Standard risk measures, such as the value-at-risk (VaR), or the expected shortfall, have to be estimated, and their estimated counterparts are subject to estimation uncertainty. Replacing, in the theoretical formulas, the true parameter value by an estimator based on n observations of the profit and loss variable induces an asymptotic bias of order 1/n in the coverage probabilities. This paper shows how to correct for this bias by introducing a new estimator of the VaR, called estimation-adjusted VaR (EVaR). This adjustment allows for a joint treatment of theoretical and estimation risks, taking into account their possible dependence. The estimator is derived for a general parametric dynamic model and is particularized to stochastic drift and volatility models. The finite sample properties of the EVaR estimator are studied by simulation and an empirical study of the S&P index is proposed.

We revisit the exact properties of two-stage least squares and limited information maximum likelihood estimators in a structural equation/instrumental variables regression under Gaussian assumptions. Simple derivations based on conditioning serve both to demystify the apparently complicated formulas, and to isolate the key quantities that determine the properties of the estimators. Some recent results obtained under weak-instrument asymptotics are sharpened and clarified by the exact analysis.Thanks to Peter Phillips and several anonymous referees for helpful comments that improved the paper considerably.

This paper considers the unit root tests in models with structural change. Particular attention is given to their dependency on the limiting ratios of the subsample sizes between breaks. The dependency is analyzed in detail, and the invariant testing procedure based on a transformed model is developed. The required transformation is essentially identical to the generalized least-squares correction for heteroskedasticity. The limiting distributions of the new tests do not depend on the relative sizes of the subsamples and are shown to be simple mixtures of the limiting distributions of the corresponding tests from the independent unit root models without structural change.

Understanding the time series dynamics of a multi-dimensional dependency structure is a challenging task. Multivariate covariance driven Gaussian or mixed normal time varying models have only a limited ability to capture important features of the data such as heavy tails, asymmetry, and nonlinear dependencies. The present paper tackles this problem by proposing and analyzing a hidden Markov model (HMM) for hierarchical Archimedean copulae (HAC). The HAC constitute a wide class of models for multi-dimensional dependencies, and HMM is a statistical technique for describing regime switching dynamics. HMM applied to HAC flexibly models multivariate dimensional non-Gaussian time series.

We apply the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm for parameter estimation. Consistency results for both parameters and HAC structures are established in an HMM framework. The model is calibrated to exchange rate data with a VaR application. This example is motivated by a local adaptive analysis that yields a time varying HAC model. We compare its forecasting performance with that of other classical dynamic models. In another, second, application, we model a rainfall process. This task is of particular theoretical and practical interest because of the specific structure and required untypical treatment of precipitation data.

We define a three-step procedure for more efficient estimation of the nonparametric regression mean with nonparametric autocorrelated errors. The procedure is based upon a nonparametric prewhitening transformation of the dependent variable that has to be estimated from the data by a local polynomial technique. We establish the asymptotic distribution of our estimator under weak dependence conditions and show that it is more efficient than the conventional local polynomial estimator. Furthermore, we consider criterion functions based on the linear exponential family, which include the local polynomial least squares criterion as a special case. Simulation evidence suggests that significant gains can be achieved in finite samples with our approach.The authors thank Oliver Linton for his many constructive and helpful suggestions. The very insightful comments from the referees are also gratefully acknowledged. The second author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Academic Senate, UCR.

It is well known that allowing the coefficients to be time-varying in a predictive model with possibly nonstationary regressors can help to deal with instability in predictability associated with linear predictive models. In this paper, an L2-type test statistic is proposed to test the stability of the coefficient vector, and the asymptotic distributions of the proposed test statistic are developed under both null and alternative hypotheses. A Monte Carlo experiment is conducted to evaluate the finite sample performance of the proposed test statistic and an empirical example is examined to demonstrate the practical application of the proposed testing method.

