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I discuss a framework to allow dynamic sparsity in time-varying parameter regression models. The conditional variances of the innovations of time-varying parameters are time varying and equal to zero adaptively via thresholding. The resulting model allows the dynamics of the time-varying parameters to mix over different frequencies of parameter changes in a data driven way and permits great flexibility while achieving model parsimony. A convenient strategy is discussed to infer if each coefficient is static or dynamic and, if dynamic, how frequent the parameter change is. An MCMC scheme is developed for model estimation. The performance of the proposed approach is illustrated in studies of both simulated and real economic data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider robust inference for an autoregressive parameter in a stationary linear autoregressive model with GARCH innovations. As the innovations exhibit GARCH, they are by construction heavy-tailed with some tail index κ. This implies that the rate of convergence as well as the limiting distribution of the least squares estimator depend on κ. In the spirit of Ibragimov and Müller ("t-statistic based correlation and heterogeneity robust inference", Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, 2010, vol. 28, pp. 453–468), we consider testing a hypothesis about a parameter based on a Student's t-statistic based on least squares estimates for a fixed number of groups of the original sample. The merit of this approach is that no knowledge about the value of κ nor about the rate of convergence and the limiting distribution of the least squares estimator is required. We verify that the two-sided t-test is asymptotically a level α test whenever α ≤ 5 % for any κ ≥ 2 , which includes cases where the innovations have infinite variance. A simulation experiment suggests that the finite-sample properties of the test are quite good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common feature of financial time series is their strong persistence. Yet, long memory may just be the spurious effect of either structural breaks or slow switching regimes. We explore the effects of spurious long memory on the elasticity of the stock market price with respect to volatility and show how cross-sectional aggregation may generate spurious persistence in the data. We undertake an extensive Monte Carlo study to compare the performance of five tests, constructed under the null of true long memory versus the alternative of spurious long memory due to level shifts or breaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We reconsider Taupin's (2001) Integrated Nonlinear Regression (INLR) estimator for a nonlinear regression with a mismeasured covariate. We find that if we restrict the distribution of the measurement error to a class of distributions with restricted support, then much weaker smoothness assumptions than hers suffice to ensure [image omitted] consistency of the estimator. In addition, we show that the INLR estimator remains consistent under these weaker smoothness assumptions if the support of the measurement error distribution expands with the sample size. In that case the estimator remains also asymptotically normal with a rate of convergence that is arbitrarily close to [image omitted]. Our results show that deconvolution can be used in a nonparametric first step without imposing restrictive smoothness assumptions on the parametric model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the cointegrating regression with errors whose variances change smoothly over time. The model can be used to describe a long-run cointegrating relationship, the tightness of which varies along with time. Heteroskedasticity in the errors is modeled nonparametrically and is assumed to be generated by a smooth function of time. We show that it can be consistently estimated by the kernel method. Given consistent estimates for error variances, the cointegrating relationship can be efficiently estimated by the usual generalized least squares (GLS) correction for heteroskedastic errors. It is shown that the U.S. money demand function, both for M1 and M2, is well fitted to such a cointegrating model with an increasing trend in error variances. Moreover, we found that the bilateral purchasing power parities among the leading industrialized countries such as the United States, Japan, Canada, and the United Kingdom have been changed somewhat conspicuously over the past thirty years. In particular, it appears that they all have generally become more tightened during the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several panel unit root tests that account for cross-section dependence using a common factor structure have been proposed in the literature recently. Pesaran's (2007) cross-sectionally augmented unit root tests are designed for cases where cross-sectional dependence is due to a single factor. The Moon and Perron (2004) tests which use defactored data are similar in spirit but can account for multiple common factors. The Bai and Ng (2004a) tests allow to determine the source of nonstationarity by testing for unit roots in the common factors and the idiosyncratic factors separately. Breitung and Das (2008) and Sul (2007) propose panel unit root tests when cross-section dependence is present possibly due to common factors, but the common factor structure is not fully exploited. This article makes four contributions: (1) it compares the testing procedures in terms of similarities and differences in the data generation process, tests, null, and alternative hypotheses considered, (2) using Monte Carlo results it compares the small sample properties of the tests in models with up to two common factors, (3) it provides an application which illustrates the use of the tests, and (4) finally, it discusses the use of the tests in modelling in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Box-Cox quantile regression model introduced by Powell (1991) is a flexible and numerically attractive extension of linear quantile regression techniques. Chamberlain (1994) and Buchinsky (1995) suggest a two stage estimator for this model but the objective function in stage two of their method may not be defined in an application. We suggest a modification of the estimator which is easy to implement. A simulation study demonstrates that the modified estimator works well in situations, where the original estimator is not well defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a Bayesian analysis of a multinomial probit model by building on previous work that specified priors on identified parameters. The main contribution of our article is to propose a prior on the covariance matrix of the latent utilities that permits elements of the inverse of the covariance matrix to be identically zero. This allows a parsimonious representation