Econometrics

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E onometri s

Mi hael Creel

Department of E onomi s and E onomi History Universitat Autònoma de Bar elona

version 0.95, November 2008

2

Contents 1 About this do ument

15

1.1

Li enses

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16

1.2

Obtaining the materials

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18

1.3

An easy way to use LYX and O tave today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18

2 Introdu tion: E onomi and e onometri models

19

3 Ordinary Least Squares

21

3.1

The Linear Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

21

3.2

Estimation by least squares

22

3.3

Geometri interpretation of least squares estimation

X, Y

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

3.3.1

In

Spa e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

3.3.2

In Observation Spa e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25

3.3.3

Proje tion Matri es

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25

3.4

Inuential observations and outliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

26

3.5

Goodness of t

28

3.6

The lassi al linear regression model

3.7

Small sample statisti al properties of the least squares estimator

3.8

3.9

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

3.7.1

Unbiasedness

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31

3.7.2

Normality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

32

3.7.3

The varian e of the OLS estimator and the Gauss-Markov theorem . . .

33

Example: The Nerlove model

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36

3.8.1

Theoreti al ba kground

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36

3.8.2

Cobb-Douglas fun tional form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

37

3.8.3

The Nerlove data and OLS

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

38

Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40

4 Maximum likelihood estimation 4.1

30

41

The likelihood fun tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

41

4.1.1

42

Example: Bernoulli trial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2

Consisten y of MLE

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44

4.3

The s ore fun tion

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

45

4.4

Asymptoti normality of MLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

46

3

4

CONTENTS

4.4.1

Coin ipping, again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

4.5

The information matrix equality

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

4.6

The Cramér-Rao lower bound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

50

4.7

Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

52

5 Asymptoti properties of the least squares estimator

55

5.1

Consisten y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

5.2

Asymptoti normality

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

56

5.3

Asymptoti e ien y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

57

5.4

Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

58

6 Restri tions and hypothesis tests 6.1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

59

6.1.1

Imposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

59

6.1.2

Properties of the restri ted estimator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

62

Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

63

6.2.1

t-test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

63

6.2.2

F

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

65

6.2.3

Wald-type tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

66

6.2.4

S ore-type tests (Rao tests, Lagrange multiplier tests)

. . . . . . . . . .

66

6.2.5

Likelihood ratio-type tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

68

6.3

The asymptoti equivalen e of the LR, Wald and s ore tests . . . . . . . . . . .

69

6.4

Interpretation of test statisti s

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

72

6.5

Conden e intervals

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

72

6.6

Bootstrapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

74

6.7

Testing nonlinear restri tions, and the delta method

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

75

6.8

Example: the Nerlove data

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

77

6.9

Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

80

6.2

Exa t linear restri tions

59

test

7 Generalized least squares

83

7.1

Ee ts of nonspheri al disturban es on the OLS estimator . . . . . . . . . . . .

84

7.2

The GLS estimator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

85

7.3

Feasible GLS

87

7.4

Heteros edasti ity

7.5

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7.4.1

OLS with heteros edasti onsistent var ov estimation

7.4.2

Dete tion

88

. . . . . . . . . .

88

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

89

7.4.3

Corre tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

7.4.4

Example: the Nerlove model (again!) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

93

Auto orrelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

96

7.5.1

Causes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

96

7.5.2

Ee ts on the OLS estimator

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

97

7.5.3

AR(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

98

5

CONTENTS

7.6

7.5.4

MA(1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

7.5.5

Asymptoti ally valid inferen es with auto orrelation of unknown form

7.5.6

Testing for auto orrelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

7.5.7

Lagged dependent variables and auto orrelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

7.5.8

Examples

. 102

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

8 Sto hasti regressors

113

8.1

Case 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

8.2

Case 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

8.3

Case 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

8.4

When are the assumptions reasonable? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

8.5

Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

9 Data problems 9.1

9.2

9.3

9.4

Collinearity

119 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

9.1.1

A brief aside on dummy variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

9.1.2

Ba k to ollinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

9.1.3

Dete tion of ollinearity

9.1.4

Dealing with ollinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Measurement error

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

9.2.1

Error of measurement of the dependent variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

9.2.2

Error of measurement of the regressors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Missing observations

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

9.3.1

Missing observations on the dependent variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

9.3.2

The sample sele tion problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

9.3.3

Missing observations on the regressors

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

10 Fun tional form and nonnested tests

133

10.1 Flexible fun tional forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 10.1.1 The translog form

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

10.1.2 FGLS estimation of a translog model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 10.2 Testing nonnested hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

11 Exogeneity and simultaneity 11.1 Simultaneous equations 11.2 Exogeneity

145

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

11.3 Redu ed form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 11.4 IV estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 11.5 Identi ation by ex lusion restri tions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

11.5.1 Ne essary onditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

6

CONTENTS

11.5.2 Su ient onditions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

11.5.3 Example: Klein's Model 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 11.6 2SLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 11.7 Testing the overidentifying restri tions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

11.8 System methods of estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 11.8.1 3SLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 11.8.2 FIML

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

11.9 Example: 2SLS and Klein's Model 1

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

12 Introdu tion to the se ond half

177

13 Numeri optimization methods

183

13.1 Sear h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 13.2 Derivative-based methods

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

13.2.1 Introdu tion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 13.2.2 Steepest des ent

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

13.2.3 Newton-Raphson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 13.3 Simulated Annealing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 13.4 Examples

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

13.4.1 Dis rete Choi e: The logit model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 13.4.2 Count Data: The MEPS data and the Poisson model . . . . . . . . . . . 190 13.4.3 Duration data and the Weibull model

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

13.5 Numeri optimization: pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 13.5.1 Poor s aling of the data 13.5.2 Multiple optima

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

13.6 Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

14 Asymptoti properties of extremum estimators

201

14.1 Extremum estimators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 14.2 Existen e

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

14.3 Consisten y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 14.4 Example: Consisten y of Least Squares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 14.5 Asymptoti Normality 14.6 Examples

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

14.6.1 Coin ipping, yet again

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

14.6.2 Binary response models

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

14.6.3 Example: Linearization of a nonlinear model

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

14.7 Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

15 Generalized method of moments 15.1 Denition

217

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

15.2 Consisten y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

7

CONTENTS

15.3 Asymptoti normality

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

15.4 Choosing the weighting matrix

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

15.5 Estimation of the varian e- ovarian e matrix

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

15.5.1 Newey-West ovarian e estimator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 15.6 Estimation using onditional moments

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

15.7 Estimation using dynami moment onditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 15.8 A spe i ation test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 15.9 Other estimators interpreted as GMM estimators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 15.9.1 OLS with heteros edasti ity of unknown form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 15.9.2 Weighted Least Squares

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

15.9.3 2SLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 15.9.4 Nonlinear simultaneous equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 15.9.5 Maximum likelihood

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

15.10Example: The MEPS data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 15.11Example: The Hausman Test

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

15.12Appli ation: Nonlinear rational expe tations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 15.13Empiri al example: a portfolio model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 15.14Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

16 Quasi-ML

249

16.1 Consistent Estimation of Varian e Components

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

16.2 Example: the MEPS Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 16.2.1 Innite mixture models: the negative binomial model . . . . . . . . . . . 252 16.2.2 Finite mixture models: the mixed negative binomial model

. . . . . . . 257

16.2.3 Information riteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 16.3 Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

17 Nonlinear least squares (NLS) 17.1 Introdu tion and denition 17.2 Identi ation

261

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

17.3 Consisten y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 17.4 Asymptoti normality

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

17.5 Example: The Poisson model for ount data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 17.6 The Gauss-Newton algorithm

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

17.7 Appli ation: Limited dependent variables and sample sele tion 17.7.1 Example: Labor Supply

18 Nonparametri inferen e

. . . . . . . . . 268

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

271

18.1 Possible pitfalls of parametri inferen e: estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 18.2 Possible pitfalls of parametri inferen e: hypothesis testing . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 18.3 Estimation of regression fun tions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 18.3.1 The Fourier fun tional form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