We suggest a rescaled variance type of test for the null hypothesis of stationarity against deterministic and stochastic trends (unit roots). The deterministic trend can be represented as a general function in time (e.g., nonparametric, linear, or polynomial regression, abrupt changes in the mean). Under the null, the asymptotic distribution of the test is derived, and critical values are tabulated for a wide class of stationary processes with short, long, or negative dependence structure. A simulation study examines the performance of the test in terms of size and power. The empirical performance of the test is illustrated using the S&P 500 data.The authors thank the editor, the referees, and Karim Abadir for helpful comments and Alfredas Račkauskas for drawing our attention to the criterion of Cremers and Kadelka (1986). The first author's work was supported by the ESRC grants R000238212 and R000239538. The last two authors were supported by a cooperation agreement CNRS/LITHUANIA (4714) and by a bilateral Lithuania-France research project Gilibert.

Under general conditions the distribution function of the first few terms in a stochastic expansion of an econometric estimator or test statistic provides an asymptotic approximation to the distribution function of the original estimator or test statistic with an error of order less than that of the limiting normal or chi-square approximation. This can be used to establish the validity of several refined asymptotic methods, including the comparison of Nagar-type moments and the use of formal Edgeworth or Edgeworth-type approximations.

This paper studies asymptotic likelihood inference on cointegration parameters in systems integrated of order two. We start with so-called triangular systems and then extend the analysis to vector autoregressions. We show that even when all unit root restrictions have been imposed, the asymptotic observed information is not (locally) ancillary, which implies that the log-likelihood ratio is not locally asymptotically mixed normal. The results are applied to inference on polynomial cointegration. Some similarities and differences with I(1) systems are also discussed.

For use in asymptotic analysis of nonlinear time series models, we show that with (Xt,t ≥ 0) a (geometrically) ergodic Markov chain, the general version of the strong law of large numbers applies. That is, the average converges almost surely to the expectation of φ(Xt,Xt+1,…) irrespective of the choice of initial distribution of, or value of, X0. In the existing literature, the less general form has been studied.We thank Paolo Paruolo (the co-editor) and the referee for valuable comments. Also we thank the Danish Social Sciences Research Council (grant 2114-04-0001) for financial support.

Local linear fitting is a popular nonparametric method in statistical and econometric modeling. Lu and Linton (2007, Econometric Theory23, 37–70) established the pointwise asymptotic distribution for the local linear estimator of a nonparametric regression function under the condition of near epoch dependence. In this paper, we further investigate the uniform consistency of this estimator. The uniform strong and weak consistencies with convergence rates for the local linear fitting are established under mild conditions. Furthermore, general results regarding uniform convergence rates for nonparametric kernel-based estimators are provided. The results of this paper will be of wide potential interest in time series semiparametric modeling.

This paper establishes stochastic equicontinuity for classes of mixingales. Attention is restricted to Lipschitz-continuous parametric functions. Unlike some other empirical process theory for dependent data, our results do not require bounded functions, stationary processes, or restrictive dependence conditions. Applications are given to martingale difference arrays, strong mixing arrays, and near-epoch dependent arrays.

This paper shows how fractional unit root tests originally derived under stationarity can be made robust to heteroskedasticity. This is done by using existing tests nested in a regression framework and then implementing these tests using White’s heteroskedasticity consistent standard errors (White, 1980). We show this approach is effective both asymptotically and in finite samples. We also provide some evidence on the asymptotic local power of different implementations of the tests, under both homoskedasticity and heteroskedasticity.

This paper investigates the asymptotic distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator in a stochastic frontier function when the firms are all technically efficient. For such a situation the true parameter vector is on the boundary of the parameter space, and the scores are linearly dependent. The asymptotic distribution of the maximum likelihood estimator is shown to be a mixture of certain truncated distributions. The maximum likelihood estimates for different parameters may have different rates of stochastic convergence. The model can be reparameterized into one with a regular likelihood function. The likelihood ratio test statistic has the usual mixture of chi-square distributions as in the regular case.