of the covariance matrix when such parsimony exists. The methodology is applied to both simulated and real data, and its ability to obtain more efficient estimators of the covariance matrix and regression coefficients is assessed using simulated data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents results concerning the performance of both single equation and system panel cointegration tests and estimators. The study considers the tests developed in Pedroni (1999, 2004), Westerlund (2005), Larsson et al. (2001), and Breitung (2005) and the estimators developed in Phillips and Moon (1999), Pedroni (2000), Kao and Chiang (2000), Mark and Sul (2003), Pedroni (2001), and Breitung (2005). We study the impact of stable autoregressive roots approaching the unit circle, of I(2) components, of short-run cross-sectional correlation and of cross-unit cointegration on the performance of the tests and estimators. The data are simulated from three-dimensional individual specific VAR systems with cointegrating ranks varying from zero to two for fourteen different panel dimensions. The usual specifications of deterministic components are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent article, Xiao and Lima (2007) show numerically that the stationarity test of Kwiatkowski et al. (1992) has power close to size when the volatility of the innovation process follows a linear trend. In this article, highlighting published results in Cavaliere and Taylor (2005), we show that this observation does not in general hold under time-varying volatility. We also propose alternative tests of covariance stationarity which we show to improve upon the power properties of the tests proposed in Xiao and Lima (2007) against changes in the unconditional variance. Practical recommendations are also made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of integrated multivariate volatilities of an Itô process is an interesting and important issue in finance, for example, in order to evaluate portfolios. New non-parametric estimators have been recently proposed by Malliavin and Mancino (2002) and Hayashi and Yoshida (2005a) as alternative methods to classical realized quadratic covariation. The purpose of this article is to compare these alternative estimators both theoretically and empirically, when high frequency data is available. We found that the Hayashi-Yoshida estimator performs the best among the alternatives in view of the bias and the MSE. The other estimators are shown to have possibly heavy bias mostly toward the origin. We also applied these estimators to Japanese Government Bond futures to obtain the results consistent with our simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

U-statistics form a general class of statistics that have certain important features in common. This class arises as a generalization of the sample mean and the sample variance, and typically members of the class are asymptotically normal with good consistency properties. The class encompasses some widely used income inequality and poverty measures, in particular the variance, the Gini index, the poverty rate, the average poverty gap ratios, the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke index, and the Sen index and its modified form. This paper illustrates how these measures come together within the class of U-statistics, and thereby why U-statistics are useful in econometrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dagum and Slottje (2000) estimated household human capital (HC) as a latent variable (LV) and proposed its monetary estimation by means of an actuarial approach. This paper introduces an improved method for the estimation of household HC as an LV by means of formative and reflective indicators in agreement with the accepted economic definition of HC. The monetary value of HC is used in a recursive causal model to obtain short- and long-term multipliers that measure the direct and total effects of the variables that determine household HC. The new method is applied to estimate US household HC for year 2004. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper extends the current literature on the variance-causality topic providing the coefficient restrictions ensuring variance noncausality within multivariate GARCH models with in-mean effects. Furthermore, this paper presents a new multivariate model, the exponential causality GARCH. By the introduction of a multiplicative causality impact function, the variance causality effects becomes directly interpretable and can therefore be used to detect both the existence of causality and its direction; notably, the proposed model allows for increasing and decreasing variance effects. An empirical application evidences negative causality effects between returns and volume of an Italian stock market index future contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is shown how the usual two-step estimator for the standard sample selection model can be seen as a method of moments estimator. Standard GMM theory can be brought to bear on this model, greatly simplifying the derivation of the asymptotic properties of this model. Using this setup, the asymptotic variance is derived in detail and a consistent estimator of it is obtained that is guaranteed to be positive definite, in contrast with the estimator given in the literature. It is demonstrated how the MM approach easily accommodates variations on the estimator, like the two-step IV estimator that handles endogenous regressors, and a two-step GLS estimator. Furthermore, it is shown that from the MM formulation, it is straightforward to derive various specification tests, in particular tests for selection bias, equivalence with the censored regression model, normality, homoskedasticity, and exogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we model the Gaussian errors in the standard Gaussian linear state space model as stochastic volatility processes. We show that conventional MCMC algorithms for this class of models are ineffective, but that the problem can be alleviated by reparameterizing the model. Instead of sampling the unobserved variance series directly, we sample in the space of the the disturbances, which proves to lower correlation in the sampler and thus increases the quality of the Markov chain. Using our reparameterized MCMC sampler, it is possible to estimate an unobserved factor model for exchange rates between a group of n countries. The underlying n + 1 country-specific currency strength factors and the n + 1 currency volatility factors can be extracted using the new methodology. With the factors, a more detailed image of the events around the 1992 EMS crisis is obtained. We assess the fit of competitive models on the panels of exchange rates with an effective particle filter and find that indeed the factor model is strongly preferred by the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]