This note discusses the concept of aliasing and its use in the paper by H.J. Bierens (2001, Econometric Theory 17, 962–983), in the framework of a second-order autoregression with complex unit roots. The condition on the range of the angular frequency φ is extended to φ ∈ (0,2π) − {π}.Financial support from UPV-EHU research project 9/UPV-00038.321-13503/2001, Basque Government project PI9970 and Ministerio de ciencia y tecnología BEC2003-02028 is gratefully acknowledged.

This paper examines the exact sampling behavior of a family of instrumental variables estimators of the coefficients in a single structural equation when the model has been misspecified by the incorrect inclusion or exclusion of variables. It is found that such specification errors can have implications for the structure of the exact results obtained. A brief numerical examination of the analytical results is also provided.

We consider the problem of hypothesis testing in a modified version of the stochastic integration and cointegration framework of Harris, McCabe, and Leybourne (2002, Journal of Econometrics 111, 363–384). This nonlinear setup allows for volatility in excess of that catered for by the standard integration/cointegration paradigm through the introduction of nonstationary heteroskedasticity. We propose a test for stochastic cointegration against the alternative of no cointegration and a secondary test for stationary cointegration against the heteroskedastic alternative. Asymptotic distributions of these tests under their respective null hypotheses are derived, and consistency under their respective alternatives is established. Monte Carlo evidence suggests that the tests will perform well in practice. An empirical application to the term structure of interest rates is also given.We are most grateful to the Associate Editor and two anonymous referees for providing helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper.

We study the problem of identifying a forecaster’s loss function from observations on forecasts, realizations, and the forecaster’s information set. Essentially different loss functions can lead to the same forecasts in all situations, though within the class of all continuous loss functions, this is strongly nongeneric. With the small set of exceptional cases ruled out, generic nonparametric preference recovery is theoretically possible, but identification depends critically on the amount of variation in the conditional distributions of the process being forecast. There exist processes with sufficient variability to guarantee identification, and much of this variation is also necessary for a process to have universal identifying power. We also briefly address the case in which the econometrician does not fully observe the conditional distributions used by the forecaster, and in this context we provide a practically useful set identification result for loss functions used in forecasting binary variables.

We show that the empirical distribution of the roots of the vector autoregression (VAR) of order p fitted to T observations of a general stationary or nonstationary process converges to the uniform distribution over the unit circle on the complex plane, when both T and p tend to infinity so that (ln T)/p → 0 and p3/T → 0. In particular, even if the process is a white noise, nearly all roots of the estimated VAR will converge by absolute value to unity. For fixed p, we derive an asymptotic approximation to the expected empirical distribution of the estimated roots as T → ∞. The approximation is concentrated in a circular region in the complex plane for various data generating processes and sample sizes.

Consider a linear regression model y1 = x1β + u1, where the u1'S afe weakly dependent random variables, the x1's are known design nonrandom variables, and β is an unknown parameter. We define an M-estimator βn of) β corresponding to a smooth score function. Then, the second-order Edgeworth expansion for βn is derived. Here we do not assume the normality of (u1), and (u1) includes the usual ARMA processes. Second, we give the second-order Edgeworth expansion for a transformation T(βn) of βn. Then, a sufficient condition for T to extinguish the second-order terms is given. The results are applicable to many statistical problems.

Ridder (1990, Review of Economic Studies 57, 167–182) provides an identification result for the Generalized Accelerated Failure-Time (GAFT) model. We point out that Ridder’s proof of this result is incomplete, and provide an amended proof with an additional necessary and sufficient condition that requires that a function varies regularly at 0 and ∞. We also give more readily interpretable sufficient conditions on the tails of the error distribution or the asymptotic behavior of the transformation of the dependent variable. The sufficient conditions are shown to encompass all previous results on the identification of the Mixed Proportional Hazards (MPH) model. Thus, this paper not only clarifies, but also unifies the literature on the nonparametric identification of the GAFT and MPH models.