8

CONTENTS

18.3.2 Kernel regression estimators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 18.4 Density fun tion estimation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

18.4.1 Kernel density estimation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

18.4.2 Semi-nonparametri maximum likelihood 18.5 Examples

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

18.5.1 MEPS health are usage data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 18.5.2 Finan ial data and volatility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 18.6 Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

19 Simulation-based estimation

297

19.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 19.1.1 Example: Multinomial and/or dynami dis rete response models 19.1.2 Example: Marginalization of latent variables

. . . . 297

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

19.1.3 Estimation of models spe ied in terms of sto hasti dierential equations300 19.2 Simulated maximum likelihood (SML) 19.2.1 Example: multinomial probit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

19.2.2 Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 19.3 Method of simulated moments (MSM)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

19.3.1 Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 19.3.2 Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 19.4 E ient method of moments (EMM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 19.4.1 Optimal weighting matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 19.4.2 Asymptoti distribution

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

19.4.3 Diagnoti testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 19.5 Examples

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

19.5.1 SML of a Poisson model with latent heterogeneity 19.5.2 SMM

. . . . . . . . . . . . 310

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

19.5.3 SNM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 19.5.4 EMM estimation of a dis rete hoi e model

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

19.6 Exer ises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

20 Parallel programming for e onometri s 20.1 Example problems 20.1.1 Monte Carlo

315

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

20.1.2 ML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 20.1.3 GMM

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

20.1.4 Kernel regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

21 Final proje t: e onometri estimation of a RBC model

323

21.1 Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 21.2 An RBC Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 21.3 A redu ed form model

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

9

CONTENTS

21.4 Results (I): The s ore generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 21.5 Solving the stru tural model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

22 Introdu tion to O tave

331

22.1 Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 22.2 A short introdu tion

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

22.3 If you're running a Linux installation... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

23 Notation and Review

335

23.1 Notation for dierentiation of ve tors and matri es 23.2 Convergenge modes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

23.3 Rates of onvergen e and asymptoti equality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

24 Li enses 24.1 The GPL

341 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

24.2 Creative Commons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

25 The atti

355

25.1 Hurdle models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 25.1.1 Finite mixture models 25.2 Models for time series data

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

25.2.1 Basi on epts

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

25.2.2 ARMA models

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

10

CONTENTS

List of Figures

1.1

O tave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16

1.2

LYX

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17

3.1

Typi al data, Classi al Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

22

3.2

Example OLS Fit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

3.3

The t in observation spa e

25

3.4

Dete tion of inuential observations

3.5

2 Un entered R

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

28

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

29

3.6

Unbiasedness of OLS under lassi al assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

32

3.7

Biasedness of OLS when an assumption fails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33

3.8

Gauss-Markov Result: The OLS estimator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35

3.9

Gauss-Markov Resul: The split sample estimator

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

35

6.1

Joint and Individual Conden e Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

73

6.2

RTS as a fun tion of rm size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

81

7.1

Residuals, Nerlove model, sorted by rm size

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

93

7.2

Auto orrelation indu ed by misspe i ation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

97

7.3

Durbin-Watson riti al values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

7.4

Residuals of simple Nerlove model

7.5

OLS residuals, Klein onsumption equation

9.1

s(β)

when there is no ollinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

9.2

s(β)

when there is ollinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

9.3

Sample sele tion bias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

13.1 In reasing dire tions of sear h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 13.2 Using MuPAD to get analyti derivatives

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

13.3 Life expe tan y of mongooses, Weibull model

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

13.4 Life expe tan y of mongooses, mixed Weibull model

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

13.5 A foggy mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 15.1 OLS 15.2 IV

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

11

12

LIST OF FIGURES

15.3 In orre t rank and the Hausman test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 18.1 True and simple approximating fun tions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

18.2 True and approximating elasti ities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 18.3 True fun tion and more exible approximation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

18.4 True elasti ity and more exible approximation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

18.5 Negative binomial raw moments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 18.6 Kernel tted OBDV usage versus AGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 18.7 Dollar-Euro

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

18.8 Dollar-Yen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 18.9 Kernel regression tted onditional se ond moments, Yen/Dollar and Euro/Dollar294 20.1 Speedups from parallelization

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

21.1 Consumption and Investment, Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 21.2 Consumption and Investment, Growth Rates

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

21.3 Consumption and Investment, Bandpass Filtered

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

22.1 Running an O tave program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

List of Tables

16.1 Marginal Varian es, Sample and Estimated (Poisson) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 16.2 Marginal Varian es, Sample and Estimated (NB-II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 16.3 Information Criteria, OBDV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 25.1 A tual and Poisson tted frequen ies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 25.2 A tual and Hurdle Poisson tted frequen ies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

13

14

LIST OF TABLES

Chapter 1 About this do ument This do ument integrates le ture notes for a one year graduate level ourse with omputer programs that illustrate and apply the methods that are studied. The immediate availability of exe utable (and modiable) example programs when using the PDF version of the do ument is a distinguishing feature of these notes. If printed, the do ument is a somewhat terse approximation to a textbook. These notes are not intended to be a perfe t substitute for a printed textbook. If you are a student of mine, please note that last senten e arefully. There are many good textbooks available. The hapters make referen e to readings in arti les and textbooks. With respe t to ontents, the emphasis is on estimation and inferen e within the world of stationary data, with a bias toward mi roe onometri s.

The se ond half is somewhat more

polished than the rst half, sin e I have taught that ourse more often. If you take a moment to read the li ensing information in the next se tion, you'll see that you are free to opy and modify the do ument. If anyone would like to ontribute material that expands the ontents, it would be very wel ome. Error orre tions and other additions are also wel ome. The integrated examples (they are on-line here and the support les are here) are an important part of these notes. GNU O tave (www.o tave.org) has been used for the example programs, whi h are s attered though the do ument.

This hoi e is motivated by several

fa tors. The rst is the high quality of the O tave environment for doing applied e onometri s. R , and will run s ripts for that language O tave is similar to the ommer ial pa kage Matlab 1

without modi ation . The fundamental tools (manipulation of matri es, statisti al fun tions,

minimization,

et .)

exist and are implemented in a way that make extending them fairly easy.

Se ond, an advantage of free software is that you don't have to pay for it. This an be an important onsideration if you are at a university with a tight budget or if need to run many

opies, as an be the ase if you do parallel omputing (dis ussed in Chapter 20). Third, O tave runs on GNU/Linux, Windows and Ma OS. Figure 1.1 shows a sample GNU/Linux work environment, with an O tave s ript being edited, and the results are visible in an embedded 1

R is a trademark of The Mathworks, In . O tave will run pure Matlab s ripts. If a Matlab s ript Matlab

alls an extension, su h as a toolbox fun tion, then it is ne essary to make a similar extension available to O tave. The examples dis ussed in this do ument all a number of fun tions, su h as a BFGS minimizer, a program for ML estimation, et . All of this ode is provided with the examples, as well as on the Peli anHPC live CD image.

15

16

CHAPTER 1.

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

Figure 1.1: O tave

shell window. The main do ument was prepared using LYX (www.lyx.org). LYX is a free

2

what you see

AT X. It (with is what you mean word pro essor, basi ally working as a graphi al frontend to L E AT X, HTML, PDF and several other help from other appli ations) an export your work in L E

forms. It will run on Linux, Windows, and Ma OS systems. Figure 1.2 shows LYX editing this do ument.

1.1 Li enses All materials are opyrighted by Mi hael Creel with the date that appears above. They are provided under the terms of the GNU General Publi Li ense, ver.

2, whi h forms Se tion

24.1 of the notes, or, at your option, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 li ense, whi h forms Se tion 24.2 of the notes. The main thing you need to know is that you are free to modify and distribute these materials in any way you like, as long as you share 2

Free is used in the sense of freedom, but LYX is also free of harge (free as in free beer).

