The efficient method of numerical saddlepoint integration is described and applied to calculating the probability distribution of the maximum likelihood and Yule-Walker estimators of the correlation coefficient a of a first-order autoregressive normal time series with initial value either zero or nonzero when a finite number n of data are at hand. Stationary time series of the same type are also treated. Significance points are computed in a number of examples to show how, as n increases, the finite-sample distributions approach the asymptotic distributions that have appeared in the literature.

This paper provides limit theorems for spectral density matrix estimators and functionals of it for a bivariate covariance stationary process whose spectral density matrix has singularities not only at the origin but possibly at some other frequencies and, thus, applies to time series exhibiting long memory. In particular, we show that the consistency and asymptotic normality of the spectral density matrix estimator at a frequency, say λ, which hold for weakly dependent time series, continue to hold for long memory processes when λ lies outside any arbitrary neighborhood of the singularities. Specifically, we show that for the standard properties of spectral density matrix estimators to hold, only local smoothness of the spectral density matrix is required in a neighborhood of the frequency in which we are interested. Therefore, we are able to relax, among other conditions, the absolute summability of the autocovariance function and of the fourth-order cumulants or summability conditions on mixing coefficients, assumed in much of the literature, which imply that the spectral density matrix is globally smooth and bounded.

This paper is concerned with Cornish–Fisher corrections of some instrumental variables test statistics. The tests based on the corrected statistics have size with error of a smaller order of magnitude than the original tests. Symmetric Edgeworth-corrected confidence regions are also defined for the structural parameters. All these corrections are given as analytic formulas that require only limited information, so their implementation is a relatively easy task.

This paper addresses the problem of semiparametric efficiency bounds for conditional moment restriction models with different conditioning variables. We characterize such an efficiency bound, that in general is not explicit, as a limit of explicit efficiency bounds for a decreasing sequence of unconditional (marginal) moment restriction models. An iterative procedure for approximating the efficient score when this is not explicit is provided. Our theoretical results provide new insight for the theory of semiparametric efficiency bounds literature and open the door to new applications. In particular, we investigate a class of regression-like (mean regression, quantile regression,…) models with missing data, an example of a supply and demand simultaneous equations model and a generalized bivariate dichotomous model.

We propose a new nonparametric test of stochastic monotonicity which adapts to the unknown smoothness of the conditional distribution of interest, possesses desirable asymptotic properties, is conceptually easy to implement, and computationally attractive. In particular, we show that the test asymptotically controls size at a polynomial rate, is nonconservative, and detects certain smooth local alternatives that converge to the null with the fastest possible rate. Our test is based on a data-driven bandwidth value and the critical value for the test takes this randomness into account. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the test performs well in finite samples. In particular, the simulations show that the test controls size and, under some alternatives, is significantly more powerful than existing procedures.

In this article, using a shrinkage estimator, we propose a penalized quasi-maximum likelihood estimator (PQMLE) to estimate a large system of equations in seemingly unrelated regression models, where the number of equations is large relative to the sample size. We develop the asymptotic properties of the PQMLE for both the error covariance matrix and model coefficients. In particular, we derive the asymptotic distribution of the coefficient estimator and the convergence rate of the estimated covariance matrix in terms of the Frobenius norm. The model selection consistency of the covariance matrix estimator is also established. Simulation results show that when the number of equations is large relative to the sample size and the error covariance matrix is sparse, the PQMLE outperforms other contemporary estimators.

In the case of regression models, one robust estimation procedure which has recently emerged is that of functional least squares. The procedure is based on the use of characteristic functions for which the tail behavior is relected by the behavior of these functions at the origin. Its attraction is that it is applicable to situations where the distribution of the disturbances may be long-tailed and/or asymmetric.

This paper extends this theory to include a large class of regression models of importance in econometrics. Indeed the regression models considered here include lagged dependent variables and deterministic exogenous variables.