A unified framework is proposed for tests of unobserved heterogeneity in parametric statistic models based on Neyman’s C(α) approach. Such tests are irregular in the sense that the first order derivative of the log likelihood with respect to the heterogeneity parameter is identically zero, and consequently the conventional Fisher information about the parameter is zero. Nevertheless, local asymptotic optimality of the C(α) tests can be established via LeCam’s differentiability in quadratic mean and the limit experiment approach. This leads to local alternatives of order n−1/4 . The scalar case result is already familiar from existing literature and we extend it to the multidimensional case. The new framework reveals that certain regularity conditions commonly employed in earlier developments are unnecessary, i.e. the symmetry or third moment condition imposed on the heterogeneity distribution. Additionally, the limit experiment for the multidimensional case suggests modifications on existing tests for slope heterogeneity in cross sectional and panel data models that lead to power improvement. Since the C(α) framework is not restricted to the parametric model and the test statistics do not depend on the particular choice of the heterogeneity distribution, it is useful for a broad range of applications for testing parametric heterogeneity.

This note considers an asymptotic property of the class of closest moments estimators. Each such estimator is obtained by setting a vector of sample moments close to corresponding population moments. It is shown that each such estimator is asymptotically equivalent to a GMM estimator, which has a quadratic distance function. An implication of this result is that the estimator that is asymptotically efficient in the GMM class is also asymptotically efficient in the wider class of closest moment estimators.

Exact expressions are derived for the density function, variance, and kurtosis of a linear combination of the elements of a two-stage estimator for the coefficients in a single equation of a SUR system. The estimator is the first iterate in the iterative generalized least squares procedure described by Telser [14]. Our results generalize all previously known results for this estimator and, in certain special cases, also generalize some earlier exact results for Zellner's unrestricted covariance matrix estimator, to which it reduces in these special cases.

The present paper deals with the distributions related to the fractional Brownian motion (fBm). In particular, we try to compute the distributions of (ratios of) its quadratic functionals, not by simulations, but by numerically inverting the associated characteristic functions (c.f.s). Among them is the fractional unit root distribution. It turns out that the derivation of the c.f.s based on the standard approaches used for the ordinary Bm is inapplicable. Here the martingale approximation to the fBm suggested in the literature is used to compute an approximation to the distributions of such functionals. The associated c.f. is obtained via the Fredholm determinant. Comparison of the first two moments of the approximate with true distributions is made, and simulations are conducted to examine the performance of the approximation. We also find an interesting moment property of the approximate fractional unit root distribution, and a conjecture is given that the same property will hold for the true fractional unit root distribution.

Despite their theoretical advantages, Integrated Conditional Moment (ICM) specification tests are not commonly employed in the econometrics practice. An important reason is that the employed test statistics are nonpivotal, and so critical values are not readily available. This article proposes an omnibus test in the spirit of the ICM tests of Bierens and Ploberger (1997, Econometrica 65, 1129–1151) where the test statistic is based on the minimized value of a quadratic function of the residuals of time series econometric models. The proposed test falls under the category of overidentification restriction tests started by Sargan (1958, Econometrica 26, 393–415). The corresponding projection interpretation leads us to propose a straightforward wild bootstrap procedure that requires only linear regressions to estimate the critical values irrespective of the model functional form. Hence, contrary to other existing ICM tests, the critical values are easily calculated while the test preserves the admissibility property of ICM tests.

This paper generalizes the intuition of Hausman and Taylor (1981, Econometrica 49, 1377–1398) and develops a method of dealing with a time-invariant regressor in nonlinear panel models with fixed effects. We illustrate the usefulness of our result by discussing the implication for some nonlinear models of social interactions.We are grateful to Dan Ackerberg and Jerry Hausman for helpful comments. The first author gratefully acknowledges financial support from NSF grant SES-0313651.

