resolved. First of all, consistency—square root n consistency for the cointegrating vector β—is established for the least squares estimation of this general class of models. Second, the convergence rates are obtained for the least squares of threshold cointegration, which are n3/2 and n for β and γ, respectively, where γ denotes the threshold parameter. This fast rate for β in itself is of practical relevance because, unlike in smooth transition models, the estimation error in β does not affect the estimation of short-run parameters. We also derive asymptotic distributions for the smoothed least squares estimation of threshold cointegration.

A local limit theorem is given for the sample mean of a zero energy function of a nonstationary time series involving twin numerical sequences that pass to infinity. The result is applicable in certain nonparametric kernel density estimation and regression problems where the relevant quantities are functions of both sample size and bandwidth. An interesting outcome of the theory in nonparametric regression is that the linear term is eliminated from the asymptotic bias. In consequence and in contrast to the stationary case, the Nadaraya–Watson estimator has the same limit distribution (to the second order including bias) as the local linear nonparametric estimator.

This paper proposes a model specification testing procedure for parametric specification of the conditional mean function in a nonlinear time series model with long-range dependent. An asymptotically normal test is established even when long-range dependent is involved. To implement the proposed test in practice using a simulated example, a bootstrap simulation procedure is established to find a simulated critical value to compute both the size and power values of the proposed test.

We examine the limit properties of the nonlinear least squares (NLS) estimator under functional form misspecification in regression models with a unit root. Our theoretical framework is the same as that of Park and Phillips (2001, Econometrica 69, 117–161). We show that the limit behavior of the NLS estimator is largely determined by the relative orders of magnitude of the true and fitted models. If the estimated model is of different order of magnitude than the true model, the estimator converges to boundary points. When the pseudo-true value is on a boundary, standard methods for obtaining rates of convergence and limit distribution results are not applicable. We provide convergence rates and limit theory when the pseudo-true value is an interior point. If functional form misspecification is committed in the presence of stochastic trends, the convergence rates can be slower and the limit distribution different than that obtained under correct specification.

Testing for white noise has been well studied in the literature of econometrics and statistics. For most of the proposed test statistics, such as the well-known Box–Pierce test statistic with fixed lag truncation number, the asymptotic null distributions are obtained under independent and identically distributed assumptions and may not be valid for dependent white noise. Because of recent popularity of conditional heteroskedastic models (e.g., generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic [GARCH] models), which imply nonlinear dependence with zero autocorrelation, there is a need to understand the asymptotic properties of the existing test statistics under unknown dependence. In this paper, we show that the asymptotic null distribution of the Box–Pierce test statistic with general weights still holds under unknown weak dependence as long as the lag truncation number grows at an appropriate rate with increasing sample size. Further applications to diagnostic checking of the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) and fractional autoregressive integrated moving average (FARIMA) models with dependent white noise errors are also addressed. Our results go beyond earlier ones by allowing non-Gaussian and conditional heteroskedastic errors in the ARMA and FARIMA models and provide theoretical support for some empirical findings reported in the literature.

A multivariate extension of the exponential continuous time GARCH (p, q) model (ECOGARCH) is introduced and studied. Stationarity and mixing properties of the new stochastic volatility model are investigated, and ways to model a component-wise leverage effect are presented.

Asymptotically pivotal structural change tests are developed for simultaneous equations with weakly identified parameters, extending the boundedly pivotal tests of Caner (2007, Journal of Econometrics 137, 28–67) by means of a simple reparametrization of the model.

This paper studies the asymptotic validity of the Anderson–Rubin (AR) test and the J test for overidentifying restrictions in linear models with many instruments. When the number of instruments increases at the same rate as the sample size, we establish that the conventional AR and J tests are asymptotically incorrect. Some versions of these tests, which are developed for situations with moderately many instruments, are also shown to be asymptotically invalid in this framework. We propose modifications of the AR and J tests that deliver asymptotically correct sizes. Importantly, the corrected tests are robust to the numerosity of the moment conditions in the sense that they are valid for both few and many instruments. The simulation results illustrate the excellent properties of the proposed tests.

We analyze the limiting distribution of the Rivers and Vuong (2002, Econometrics Journal 5, 1–39) statistic for choosing between two competing dynamic models based on a comparison of generalized method of moments minimands. It is shown that (i) if both models are misspecified then the statistic has a standard normal distribution under the null hypothesis of equal fit but the ranking could be determined by the choice of the weighting matrix; (ii) if both models are correctly specified or locally misspecified then the limiting distribution of the test statistic is nonstandard under the null.