This article develops a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method for a class of models that encompasses finite and countable mixtures of densities and mixtures of experts with a variable number of mixture components. The method is shown to maximize the expected probability of acceptance for cross-dimensional moves and to minimize the asymptotic variance of sample average estimators under certain restrictions. The method can be represented as a retrospective sampling algorithm with an optimal choice of auxiliary priors and as a reversible jump algorithm with optimal proposal distributions. The method is primarily motivated by and applied to a Bayesian nonparametric model for conditional densities based on mixtures of a variable number of experts. The mixture of experts model outperforms standard parametric and nonparametric alternatives in out of sample performance comparisons in an application to Engel curve estimation. The proposed MCMC algorithm makes estimation of this model practical.

Peter C. B. Phillips has made fundamental contributions to unit root econometrics. This paper provides a selective review of Peter’s contribution to unit roots, with a focus on unit root asymptotics, unit root tests, and testing for stationarity against the unit root alternative. The discussion puts a relatively heavier weight on Peter’s most recent work.

Goodness-of-fit tests based on parametric empirical processes have nonstandard limiting distributions when the null hypothesis is composite — that is, when parameters of the null model are estimated. Several analytic solutions to this problem have been suggested, including the calculation of adjusted critical values for these nonstandard distributions and the transformation of the empirical process such that statistics based on the transformed process are asymptotically distribution-free. The approximation methods proposed by Durbin (1985, Journal of Applied Probability 22(1), 99–122) can be applied to conduct inference for tests based on supremum-norm statistics. The resulting tests have quite accurate size, a fact that has gone unrecognized in the econometrics literature. Some justification for this accuracy lies in the similar features that Durbin’s approximation methods share with the theory of extrema for Gaussian random fields and for Gauss-Markov processes. These adjustment techniques are also related to the transformation methodology proposed by Khmaladze (1981, Theory of Probability and Its Applications26(2), 240–257) through the score function of the parametric model. Simulation experiments suggest that in small samples, Durbin-style adjustments result in tests that have higher power than tests based on transformed processes, and in some cases they have higher power than parametric bootstrap procedures.

In this paper, we provide a survey of Peter Phillips’s works on the econometrics for models with nonstationary nonlinearity, and some of the extensions that were made possible due to his original contributions. Parametric and nonparametric models are considered in both discrete time and continuous time setups. Although some of the asymptotics in the paper are applicable more generally for a wide variety of nonstationary models, we mainly analyze models with nonstationary processes that allow for the functional limit theory with limit processes having well defined local times.

Some exact distribution theory is developed for structural equation models with and without identities. The theory includes LIML, IV, and OLS. We relate the new results to earlier studies in the literature, including the pioneering work of Bergstrom (1962). General IV exact distribution formulas for a structural equation model without an identity are shown to apply also to models with an identity by specializing along a certain asymptotic parameter sequence. Some of the new exact results are obtained by means of a uniform asymptotic expansion. An interesting consequence of the new theory is that the uniform asymptotic approximation provides the exact distribution of the OLS estimator in the model considered by Bergstrom (1962). This example appears to be the first instance in the statistical literature of a uniform approximation delivering an exact expression for a probability density.

This article is concerned with semiparametric estimation of a partially linear transformation model under conditional quantile restriction with no parametric restriction imposed either on the link functional form or on the error term distribution. We describe for the finite-dimensional parameter a $\sqrt n$-consistent estimator which combines the features of Chen (2010)’s maximum integrated score estimator as well as Lee (2003)’s average quantile regression. We show the remaining two infinite-dimensional unknown functions in the model can be separately identified and propose estimators for these functions based on the marginal integration method. Furthermore, a simple approach is proposed to estimate the average partial quantile effect. Two important extensions, i.e., random censoring as well as estimating a transformation model with an endogenous regressor are also considered.

