This paper considers nonstationary fractional autoregressive integrated moving-average (p,d,q) models with the fractionally differencing parameter d ∈ (− 1/2,1/2) and the autoregression function with roots on or outside the unit circle. Asymptotic inference is based on the conditional sum of squares (CSS) estimation. Under some suitable conditions, it is shown that CSS estimators exist and are consistent. The asymptotic distributions of CSS estimators are expressed as functions of stochastic integrals of usual Brownian motions. Unlike results available in the literature, the limiting distributions of various unit roots are independent of the parameter d over the entire range d ∈ (− 1/2,1/2). This allows the unit roots and d to be estimated and tested separately without loss of efficiency. Our results are quite different from the current asymptotic theories on nonstationary long memory time series. The finite sample properties are examined for two special cases through simulations.

The finite sample performance of spectral regression estimators in temporally aggregated cointegrated systems is investigated via the use of simulation experiments. The simulations address issues such as “optimal” choice of bandwidth parameter and effects of smoothing kernel in constructing estimates of spectral densities that are used by the spectral regression estimators; the effects of stock and flow variables and mixtures of the two, including the relative finite sample efficiency of the estimators under different combinations of stock and flow variables; and the effects of conducting iterations of the spectral estimators. A striking feature of the results is the crucial role that correct choice of bandwidth and kernel function plays in producing accurate estimates of the unknown parameters. Furthermore, estimates obtained using flow data alone are found to be more efficient, in the sense of having smaller variance, than those obtained using stock data alone or mixtures of stocks and flows, thereby confirming in finite samples their relative asymptotic properties.

This paper considers features in numerical and stochastic integration approaches for the evaluation of analytically intractable integrals. It provides a unification of these two approaches. Some important features in quadrature formulations, namely, interpolation and region partition, can provide a valuable device for the design of a stochastic simulator. An interpolating function can be used as a valuable control variate for variance reduction in simulation. We illustrate possible variance reduction by some numerical cases with Gaussian quadrature. The resulting simulator may also be regarded as a monitor of the approximation error of a quadrature.

This paper, along with the companion paper Forni, Hallin, Lippi, and Reichlin (2000, Review of Economics and Statistics 82, 540–554), introduces a new model—the generalized dynamic factor model—for the empirical analysis of financial and macroeconomic data sets characterized by a large number of observations both cross section and over time. This model provides a generalization of the static approximate factor model of Chamberlain (1983, Econometrica 51, 1181–1304) and Chamberlain and Rothschild (1983, Econometrica 51, 1305–1324) by allowing serial correlation within and across individual processes and of the dynamic factor model of Sargent and Sims (1977, in C.A. Sims (ed.), New Methods in Business Cycle Research, pp. 45–109) and Geweke (1977, in D.J. Aigner & A.S. Goldberger (eds.), Latent Variables in Socio-Economic Models, pp. 365–383) by allowing for nonorthogonal idiosyncratic terms. Whereas the companion paper concentrates on identification and estimation, here we give a full characterization of the generalized dynamic factor model in terms of observable spectral density matrices, thus laying a firm basis for empirical implementation of the model. Moreover, the common factors are obtained as limits of linear combinations of dynamic principal components. Thus the paper reconciles two seemingly unrelated statistical constructions.

This paper proposes nonparametric tests of change in the distribution function of a time series. The limiting null distributions of the test statistics depend on a nuisance parameter, and critical values cannot be tabulated a priori. To circumvent this problem, a new simulation-based statistical method is developed. The validity of our simulation procedure is established in terms of size, local power, and test consistency. The finite-sample properties of the proposed tests are evaluated in a set of Monte Carlo experiments, and the distributional stability in financial markets is examined.

In this paper the asymptotic properties of ARMA processes with complex-conjugate unit roots in the AR lag polynomial are studied. These processes behave quite differently from regular unit root processes (with a single root equal to one). In particular, the asymptotic properties of a standardized version of the periodogram for such processes are analyzed, and a nonparametric test of the complex unit root hypothesis against the stationarity hypothesis is derived. This test is applied to the annual change of the monthly number of unemployed in the United States to see whether this time series has complex unit roots in the business cycle frequencies.