1.1.

17

LICENSES

Figure 1.2: LYX

18

CHAPTER 1.

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

your ontributions in the same way the materials are made available to you.

In parti ular,

you must make available the sour e les, in editable form, for your modied version of the materials.

1.2 Obtaining the materials The materials are available on my web page. In addition to the nal produ t, whi h you're probably looking at in some form now, you an obtain the editable LYX sour es, whi h will allow you to reate your own version, if you like, or send error orre tions and ontributions.

1.3 An easy way to use LYX and O tave today The example programs are available as links to les on my web page in the PDF version, and here. Support les needed to run these are available here. The les won't run properly from your browser, sin e there are dependen ies between les - they are only illustrative when browsing. To see how to use these les (edit and run them), you should go to the home page of this do ument, sin e you will probably want to download the pdf version together with all the support les and examples. Then set the base URL of the PDF le to point to wherever the O tave les are installed. Then you need to install O tave and the support les. All of this may sound a bit ompli ated, be ause it is. An easier solution is available: The Peli anHPC distribution of Linux is an ISO image le that may be burnt to CDROM. It ontains a bootable-from-CD GNU/Linux system.

These notes, in sour e form and as a

PDF, together with all of the examples and the software needed to run them are available on Peli anHPC. Peli anHPC is a live CD image. You an burn the Peli anHPC image to a CD and use it to boot your omputer, if you like. When you shut down and reboot, you will return to your normal operating system.

The need to reboot to use Peli anHPC an

be somewhat in onvenient. It is also possible to use Peli anHPC while running your normal operating system by using a virtualization platform su h as Sun xVM Virtualbox

3 R

The reason why these notes are integrated into a Linux distribution for parallel omputing will be apparent if you get to Chapter 20. If you don't get that far or you're not interested in parallel omputing, please just ignore the stu on the CD that's not related to e onometri s. If you happen to be interested in parallel omputing but not e onometri s, just skip ahead to Chapter 20.

3

R is a trademark of Sun, In . Virtualbox is free software (GPL v2). That, and the fa t xVM Virtualbox

that it works very well, is the reason it is re ommended here. There are a number of similar produ ts available. It is possible to run Peli anHPC as a virtual ma hine, and to ommuni ate with the installed operating system using a private network. Learning how to do this is not too di ult, and it is very onvenient.

Chapter 2 Introdu tion: E onomi and e onometri models E onomi theory tells us that an individual's demand fun tion for a good is something like:

x = x(p, m, z) • x

is the quantity demanded

• p

is

• m • z

G×1

ve tor of pri es of the good and its substitutes and omplements

is in ome

is a ve tor of other variables su h as individual hara teristi s that ae t preferen es

Suppose we have a sample onsisting of one observation on period

t

(this is a

ross se tion ,

where

i = 1, 2, ..., n

n

individuals' demands at time

indexes the individuals in the sample).

The individual demand fun tions are

xi = xi (pi , mi , zi ) The model is not estimable as it stands, sin e:



The form of the demand fun tion is dierent for all



Some omponents of

zi

i.

may not be observable to an outside modeler.

For example,

people don't eat the same lun h every day, and you an't tell what they will order just by looking at them. Suppose we an break single unobservable omponent

zi

into the observable omponents

wi

and a

εi .

A step toward an estimable e onometri model is to suppose that the model may be written as

xi = β1 + p′i βp + mi βm + wi′ βw + εi We have imposed a number of restri tions on the theoreti al model:

19

20

CHAPTER 2.



The fun tions

INTRODUCTION: ECONOMIC AND ECONOMETRIC MODELS

xi (·)

whi h in prin iple may dier for all

i

have been restri ted to all

belong to the same parametri family.



Of all parametri families of fun tions, we have restri ted the model to the lass of linear



The parameters are onstant a ross individuals.



There is a single unobservable omponent, and we assume it is additive.

in the variables fun tions.

If we assume nothing about the error term order for the

β

ǫ,

we an always write the last equation. But in

oe ients to exist in a sense that has e onomi meaning, and in order to

be able to use sample data to make reliable inferen es about their values, we need to make additional assumptions. These additional assumptions have

no theoreti al basis,

they are

assumptions on top of those needed to prove the existen e of a demand fun tion. The validity of any results we obtain using this model will be ontingent on these additional restri tions being at least approximately orre t. For this reason,

spe i ation testing

will be needed, to

he k that the model seems to be reasonable. Only when we are onvin ed that the model is at least approximately orre t should we use it for e onomi analysis. When testing a hypothesis using an e onometri model, at least three fa tors an ause a statisti al test to reje t the null hypothesis: 1. the hypothesis is false 2. a type I error has o

ured 3. the e onometri model is not orre tly spe ied, and thus the test does not have the assumed distribution To be able to make s ienti progress, we would like to ensure that the third reason is not

ontributing in a major way to reje tions, so that reje tion will be most likely due to either the rst or se ond reasons. Hopefully the above example makes it lear that there are many possible sour es of misspe i ation of e onometri models. In the next few se tions we will obtain results supposing that the e onometri model is entirely orre tly spe ied. Later we will examine the onsequen es of misspe i ation and see some methods for determining if a model is orre tly spe ied. Later on, e onometri methods that seek to minimize maintained assumptions are introdu ed.

Chapter 3 Ordinary Least Squares 3.1 The Linear Model Consider approximating a variable

y using the variables x1 , x2 , ..., xk .

We an onsider a model

that is a linear approximation:

Linearity:

the model is a linear fun tion of the parameter ve tor

β0 :

y = β10 x1 + β20 x2 + ... + βk0 xk + ǫ or, using ve tor notation:

y = x′ β 0 + ǫ The dependent variable

y



x = ( x1 x2 · · · xk ) is a k-ve tor ′ · · · βk0 ) . The supers ript 0 in β 0 means this

is a s alar random variable,

of explanatory variables, and

β 0 = ( β10 β20

is the true value of the unknown parameter.

It will be dened more pre isely later, and

usually suppressed when it's not ne essary for larity. Suppose that we want to use data to try to determine the best linear approximation to

y

using the variables

x.

The data

1

{(yt , xt )} , t = 1, 2, ..., n

are obtained by some form of

sampling . An individual observation is

yt = x′t β + εt The

n

observations an be written in matrix form as

y = Xβ + ε, where

y=



y1 y2 · · · yn

′

is

n×1

and

X=



(3.1)

x1 x2 · · · xn

′

.

Linear models are more general than they might rst appear, sin e one an employ non-

1

For example, ross-se tional data may be obtained by random sampling.

histori ally.

21

Time series data a

umulate

22

CHAPTER 3.

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

Figure 3.1: Typi al data, Classi al Model 10 data true regression line

5

0

-5

-10

-15 0

2

4

6

8

10 X

12

14

16

18

20

linear transformations of the variables:

ϕ0 (z) = where the

φi ()

h

ϕ1 (w) ϕ2 (w) · · · ϕp (w)

are known fun tions. Dening

i

β +ε

y = ϕ0 (z), x1 = ϕ1 (w),

et .

leads to a model in

the form of equation 3.3. For example, the Cobb-Douglas model

z = Aw2β2 w3β3 exp(ε)

an be transformed logarithmi ally to obtain

ln z = ln A + β2 ln w2 + β3 ln w3 + ε. If we dene

y = ln z, β1 = ln A,

et .,

we an put the model in the form needed.

The

approximation is linear in the parameters, but not ne essarily linear in the variables.

3.2 Estimation by least squares Figure 3.1, obtained by running Typi alData.m shows some data that follows the linear model

yt = β1 + β2 xt2 + ǫt . are the data points of

xt2 .