This paper considers two-step generalized empirical likelihood (GEL) estimation and tests with martingale differences when there is a computationally simple $\sqrt n$-consistent estimator of nuisance parameters or the nuisance parameters can be eliminated with an estimating function of parameters of interest. As an initial estimate might have asymptotic impact on final estimates, we propose general $C(\alpha )$-type transformed moments to eliminate the impact, and use them in the GEL framework to construct estimation and tests robust to initial estimates. This two-step approach can save computational burden as the numbers of moments and parameters are reduced. A properly constructed two-step GEL (TGEL) estimator of parameters of interest is asymptotically as efficient as the corresponding joint GEL estimator. TGEL removes several higher-order bias terms of a corresponding two-step generalized method of moments. Our moment functions at the true parameters are martingales, thus they cover some spatial and time series models. We investigate tests for parameter restrictions in the TGEL framework, which are locally as powerful as those in the joint GEL framework when the two-step estimator is efficient.

We develop a nonparametric Bayesian analysis of regression discontinuity (RD) designs, allowing for covariates, in which we model and estimate the unknown functions of the forcing variable by basis expansion methods. In a departure from current methods, we use the entire data on the forcing variable, but we emphasize the data near the threshold by placing some knots at and near the threshold, a technique we refer to as soft-windowing. To handle the nonequally spaced knots that emerge from soft-windowing, we construct a prior on the spline coefficients, from a second-order Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process, which is hyperparameter light, and satisfies the Kullback–Leibler support property. In the fuzzy RD design, we explain the divergence between the treatment implied by the forcing variable, and the actual intake, by a discrete confounder variable, taking three values, complier, never-taker, and always-taker, and a model with four potential outcomes. Choice of the soft-window, and the number of knots, is determined by marginal likelihoods, computed by the method of Chib [Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1995, 90, 1313–1321] as a by-product of the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)-based estimation. Importantly, in each case, we allow for covariates, incorporated nonparametrically by additive natural cubic splines. The potential outcome error distributions are modeled as student-t, with an extension to Dirichlet process mixtures. We derive the large sample posterior consistency, and posterior contraction rate, of the RD average treatment effect (ATE) (in the sharp case) and RD ATE for compliers (in the fuzzy case), as the number of basis parameters increases with sample size. The excellent performance of the methods is documented in simulation experiments, and in an application to educational attainment of women from Meyersson [Econometrica, 2014, 82, 229–269].

This paper discusses the problem of testing misspecifications in semiparametric regression models for a large family of econometric models under rather general conditions. We focus on two main issues that typically arise in econometrics. First, many econometric models are estimated through maximum likelihood or pseudo-ML methods like, for example, limited dependent variable or gravity models. Second, often one might not want to fully specify the null hypothesis. Instead, one would rather impose some structure like separability or monotonicity. In order to address these points we introduce an adaptive omnibus test. Special emphasis is given to practical issues like adaptive bandwidth choice, general but simple requirements on the estimates, and finite sample performance, including the resampling approximations.

In this paper, we derive uniform convergence rates of nonparametric estimators for continuous time diffusion processes. In particular, we consider kernel-based estimators of the Nadaraya–Watson type, introducing a new technical device called a damping function. This device allows us to derive sharp uniform rates over an infinite interval with minimal requirements on the processes: The existence of the moment of any order is not required and the boundedness of relevant functions can be significantly relaxed. Restrictions on kernel functions are also minimal: We allow for kernels with discontinuity, unbounded support, and slowly decaying tails. Our proofs proceed by using the covering-number technique from empirical process theory and exploiting the mixing and martingale properties of the processes. We also present new results on the path-continuity property of Brownian motions and diffusion processes over an infinite time horizon. These path-continuity results, which should also be of some independent interest, are used to control discretization biases of the nonparametric estimators. The obtained convergence results are useful for non/semiparametric estimation and testing problems of diffusion processes.

This paper provides a (saddlepoint) tail probability approximation for the distribution of an optimal unit root test. Under restrictive assumptions, Gaussianity, and known covariance structure, the order of error of the approximation is given. More generally, when innovations are a linear process in martingale differences, the estimated saddlepoint is proved to yield valid asymptotic inference. Numerical evidence, considered over a range of models, demonstrates some finite-sample superiority over approximations for a directly comparable test based on simulation of its limiting stochastic representation.