We derive nonparametric efficiency bounds for regular estimators of integrated smooth transformations of instantaneous variances, in particular, integrated power variance. We find that realized variance attains the efficiency bound for integrated variance under both regular and irregular sampling schemes. For estimating higher powers such as integrated quarticity, the block-based procedures of Mykland and Zhang (2009) can get arbitrarily close to the nonparametric bounds, when observation times are equidistant. Moreover, the estimator in Jacod and Rosenbaum (2013), whose efficiency was documented for the submodel assuming constant volatility, is efficient also for nonconstant volatility paths. When the observation times are possibly random but predictable, we provide an estimator, similar to that of Kristensen (2010), which can get arbitrarily close to the nonparametric bound. Finally, parametric information about the functional form of volatility leads to a lower efficiency bound, unless the volatility process is piecewise constant.

Asymptotic local power analysis has become an important and increasingly used technique in econometrics. This paper reviews the history of local power analysis and delineates the contribution of J.Neyman, E.J.G. Pitman, and G. Noether.

Recently Tanaka and Satchell [11] investigated the limiting properties of local maximizers of the Gaussian pseudo-likelihood function of a misspecified moving average model of order one in case the spectral density of the data process has a zero at frequency zero. We show that pseudo-maximum likelihood estimators in the narrower sense, that is, global maximizers of the Gaussian pseudo-likelihood function, may exhibit behavior drastically different from that of the local maximizers. Some general results on the limiting behavior of pseudo-maximum likelihood estimators in potentially misspecified ARMA models are also presented.

Cai, Li, and Park (Journal of Econometrics, 2009) and Xiao (Journal of Econometrics, 2009) developed asymptotic theories for estimators of semiparametric varying coefficient models when regressors are integrated processes but the smooth coefficients are functionals of stationary processes. Using a recent result from Phillips (Econometric Theory, 2009), we extend this line of research by allowing for both the regressors and the covariates entering the smooth functionals to be integrated variables. We derive the asymptotic distribution for the proposed semiparametric estimator. An empirical application is presented to examine the purchasing power parity hypothesis between U.S. and Canadian dollars.

The exact mean integrated squared error (MISE) of the nonparametric kernel density estimator is derived for the asymptotically optimal smooth polynomial kernels of Müller (1984, Annals of Statistics 12, 766–774) and the trapezoid kernel of Politis and Romano (1999, Journal of Multivariate Analysis 68, 1–25) and is used to contrast their finite-sample efficiency with the higher order Gaussian kernels of Wand and Schucany (1990Canadian Journal of Statistics 18, 197–204). We find that these three kernels have similar finite-sample efficiency. Of greater importance is the choice of kernel order, as we find that kernel order can have a major impact on finite-sample MISE, even in small samples, but the optimal kernel order depends on the unknown density function. We propose selecting the kernel order by the criterion of minimax regret, where the regret (the loss relative to the infeasible optimum) is maximized over the class of two-component mixture-normal density functions. This minimax regret rule produces a kernel that is a function of sample size only and uniformly bounds the regret below 12% over this density class.

The paper also provides new analytic results for the smooth polynomial kernels, including their characteristic function.This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation. I thank Oliver Linton and a referee for helpful comments and suggestions that improved the paper.

The Malmquist index gives a measure of productivity in dynamic settings and has been widely applied in empirical work. The index is typically estimated using envelopment estimators, particularly data envelopment analysis (DEA) estimators. Until now, inference about productivity change measured by Malmquist indices has been problematic, including both inference regarding productivity change experienced by particular firms as well as mean productivity change. This paper establishes properties of a DEA-type estimator of distance to the conical hull of a variable returns to scale production frontier. In addition, properties of DEA estimators of Malmquist indices for individual producers are derived as well as properties of geometric means of these estimators. The latter requires new central limit theorem results, extending the work of Kneip, Simar, and Wilson (2015, Econometric Theory 31, 394–422). Simulation results are provided to give applied researchers an idea of how well inference may work in practice in finite samples. Our results extend easily to other productivity indices, including the Luenberger and Hicks–Moorsteen indices.