The green line is the true regression line

(xt2 , yt ), where ǫt

β1 + β2 xt2 ,

and the red rosses

is a random error that has mean zero and is independent

Exa tly how the green line is dened will be ome lear later. In pra ti e, we only have

the data, and we don't know where the green line lies. We need to gain information about the straight line that best ts the data points.

3.2.

23

ESTIMATION BY LEAST SQUARES

The

ordinary least squares

(OLS) estimator is dened as the value that minimizes the sum

of the squared errors:

βˆ = arg min s(β) where

s(β) =

n X t=1

yt − x′t β

2

= (y − Xβ)′ (y − Xβ)

= y′ y − 2y′ Xβ + β ′ X′ Xβ = k y − Xβ k2

This last expression makes it lear how the OLS estimator is dened: it minimizes the Eu lidean distan e between linear approximation to distan e.

y

y

and

using

Xβ. x

The tted OLS oe ients are those that give the best

as basis fun tions, where best means minimum Eu lidean

One ould think of other estimators based upon other metri s.

minimum absolute distan e

(MAD) minimizes

Pn

t=1 |yt



For example, the

x′t β|. Later, we will see that whi h

estimator is best in terms of their statisti al properties, rather than in terms of the metri s that dene them, depends upon the properties of

ǫ,

about whi h we have as yet made no

assumptions.



To minimize the riterion

s(β),

nd the derivative with respe t to

β:

Dβ s(β) = −2X′ y + 2X′ Xβ Then setting it to zeros gives

ˆ = −2X′ y + 2X′ Xβˆ ≡ 0 Dβ s(β) so

βˆ = (X′ X)−1 X′ y. •

To verify that this is a minimum, he k the se ond order su ient ondition:

ˆ = 2X′ X Dβ2 s(β) Sin e

ρ(X) = K,

this matrix is positive denite, sin e it's a quadrati form in a p.d.

matrix (identity matrix of order

n),

so

βˆ



The

ˆ tted values are the ve tor yˆ = Xβ.



The

residuals are the ve tor εˆ = y − Xβˆ

is in fa t a minimizer.

24

CHAPTER 3.

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

Figure 3.2: Example OLS Fit 15 data points fitted line true line 10

5

0

-5

-10

-15 0



2

4

6

8

10 X

12

14

16

18

20

Note that

y = Xβ + ε = Xβˆ + εˆ



Also, the rst order onditions an be written as

X′ y − X′ Xβˆ = 0   X′ y − Xβˆ = 0 X′ εˆ = 0

whi h is to say, the OLS residuals are orthogonal to

X.

Let's look at this more arefully.

3.3 Geometri interpretation of least squares estimation 3.3.1 In X, Y Spa e Figure 3.2 shows a typi al t to data, along with the true regression line.

Note that the

true line and the estimated line are dierent. This gure was reated by running the O tave program OlsFit.m . You an experiment with hanging the parameter values to see how this ae ts the t, and to see how the tted line will sometimes be lose to the true line, and sometimes rather far away.

3.3.

25

GEOMETRIC INTERPRETATION OF LEAST SQUARES ESTIMATION

3.3.2 In Observation Spa e If we want to plot in observation spa e, we'll need to use only two or three observations, or we'll en ounter some limitations of the bla kboard. If we try to use 3, we'll en ounter the limits of my artisti ability, so let's use two. With only two observations, we an't have

K > 1.

Figure 3.3: The t in observation spa e

Observation 2

y

e = M_xY

S(x)

x x*beta=P_xY

Observation 1



spa e spanned by

n−K •

y into two omponents: the orthogonal proje tion onto the K−dimensional ˆ and the omponent that is the orthogonal proje tion onto the X , X β,

We an de ompose

Sin e by

subpa e that is orthogonal to the span of

X, εˆ.

βˆ is hosen to make εˆ as short as possible, εˆ will be orthogonal to the spa e spanned

X. Sin e X

is in this spa e,

X ′ εˆ = 0. Note that the f.o. .

estimator imply that this is so.

3.3.3 Proje tion Matri es X βˆ

is the proje tion of

y

onto the span of

X,

or

X βˆ = X X ′ X Therefore, the matrix that proje ts

y

−1

X ′y

onto the span of

X

PX = X(X ′ X)−1 X ′

is

that dene the least squares

26

CHAPTER 3.

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

sin e

X βˆ = PX y. εˆ is X.

the proje tion of

y

onto the

We have that

N −K

dimensional spa e that is orthogonal to the span of

εˆ = y − X βˆ

So the matrix that proje ts

y

= y − X(X ′ X)−1 X ′ y   = In − X(X ′ X)−1 X ′ y.

onto the spa e orthogonal to the span of

X

is

= In − X(X ′ X)−1 X ′

MX

= In − PX . We have

εˆ = MX y. Therefore

y = PX y + MX y = X βˆ + εˆ. These two proje tion matri es de ompose the

omponents - the portion that lies in the that lies in the orthogonal



Note that both

PX

n−K

and

MX

K

n

dimensional ve tor

y

into two orthogonal

dimensional spa e dened by

X,

dimensional spa e. are

symmetri

and

idempotent.



A symmetri matrix



An idempotent matrix



The only nonsingular idempotent matrix is the identity matrix.

A

and the portion

is one su h that

A

A = A′ .

is one su h that

A = AA.

3.4 Inuential observations and outliers The OLS estimator of the

ith

element of the ve tor

βˆi = =



β0

(X ′ X)−1 X ′

c′i y

is simply





y

This is how we dene a linear estimator - it's a linear fun tion of the dependent variable. Sin e it's a linear ombination of the observations on the dependent variable, where the weights are determined by the observations on the regressors, some observations may have more inuen e than others.

3.4.

To investigate this, let

tth

27

INFLUENTIAL OBSERVATIONS AND OUTLIERS

olumn of the matrix

et

In .

be an

n

1

ve tor of zeros with a

in the t

th position,

i.e., it's the

Dene

ht = (PX )tt = e′t PX et so

ht

is the t

th element on the main diagonal of

PX .

Note that

ht = k PX et k2 so

ht ≤k et k2 = 1 So

0 < ht < 1.

Also,

T rPX = K ⇒ h = K/n. So the average of the

ht

is

K/n.

The value

ht

is referred to as the

leverage of the observation.

If the leverage is mu h higher than average, the observation has the potential to ae t the OLS t importantly. However, an observation may also be inuential due to the value of

yt ,

xt 's. th without using the t observation (designate

rather than the weight it is multiplied by, whi h only depends on the To a

ount for this, onsider estimation of this estimator as

βˆ(t) ).

One an show (see Davidson and Ma Kinnon, pp. 32-5 for proof ) that

ˆ(t)

β so the hange in the

β

tth

= βˆ −



1 1 − ht



(X ′ X)−1 Xt′ εˆt

observations tted value is

x′t βˆ −

x′t βˆ(t)

=



ht 1 − ht



εˆt  is εˆt

While an observation may be inuential if it doesn't ae t its own tted value, it ertainly inuential if it does. A fast means of identifying inuential observations is to plot (whi h I will refer to as the

own inuen e of the observation) as a fun tion of t.



ht 1−ht

Figure 3.4 gives

an example plot of data, t, leverage and inuen e. The O tave program is InuentialObservation.m . If you re-run the program you will see that the leverage of the last observation (an outlying value of x) is always high, and the inuen e is sometimes high. After inuential observations are dete ted, one needs to determine

why they are inuential.

Possible auses in lude:

• •

data entry error, whi h an easily be orre ted on e dete ted. Data entry errors

ommon.

are very

spe ial e onomi fa tors that ae t some observations. These would need to be identied and in orporated in the model. This is the idea behind may not be onstant a ross all observations.

stru tural hange :

the parameters

28

CHAPTER 3.

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

Figure 3.4: Dete tion of inuential observations 14 Data points fitted Leverage Influence

12

10

8

6

4

2

0 0



0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

pure randomness may have aused us to sample a low-probability observation.