Proxies for unobserved skills and technologies are increasingly available in empirical data. For dynamic discrete choice models of forward-looking agents where a continuous state variable is unobserved but its proxy is available, we derive closed-form identification of the structure by explicitly solving integral equations. In the first step, we derive closed-form identification of Markov components, including the conditional choice probabilities and the law of state transition. In the second step, we plug in these first-step identifying formulas to obtain primitive structural parameters of dynamically optimizing agents.

This paper considers generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation of the inclusive panel AR(1) model that contains the covariance stationary panel AR(1) model and the panel AR(1) model with a unit root as special cases. The paper presents a two-step optimal linear GMM (OLGMM) estimator for the inclusive model that is asymptotically equivalent to the optimal nonlinear GMM estimator of Ahn and Schmidt (1997, Journal of Econometrics 76, 309–321) when the data are covariance stationary. Next the paper derives the asymptotic distribution of the OLGMM estimator when the model has a unit root under a variety of assumptions about the initial observations and the initial estimator. It is shown that in most cases the OLGMM estimator is superconsistent. In addition it is shown that the iterated OLGMM estimator is superefficient when the variance of the initial observations is finite and fixed, i.e., small compared to the cross-sectional dimension of the panel. The paper also conducts a Monte Carlo study in which the finite-sample properties of various GMM estimators for the inclusive panel AR(1) model are compared.I thank Steve Bond and Frank Windmeijer for kindly making one of their computer programs available to me. I also thank two anonymous referees and a co-editor for very helpful comments. This research was funded by the ESRC under grant R000239139.

In this paper we develop a nonparametric estimation technique for semiparametric transformation models of the form: H (Y) = φ(Z) + X′β + U where H,φ are unknown functions, β is an unknown finite-dimensional parameter vector and the variables (Y,Z) are endogenous. Identification of the model and asymptotic properties of the estimator are analyzed under the mean independence assumption between the error term and the instruments. We show that the estimators are consistent, and a $\sqrt N$-convergence rate and asymptotic normality for $\hat \beta$ can be attained. The simulations demonstrate that our nonparametric estimates fit the data well.

Estimating a treatment’s effect on an outcome conditional on covariates is a primary goal of many empirical investigations. Accurate estimation of the treatment effect given covariates can enable the optimal treatment to be applied to each unit or guide the deployment of limited treatment resources for maximum program benefit. Applications of conditional treatment effect estimation are found in direct marketing, economic policy, and personalized medicine. When estimating conditional treatment effects, the typical practice is to select a statistical model or procedure based on sample data. However, combining estimates from the candidate procedures often provides a more accurate estimate than the selection of a single procedure. This article proposes a method of model combination that targets accurate estimation of the treatment effect conditional on covariates. We provide a risk bound for the resulting estimator under squared error loss and illustrate the method using data from a labor skills training program.

This paper studies control function (CF) approaches in endogenous threshold regression where the threshold variable is allowed to be endogenous. We first use a simple example to show that the structural threshold regression (STR) estimator of the threshold point in Kourtellos, Stengos and Tan (2016, Econometric Theory 32, 827–860) is inconsistent unless the endogeneity level of the threshold variable is low compared to the threshold effect. We correct the CF in the STR estimator to generate our first CF estimator using a method that extends the two-stage least squares procedure in Caner and Hansen (2004, Econometric Theory 20, 813–843). We develop our second CF estimator which can be treated as an extension of the classical CF approach in endogenous linear regression. Both these approaches embody threshold effect information in the conditional variance beyond that in the conditional mean. Given the threshold point estimates, we propose new estimates for the slope parameters. The first is a by-product of the CF approach, and the second type employs generalized method of moment (GMM) procedures based on two new sets of moment conditions. Simulation studies, in conjunction with the limit theory, show that our second CF estimator and confidence interval for the threshold point together with the associated second GMM estimator and confidence interval for the slope parameter dominate the other methods. We further apply the new estimation methodology to an empirical application from international trade to illustrate its usefulness in practice.