For a class of parametric ARCH models, Whittle estimation based on squared observations is shown to be [square root of n]-consistent and asymptotically normal. Our conditions require the squares to have short memory autocorrelation, by comparison with the work of Zaffaroni (1999, “Gaussian Inference on Certain Long-Range Dependent Volatility Models,” Preprint), who established the same properties on the basis of an alternative class of models with martingale difference levels and long memory autocorrelated squares.

A wavelet-based consistent test for serial correlation of unknown form is proposed. As a spatially adaptive estimation method, wavelets can effectively detect local features such as peaks and spikes in a spectral density, which can arise as a result of strong autocorrelation or seasonal or business cycle periodicities in economic and financial time series. The proposed test statistic is constructed by comparing a wavelet-based spectral density estimator and the null spectral density. It is asymptotically one-sided N(0,1) under the null hypothesis of no serial correlation and is consistent against serial correlation of unknown form. The test is expected to have better power than a kernel-based test (e.g., Hong, 1996, Econometrica 64, 837–864) when the true spectral density has significant spatial inhomogeneity. This is confirmed in a simulation study. Because the spectral densities of time series arising in practice usually have unknown smoothness, the wavelet-based test is a useful complement to the kernel-based test in practice.

We consider a linear model with heteroskedasticity of unknown form. Using Stone's (1977, Annals of Statistics 5, 595–645) k nearest neighbors (k-NN) estimation approach, the optimal weightings for efficient least absolute deviation regression are estimated consistently using residuals from preliminary estimation. The reweighted least absolute deviation or median regression estimator with the estimated weights is shown to be equivalent to the estimator using the true but unknown weights under mild conditions. Asymptotic normality of the estimators is also established. In the finite sample case, the proposed estimators are found to outperform the generalized least squares method of Robinson (1987, Econometrica 55, 875–891) and the one-step estimator of Newey and Powell (1990, Econometric Theory 6, 295–317) based on a Monte Carlo simulation experiment.

In this paper a necessary and sufficient condition is obtained for two double Wiener integrals to be statistically independent, first in the case of symmetric and continuous kernels. It is also shown that, for more than two double Wiener integrals, pairwise independence implies mutual independence. After that, the continuity condition on the kernels is somewhat relaxed, and it is shown that Craig's (1943, Annals of Mathematical Statistics 14, 195–197) theorem on the independence of quadratic forms in normal variables is a special case of the result obtained for the case of discontinuous kernels.

We derive asymptotic expansions for semiparametric adaptive regression estimators. In particular, we derive the asymptotic distribution of the second-order effect of an adaptive estimator in a linear regression whose error density is of unknown functional form. We then show how the choice of smoothing parameters influences the estimator through higher order terms. A method of bandwidth selection is defined by minimizing the second-order mean squared error. We examine both independent and time series regressors; we also extend our results to a t-statistic. Monte Carlo simulations confirm the second order theory and the usefulness of the bandwidth selection method.

This paper develops an econometric framework for (i) estimating excess returns of the security process from high frequency derivative prices, (ii) testing for risk neutral pricing, and (iii) measuring premiums outside the no-arbitrage pricing model. The estimator is constructed by applying quasi-likelihood and Feynman–Kac theory to the risk neutral contingent claims pricing model to generate the optimal orthogonality restriction. The strong consistency and asymptotic normality of the estimator are established in the context of a nonstationary underlying state process. These results further imply that the estimator is robust to distributional assumptions on the underlying asset process. The proposed approach is applicable to any arbitrary derivative security, does not require estimation of the risk neutral probability measure, and has application to spot rate bond pricing models. A controlled diagnostic study based on generating the S&P500 index and calls verifies the ability of the estimators to correctly estimate security excess returns and test for risk neutral pricing. The estimator is invariant to call strikes, and larger samples constructed by cycling over shorter maturity options can be used to reduce its variance.