There exist

robust

estimation methods that downweight outliers.

3.5 Goodness of t The tted model is

y = X βˆ + εˆ Take the inner produ t:

y ′ y = βˆ′ X ′ X βˆ + 2βˆ′ X ′ εˆ + εˆ′ εˆ But the middle term of the RHS is zero sin e

X ′ εˆ = 0,

so

y ′ y = βˆ′ X ′ X βˆ + εˆ′ εˆ The

un entered Ru2

is dened as

Ru2 = 1 − = =

εˆ′ εˆ y′y

βˆ′ X ′ X βˆ y′y k PX y k2 k y k2

= cos2 (φ),

(3.2)

3.5.

29

GOODNESS OF FIT

where



φ

is the angle between

The un entered

R2

y

and the span of

X

.

hanges if we add a onstant to

3.5, the yellow ve tor is a onstant, sin e it's on the

y,

sin e this hanges

45 degree

φ

(see Figure

line in observation spa e).

Another, more ommon denition measures the ontribution of the variables, other than

Figure 3.5: Un entered

R2

the onstant term, to explaining the variation in model to explain the variation of

ι = (1, 1, ..., 1)′ ,

Let

a

n

y

y.

Thus it measures the ability of the

about its un onditional sample mean.

-ve tor. So

Mι = In − ι(ι′ ι)−1 ι′ = In − ιι′ /n

Mι y

just returns the ve tor of deviations from the mean.

In terms of deviations from the

mean, equation 3.2 be omes

y ′ Mι y = βˆ′ X ′ Mι X βˆ + εˆ′ Mι εˆ The

entered Rc2

is dened as

Rc2 = 1 − where

ESS = εˆ′ εˆ and T SS = y ′ Mι y =

Pn

ESS εˆ′ εˆ =1− ′ y Mι y T SS

t=1 (yt

− y¯)2 .

30

CHAPTER 3.

Supposing that

X

i.e., there is a onstant term),

ontains a olumn of ones (

X ′ εˆ = 0 ⇒ so

Mι εˆ = εˆ.

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

X

εˆt = 0

t

In this ase

y ′ Mι y = βˆ′ X ′ Mι X βˆ + εˆ′ εˆ So

Rc2 = where



RSS T SS

RSS = βˆ′ X ′ Mι X βˆ

Supposing that a olumn of ones is in the spa e spanned by show that

0≤

Rc2

X (PX ι = ι),

then one an

≤ 1.

3.6 The lassi al linear regression model Up to this point the model is empty of ontent beyond the denition of a best linear approximation to

y

and some geometri al properties. There is no e onomi ontent to the model, and

the regression parameters have no e onomi interpretation. For example, what is the partial derivative of

y

with respe t to

xj ?

The linear approximation is

y = β1 x1 + β2 x2 + ... + βk xk + ǫ The partial derivative is

∂ǫ ∂y = βj + ∂xj ∂xj

Up to now, there's no guarantee that

∂ǫ ∂xj =0. For the

β

to have an e onomi meaning, we

need to make additional assumptions. The assumptions that are appropriate to make depend on the data under onsideration. We'll start with the lassi al linear regression model, whi h in orporates some assumptions that are learly not realisti for e onomi data. This is to be able to explain some on epts with a minimum of onfusion and notational lutter. Later we'll adapt the results to what we an get with more realisti assumptions.

Linearity:

the model is a linear fun tion of the parameter ve tor

y = β10 x1 + β20 x2 + ... + βk0 xk + ǫ

β0 : (3.3)

or, using ve tor notation:

y = x′ β 0 + ǫ

Nonsto hasti linearly independent regressors: X is a has rank

K,

xed matrix of onstants, it

its number of olumns, and

1 lim X′ X = QX n

(3.4)

3.7.

SMALL SAMPLE STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE LEAST SQUARES ESTIMATOR31

where

QX

is a nite positive denite matrix. This is needed to be able to identify the individual

ee ts of the explanatory variables.

Independently and identi ally distributed errors: ǫ ∼ IID(0, σ 2 In ) ε

(3.5)

is jointly distributed IID. This implies the following two properties:

Homos edasti errors: V (εt ) = σ02 , ∀t

(3.6)

E(εt ǫs ) = 0, ∀t 6= s

(3.7)

Nonauto orrelated errors:

Optionally, we will sometimes assume that the errors are normally distributed.

Normally distributed errors: ǫ ∼ N (0, σ 2 In )

(3.8)

3.7 Small sample statisti al properties of the least squares estimator Up to now, we have only examined numeri properties of the OLS estimator, that always hold. Now we will examine statisti al properties. The statisti al properties depend upon the assumptions we make.

3.7.1 Unbiasedness We have

βˆ = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ y .

By linearity,

βˆ = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ (Xβ + ε) = β + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε By 3.4 and 3.5

E(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε = E(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ Eε = 0 so the OLS estimator is unbiased under the assumptions of the lassi al model. Figure 3.6 shows the results of a small Monte Carlo experiment where the OLS estimator was al ulated for 10000 samples from the lassi al model with

σε2

= 9, and x is xed a ross samples.

We an see that the

β2

y = 1 + 2x + ε,

where

n = 20,

appears to be estimated without

32

CHAPTER 3.

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

Figure 3.6: Unbiasedness of OLS under lassi al assumptions

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0 -3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

bias. The program that generates the plot is Unbiased.m , if you would like to experiment with this. With time series data, the OLS estimator will often be biased. Figure 3.7 shows the results of a small Monte Carlo experiment where the OLS estimator was al ulated for 1000 samples from the AR(1) model with

yt = 0 + 0.9yt−1 + εt ,

where

n = 20

and

σε2 = 1.

In this ase,

assumption 3.4 does not hold: the regressors are sto hasti . We an see that the bias in the estimation of

β2

is about -0.2.

The program that generates the plot is Biased.m , if you would like to experiment with this.

3.7.2 Normality With the linearity assumption, we have

βˆ = β + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε.

This is a linear fun tion of

ε.

Adding the assumption of normality (3.8, whi h implies strong exogeneity), then

βˆ ∼ N β, (X ′ X)−1 σ02



sin e a linear fun tion of a normal random ve tor is also normally distributed. In Figure 3.6 you an see that the estimator appears to be normally distributed.

It in fa t is normally

distributed, sin e the DGP (see the O tave program) has normal errors. Even when the data may be taken to be IID, the assumption of normality is often questionable or simply untenable. For example, if the dependent variable is the number of automobile trips per week, it is a ount variable with a dis rete distribution, and is thus not normally distributed. Many variables in

SMALL SAMPLE STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE LEAST SQUARES ESTIMATOR33

3.7.

Figure 3.7: Biasedness of OLS when an assumption fails

0.12

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0 -1

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

2

e onomi s an take on only nonnegative values, whi h, stri tly speaking, rules out normality.

3.7.3 The varian e of the OLS estimator and the Gauss-Markov theorem Now let's make all the lassi al assumptions ex ept the assumption of normality.

βˆ = β + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε

ˆ = β. E(β)

and we know that

ˆ = E V ar(β)



βˆ − β

We have

So

 ′  ˆ β−β

 = E (X ′ X)−1 X ′ εε′ X(X ′ X)−1

= (X ′ X)−1 σ02 The OLS estimator is a dependent variable,

linear estimator ,

whi h means that it is a linear fun tion of the

y. βˆ =



 (X ′ X)−1 X ′ y

= Cy where also

C

is a fun tion of the explanatory variables only, not the dependent variable.

unbiased

weights

W

It is

under the present assumptions, as we proved above. One ould onsider other

that are a fun tion of

X

that dene some other linear estimator. We'll still insist

β˜ = W y, where W = W (X) is some k × n matrix fun tion of fun tion of X, it is nonsto hasti , too. If the estimator is unbiased,

upon unbiasedness. Consider

X.

Note that sin e 2

W

is a

Normality may be a good model nonetheless, as long as the probability of a negative value o

uring is

negligable under the model. This depends upon the mean being large enough in relation to the varian e.

34

CHAPTER 3.

then we must have

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

W X = IK : E(W y)

=

E(W Xβ0 + W ε)

=

W Xβ0

=

β0

⇒ WX The varian e of

β˜

=

IK

is

˜ = W W ′σ2 . V (β) 0 Dene

D = W − (X ′ X)−1 X ′ so

W = D + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ Sin e

W X = IK , DX = 0,

so

 ′ D + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ D + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ σ02  −1  2 σ0 = DD′ + X ′ X

˜ = V (β)

So

˜ ≥ V (β) ˆ V (β) The inequality is a shorthand means of expressing, more formally, that

˜ ˆ is a positive V (β)−V (β)

semi-denite matrix. This is a proof of the Gauss-Markov Theorem. The OLS estimator is the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE).



It is worth emphasizing again that we have not used the normality assumption in any way to prove the Gauss-Markov theorem, so it is valid if the errors are not normally distributed, as long as the other assumptions hold.

To illustrate the Gauss-Markov result, onsider the estimator that results from splitting the sample into

p

equally-sized parts, estimating using ea h part of the data separately by OLS,

then averaging the

p

resulting estimators.

You should be able to show that this estimator

is unbiased, but ine ient with respe t to the OLS estimator.

The program E ien y.m

illustrates this using a small Monte Carlo experiment, whi h ompares the OLS estimator and a 3-way split sample estimator. The data generating pro ess follows the lassi al model, with

n = 21.

The true parameter value is

β = 2.

In Figures 3.8 and 3.9 we an see that the OLS

estimator is more e ient, sin e the tails of its histogram are more narrow. We have that

ˆ = β E(β)

and

ˆ = V ar(β)





XX

−1

σ02 ,

but we still need to estimate the

2 varian e of ǫ, σ0 , in order to have an idea of the pre ision of the estimates of

β.

A ommonly

3.7.

SMALL SAMPLE STATISTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE LEAST SQUARES ESTIMATOR35

Figure 3.8: Gauss-Markov Result: The OLS estimator 0.12

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0 0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Figure 3.9: Gauss-Markov Resul: The split sample estimator 0.12

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0 0

1

2

3

4

5

36

CHAPTER 3.

used estimator of

σ02

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

is

This estimator is unbiased:

c2 = σ 0 =

c2 ) = E(σ 0 =

= = = = where we use the fa t that

1 εˆ′ εˆ n−K

c2 = σ 0

1 εˆ′ εˆ n−K 1 ε′ M ε n−K 1 E(T rε′ M ε) n−K 1 E(T rM εε′ ) n−K 1 T rE(M εε′ ) n−K 1 σ 2 T rM n−K 0 1 σ 2 (n − k) n−K 0 σ02

T r(AB) = T r(BA)

when both produ ts are onformable. Thus,

this estimator is also unbiased under these assumptions.

3.8 Example: The Nerlove model 3.8.1 Theoreti al ba kground For a rm that takes input pri es

w

and the output level

x

problem is to hoose the quantities of inputs

q

as given, the ost minimization

to solve the problem

min w′ x x

subje t to the restri tion

f (x) = q. The solution is the ve tor of fa tor demands

x(w, q).

The

ost fun tion

tuting the fa tor demands into the riterion fun tion:

Cw, q) = w′ x(w, q). • Monotoni ity

In reasing fa tor pri es annot de rease ost, so

∂C(w, q) ≥0 ∂w

is obtained by substi-

3.8.

37

EXAMPLE: THE NERLOVE MODEL

Remember that these derivatives give the onditional fa tor demands (Shephard's Lemma).

• Homogeneity The ost fun tion is homogeneous of degree 1 in input pri es: C(tw, q) = tC(w, q)

where

t

is a s alar onstant. This is be ause the fa tor demands are homoge-

neous of degree zero in fa tor pri es - they only depend upon relative pri es.

• Returns to s ale

returns to s ale

The

parameter

γ

is dened as the inverse of the

elasti ity of ost with respe t to output:

γ=

Constant returns to s ale



q ∂C(w, q) ∂q C(w, q)

−1

is the ase where in reasing produ tion

in reases in the proportion 1:1. If this is the ase, then

q

implies that ost

γ = 1.

3.8.2 Cobb-Douglas fun tional form The Cobb-Douglas fun tional form is linear in the logarithms of the regressors and the dependent variable. For a ost fun tion, if there are

g

fa tors, the Cobb-Douglas ost fun tion has

the form

β

C = Aw1β1 ...wg g q βq eε C

What is the elasti ity of

eC wj

with respe t to

=



∂C ∂WJ



wj ?

wj  C

β −1

= βj Aw1β1 .wj j

β

..wg g q βq eε

wj β β1 Aw1 ...wg g q βq eε

= βj This is one of the reasons the Cobb-Douglas form is popular - the oe ients are easy to interpret, sin e they are the elasti ities of the dependent variable with respe t to the explanatory variable. Not that in this ase,

eC wj

=



∂C ∂WJ



= xj (w, q)

wj  C

wj C

≡ sj (w, q) the

ost share

of the

j th

input. So with a Cobb-Douglas ost fun tion,

shares are onstants. Note that after a logarithmi transformation we obtain

ln C = α + β1 ln w1 + ... + βg ln wg + βq ln q + ǫ

βj = sj (w, q).

The ost

38

CHAPTER 3.

where

α = ln A

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

. So we see that the transformed model is linear in the logs of the data.

One an verify that the property of HOD1 implies that

g X

βg = 1

i=1

In other words, the ost shares add up to 1. The hypothesis that the te hnology exhibits CRTS implies that

γ= so

βq = 1.

1 =1 βq

Likewise, monotoni ity implies that the oe ients

βi ≥ 0, i = 1, ..., g.

3.8.3 The Nerlove data and OLS The le nerlove.data ontains data on 145 ele tri utility ompanies' ost of produ tion, output and input pri es. The data are for the U.S., and were olle ted by M. Nerlove. The observations

COMPANY, COST (C), OUTPUT (Q), PRICE OF LABOR (PL ), PRICE OF FUEL (PF ) and PRICE OF CAPITAL (PK ). Note that the

are by row, and the olumns are

data are sorted by output level (the third olumn). We will estimate the Cobb-Douglas model

ln C = β1 + β2 ln Q + β3 ln PL + β4 ln PF + β5 ln PK + ǫ

(3.9)

using OLS. To do this yourself, you need the data le mentioned above, as well as Nerlove.m (the estimation program), and the library of O tave fun tions mentioned in the introdu tion to O tave that forms se tion 22 of this do ument.

3

The results are

********************************************************* OLS estimation results Observations 145 R-squared 0.925955 Sigma-squared 0.153943 Results (Ordinary var- ov estimator)

onstant output labor fuel

apital 3

estimate -3.527 0.720 0.436 0.427 -0.220

st.err. 1.774 0.017 0.291 0.100 0.339

t-stat. -1.987 41.244 1.499 4.249 -0.648

p-value 0.049 0.000 0.136 0.000 0.518

If you are running the bootable CD, you have all of this installed and ready to run.

3.8.

39

EXAMPLE: THE NERLOVE MODEL

*********************************************************



Do the theoreti al restri tions hold?



Does the model t well?



What do you think about RTS?