We show that the standard consistent test for testing the null of conditional homoskedasticity (against conditional heteroskedasticity) can be generalized to a time-series regression model with weakly dependent data and with generated regressors. The test statistic is shown to have an asymptotic normal distribution under the null hypothesis of conditional homoskedastic error. We also discuss extension of our test to the case of testing the null of a parametrically specified conditional variance. We advocate using a bootstrap method to overcome the issue of slow convergence of this test statistic to its limiting distribution.

Joseph B. Kadane, usually known as Jay among his friends and colleagues, is a well-known figure among statisticians and econometricians. He has made substantial contributions to the fields of Bayesian statistics, econometrics, and many applied areas. He is well known for his work in applying statistics to how people make decisions and draw conclusions from data.

We argue that many methodological confusions in time-series econometrics may be seen as arising out of ambivalence or confusion about the error terms. Relationships between macroeconomic time series are inexact, and, inevitably, the early econometricians found that any estimated relationship would only fit with errors. Slutsky interpreted these errors as shocks that constitute the motive force behind business cycles. Frisch tried to dissect the errors further into two parts: stimuli, which are analogous to shocks, and nuisance aberrations. However, he failed to provide a statistical framework to make this distinction operational. Haavelmo, and subsequent researchers at the Cowles Commission, saw errors in equations as providing the statistical foundations for econometric models and required that they conform to a priori distributional assumptions specified in structural models of the general equilibrium type, later known as simultaneous-equations models. Because theoretical models were at that time mostly static, the structural modeling strategy relegated the dynamics in time-series data frequently to nuisance, atheoretical complications. Revival of the shock interpretation in theoretical models came about through the rational expectations movement and development of the vector autoregression modeling approach. The so-called London School of Economics dynamic specification approach decomposes the dynamics of the modeled variable into three parts: short-run shocks, disequilibrium shocks, and innovative residuals, with only the first two of these sustaining an economic interpretation.

I provide a systematic treatment of the asymptotic properties of weighted M-estimators under standard stratified sampling. Simple, consistent asymptotic variance matrix estimators are proposed for a broad class of problems. When stratification is based on exogenous variables, I show that the usual, unweighted M-estimator is more efficient than the weighted estimator under a generalized conditional information matrix equality. Hausman tests for the exogeneity of the sampling scheme, including fully robust forms, are derived.

This inaugural Workshop for Young Scholars was arranged under the auspices of and with financial support from the Econometric Society and the Econometric Society Australasian Standing Committee (ESASC). Twenty-five scholars met for two days in Hamilton, New Zealand immediately following the Econometric Society Australasian Meeting which was held in Auckland over July 6–8. (A report by Les Oxley on these Econometric Society Meetings, entitled “2001 Econometric Society Australasian Meeting: Auckland,” will appear in the Journal of Economic Surveys (2001), vol. 15.) The Waikato Young Scholars Workshop represented the culmination of 18 months of planning and organization following an initiative from the Executive of the Econometric Society to encourage special projects by regional committees.

Most work on the asymptotic properties of least absolute deviations (LAD) estimators makes use of the assumption that the common distribution of the disturbances has a density that is both positive and finite at zero. We consider the implications of weakening this assumption in a number of regression settings, primarily with a time series orientation. These models include ones with deterministic and stochastic trends, and we pay particular attention to the case of a simple unit root model. The way in which the conventional assumption on the error distribution is modified is motivated in part by N.V. Smirnov's work on domains of attraction in the asymptotic theory of sample quantiles. The approach adopted usually allows for simple characterizations (often featuring a single parameter, γ), of both the shapes of the limiting distributions of the LAD estimators and their convergence rates. The present paper complements the closely related recent work of K. Knight.

Let {Xt} follow a discrete Gaussian vector autoregression with deterministic components. We derive the exact finite-sample joint moment generating function (MGF) of the quadratic forms that form the basis for the sufficient statistic. The formula is then specialized to the limiting MGF of functionals involving multivariate and univariate Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes, drifts, and time trends. Such processes arise asymptotically from more general non-Gaussian processes and also from the Gaussian {Xt} and have also been used in areas other than time series, such as the “goodness of fit” literature.