While we will use O tave programs as examples in this do ument, sin e following the programming statements is a useful way of learning how theory is put into pra ti e, you may be interested in a more user-friendly environment for doing e onometri s. I heartily re ommend Gretl, the Gnu Regression, E onometri s, and Time-Series Library. This is an easy to use program, available in English, Fren h, and Spanish, and it omes with a lot of data ready AT X fragments, so that I an just in lude to use. It even has an option to save output as L E

the results into this do ument, no muss, no fuss. Here the results of the Nerlove model from GRETL:

Model 2: OLS estimates using the 145 observations 1145 Dependent variable: l_ ost Variable

onst

Coe ient

Std. Error

−3.5265

t-statisti

1.77437

p-value

−1.9875

0.0488

41.2445

0.0000

0.720394

0.0174664

l_labor

0.436341

0.291048

1.4992

0.1361

l_fuel

0.426517

0.100369

4.2495

0.0000

−0.219888

0.339429

−0.6478

0.5182

l_output

l_ apita

Mean of dependent variable

1.72466

S.D. of dependent variable

1.42172

Sum of squared residuals Standard error of residuals (σ ˆ) Unadjusted

R2

¯2 Adjusted R

21.5520 0.392356 0.925955 0.923840

F (4, 140)

437.686

Akaike information riterion

145.084

S hwarz Bayesian riterion

159.967

Fortunately, Gretl and my OLS program agree upon the results.

Gretl is in luded in the

bootable CD mentioned in the introdu tion. I re ommend using GRETL to repeat the examples that are done using O tave. The previous properties hold for nite sample sizes.

Before onsidering the asymptoti

properties of the OLS estimator it is useful to review the MLE estimator, sin e under the assumption of normal errors the two estimators oin ide.

40

CHAPTER 3.

ORDINARY LEAST SQUARES

3.9 Exer ises 1. Prove that the split sample estimator used to generate gure 3.9 is unbiased. 2. Cal ulate the OLS estimates of the Nerlove model using O tave and GRETL, and provide printouts of the results. Interpret the results. 3. Do an analysis of whether or not there are inuential observations for OLS estimation of the Nerlove model. Dis uss. 4. Using GRETL, examine the residuals after OLS estimation and tell me whether or not you believe that the assumption of independent identi ally distributed normal errors is warranted. No need to do formal tests, just look at the plots. Print out any that you think are relevant, and interpret them. 5. For a random ve tor

X ∼ N (µx , Σ),

what is the distribution of

AX + b,

where

A

and

b

are onformable matri es of onstants? 6. Using O tave, write a little program that veries that

T r(AB) = T r(BA)

4x4 matri es of random numbers. Note: there is an O tave fun tion 7. For the model with a onstant and a single regressor,

for

A

and

B

tra e.

yt = β1 + β2 xt + ǫt ,

whi h satises

the lassi al assumptions, prove that the varian e of the OLS estimator de lines to zero as the sample size in reases.

Chapter 4 Maximum likelihood estimation The maximum likelihood estimator is important sin e it is asymptoti ally e ient, as is shown below.

For the lassi al linear model with normal errors, the ML and OLS estimators of

β

are the same, so the following theory is presented without examples. In the se ond half of the

ourse, nonlinear models with nonnormal errors are introdu ed, and examples may be found there.

4.1 The likelihood fun tion Suppose we have a sample of size of

Y =



y1 . . . yn



and

Z=

n

of the random ve tors

z1 . . . zn



y

and

z.

Suppose the joint density

is hara terized by a parameter ve tor

ψ0 :

fY Z (Y, Z, ψ0 ). This is the joint density of the sample. This density an be fa tored as

fY Z (Y, Z, ψ0 ) = fY |Z (Y |Z, θ0 )fZ (Z, ρ0 ) The

likelihood fun tion

is just this density evaluated at other values

ψ

L(Y, Z, ψ) = f (Y, Z, ψ), ψ ∈ Ψ, where

parameter spa e. maximum likelihood estimator

Ψ

The

is a

of

ψ0

is the value of

ψ

that maximizes the likelihood

fun tion. Note that if fun tion fun tion

θ0

and

fY |Z (Y |Z, θ)

ρ0

share no elements, then the maximizer of the onditional likelihood

with respe t to

θ

is the same as the maximizer of the overall likelihood

fY Z (Y, Z, ψ) = fY |Z (Y |Z, θ)fZ (Z, ρ),

this ase, the variables

Z

are said to be

for the elements of

exogenous

θ0 .

The maximum likelihood estimator of

θ,

fY |Z (Y |Z, θ)

θ0 = arg max fY |Z (Y |Z, θ) 41

that orrespond to

for estimation of

onveniently work with the onditional likelihood fun tion estimating

ψ

θ.

In

and we may more for the purposes of

42

CHAPTER 4.



If the

n

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION

observations are independent, the likelihood fun tion an be written as

L(Y |Z, θ) = where the



ft

n Y t=1

f (yt |zt , θ)

are possibly of dierent form.

If this is not possible, we an always fa tor the likelihood into

vations,

ontributions of obser-

by using the fa t that a joint density an be fa tored into the produ t of a

marginal and onditional (doing this iteratively)

L(Y, θ) = f (y1 |z1 , θ)f (y2 |y1 , z2 , θ)f (y3 |y1 , y2 , z3 , θ) · · · f (yn |y1, y2 , . . . yt−n , zn , θ) To simplify notation, dene

xt = {y1 , y2 , ..., yt−1 , zt } so

x1 = z1 , x2 = {y1 , z2 },

et .

- it ontains exogenous and predetermined endogeous variables.

Now the likelihood fun tion an be written as

L(Y, θ) =

n Y t=1

f (yt |xt , θ)

The riterion fun tion an be dened as the average log-likelihood fun tion:

n

1X 1 ln f (yt |xt , θ) sn (θ) = ln L(Y, θ) = n n t=1 The maximum likelihood estimator may thus be dened equivalently as

θˆ = arg max sn (θ), where the set maximized over is dened below. Sin e

ln L

and

L

maximize at the same value of

θ.

ln(·)

Dividing by

is a monotoni in reasing fun tion,

n

has no ee t on

ˆ θ.

4.1.1 Example: Bernoulli trial Suppose that we are ipping a oin that may be biased, so that the probability of a heads may not be 0.5. Maybe we're interested in estimating the probability of a heads. Let

y = 1(heads)

be a binary variable that indi ates whether or not a heads is observed. The out ome of a toss is a Bernoulli random variable:

fY (y, p0 ) = py0 (1 − p0 )1−y , y ∈ {0, 1} = 0, y ∈ / {0, 1}

4.1.

43

THE LIKELIHOOD FUNCTION

So a representative term that enters the likelihood fun tion is

fY (y, p) = py (1 − p)1−y and

ln fY (y, p) = y ln p + (1 − y) ln (1 − p) The derivative of this is

∂ ln fY (y, p) ∂p

= =

n

Averaging this over a sample of size

y (1 − y) − p (1 − p) y−p p (1 − p)

gives

n

1 X yi − p ∂sn (p) = ∂p n p (1 − p) i=1

Setting to zero and solving gives

pˆ = y¯ So it's easy to al ulate the MLE of

p0 in

(4.1)

this ase.

Now imagine that we had a bag full of bent oins, ea h bent around a sphere of a dierent radius (with the head pointing to the outside of the sphere). We might suspe t that the probability of a heads ould depend upon the radius. Suppose that where

xi =

h

1 ri

i′

, so that

β

is a 2×1 ve tor. Now

pi ≡ p(xi , β) = (1 + exp(−x′i β))−1

∂pi (β) = pi (1 − pi ) xi ∂β so

∂ ln fY (y, β) ∂β

y − pi pi (1 − pi ) xi pi (1 − pi ) = (yi − p(xi , β)) xi

=

So the derivative of the average log lihelihood fun tion is now

∂sn (β) = ∂β

Pn

i=1 (yi

− p(xi , β)) xi n

This is a set of 2 nonlinear equations in the two unknown elements in

β.

There is no expli it

solution for the two elements that set the equations to zero. This is ommonly the ase with ML estimators: they are often nonlinear, and nding the value of the estimate often requires use of numeri methods to nd solutions to the rst order onditions. explored further in the se ond half of these notes (see se tion 14.6).

This possibility is

44

CHAPTER 4.

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION

4.2 Consisten y of MLE To show onsisten y of the MLE, we need to make expli it some assumptions.

Compa t parameter spa e θ ∈ Θ, over

Θ,

an open bounded subset of

whi h is ompa t.

This implies that

θ

is an interior point of the

ℜK .

Maximixation is

parameter spa e Θ.

Uniform onvergen e u.a.s

sn (θ) → lim Eθ0 sn (θ) ≡ s∞ (θ, θ0 ), ∀θ ∈ Θ. n→∞

We have suppressed

Y

here for simpli ity. This requires that almost sure onvergen e holds for

all possible parameter values. For a given parameter value, an ordinary Law of Large Numbers will usually imply almost sure onvergen e to the limit of the expe tation. Convergen e for a single element of the parameter spa e, ombined with the assumption of a ompa t parameter spa e, ensures uniform onvergen e.

Continuity sn (θ) in

is ontinuous in

θ.

θ, θ ∈ Θ.

This implies that

Identi ation s∞ (θ, θ0 ) has a unique maximum We will use these assumptions to show that First,

θˆn

s∞ (θ, θ0 )

is ontinuous

in its rst argument.

a.s. θˆn → θ0 .

ertainly exists, sin e a ontinuous fun tion has a maximum on a ompa t set.

Se ond, for any

θ 6= θ0



E ln by Jensen's inequality (

ln (·)



L(θ) L(θ0 )



   L(θ) ≤ ln E L(θ0 )

is a on ave fun tion).

Now, the expe tation on the RHS is

E sin e

L(θ0 )

is



L(θ) L(θ0 )



=

Z

L(θ) L(θ0 )dy = 1, L(θ0 )

the density fun tion of the observations, and sin e the integral of any density is

1. Therefore, sin e

ln(1) = 0,



E ln



L(θ) L(θ0 )



≤ 0,

or

E (sn (θ)) − E (sn (θ0 )) ≤ 0. Taking limits, this is (by the assumption on uniform onvergen e)

s∞ (θ, θ0 ) − s∞ (θ0 , θ0 ) ≤ 0

4.3.

45

THE SCORE FUNCTION

ex ept on a set of zero probability. By the identi ation assumption there is a unique maximizer, so the inequality is stri t if

θ 6= θ0 :

s∞ (θ, θ0 ) − s∞ (θ0 , θ0 ) < 0, ∀θ 6= θ0 , a.s. θ ∗ is a limit point of θˆn (any sequen e from a ompa t ˆn is a maximizer, independent of n, we must have Sin e θ

Suppose that limit point).

set has at least one

s∞ (θ ∗ , θ0 ) − s∞ (θ0 , θ0 ) ≥ 0. These last two inequalities imply that

θ ∗ = θ0 , a.s. Thus there is only one limit point, and it is equal to the true parameter value, with probability one. In other words,

lim θˆ = θ0 , a.s.

n→∞

This ompletes the proof of strong onsisten y of the MLE. One an use weaker assumptions to prove weak onsisten y ( onvergen e in probability to

θ0 ) of the MLE. This is omitted here.

Note that almost sure onvergen e implies onvergen e in probability.

4.3 The s ore fun tion Assumption:

Dierentiability Assume that

a neighborhood

N (θ0 )

of

θ0 ,

at least when

n

sn (θ) is twi e ontinuously dierentiable in is large enough.

To maximize the log-likelihood fun tion, take derivatives:

gn (Y, θ) = Dθ sn (θ) n 1X = Dθ ln f (yt |xx , θ) n t=1 n

≡ This is the

s ore ve tor

(with dim

K × 1).

1X gt (θ). n t=1

Note that the s ore fun tion has

whi h implies that it is a random fun tion.

Y

θˆ sets

the derivatives to zero:

n

as an argument,

(and any exogeneous variables) will often be

suppressed for larity, but one should not forget that they are still there. The ML estimator

Y

X ˆ = 1 ˆ ≡ 0. gn (θ) gt (θ) n t=1

46

CHAPTER 4.

We will show that

f (θ),

not ne essarily

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION

Eθ [gt (θ)] = 0, ∀t. This is the expe tation

taken with respe t to the density

f (θ0 ) .

Eθ [gt (θ)] =

Z

[Dθ ln f (yt |xt , θ)]f (yt |x, θ)dyt

Z

Dθ f (yt |xt , θ)dyt .

Z

= =

1 [Dθ f (yt |xt , θ)] f (yt |xt , θ)dyt f (yt |xt , θ)

Given some regularity onditions on boundedness of

Dθ f, we an swit h the order of integration

and dierentiation, by the dominated onvergen e theorem. This gives

Eθ [gt (θ)] = Dθ

Z

f (yt |xt , θ)dyt

= Dθ 1 = 0

where we use the fa t that the integral of the density is 1.



So

Eθ (gt (θ) = 0 :



This hold for all

the expe tation of the s ore ve tor is zero. t,

so it implies that

Eθ gn (Y, θ) = 0.

4.4 Asymptoti normality of MLE Re all that we assume that series expansion of

ˆ g(Y, θ)

sn (θ) is twi e ontinuously dierentiable. about the true value

Take a rst order Taylor's

θ0 :

  ˆ = g(θ0 ) + (Dθ′ g(θ ∗ )) θˆ − θ0 0 ≡ g(θ) or with appropriate denitions

  H(θ ∗ ) θˆ − θ0 = −g(θ0 ), where

θ ∗ = λθˆ + (1 − λ)θ0 , 0 < λ < 1.

minute). So

Now onsider

H(θ ∗ ).

Assume

H(θ ∗ )

is invertible (we'll justify this in a

 √  √ n θˆ − θ0 = −H(θ ∗ )−1 ng(θ0 )

This is

H(θ ∗ ) = Dθ′ g(θ ∗ ) = Dθ2 sn (θ ∗ ) n 1X 2 D ln ft (θ ∗ ) = n t=1 θ

4.4.

47

ASYMPTOTIC NORMALITY OF MLE

where the notation

Dθ2 sn (θ) ≡

∂ 2 sn (θ) . ∂θ∂θ ′

Given that this is an average of terms, it should usually be the ase that this satises a strong law of large numbers (SLLN). that this will happen.

Regularity onditions

are a set of assumptions that guarantee

There are dierent sets of assumptions that an be used to justify

appeal to dierent SLLN's. For example, the

Dθ2 ln ft (θ ∗ ) must

not be too strongly dependent

over time, and their varian es must not be ome innite. We don't assume any parti ular set here, sin e the appropriate assumptions will depend upon the parti ularities of a given model. However, we assume that a SLLN applies. Also, sin e we know that

θˆ

is onsistent, and sin e

a.s. θ∗ →

θ0 . Also, by the above dierentiability assumtion, ∗ H(θ ) onverges to the limit of it's expe tation:

θ ∗ = λθˆ + (1 − λ)θ0 ,

H(θ)

is ontinuous in

we have that

θ.

Given this,

 a.s. H(θ ∗ ) → lim E Dθ2 sn (θ0 ) = H∞ (θ0 ) < ∞ n→∞

This matrix onverges to a nite limit.

Re-arranging orders of limits and dierentiation, whi h is legitimate given regularity onditions, we get

H∞ (θ0 ) = Dθ2 lim E (sn (θ0 )) n→∞ 2 Dθ s∞ (θ0 , θ0 )

= We've already seen that

s∞ (θ, θ0 ) < s∞ (θ0 , θ0 )

i.e., θ0

maximizes the limiting obje tive fun tion. Sin e there is a unique maximizer, and by

the assumption that

H∞ (θ0 )

sn (θ)

is twi e ontinuously dierentiable (whi h holds in the limit), then

must be negative denite, and therefore of full rank. Therefore the previous inversion

is justied, asymptoti ally, and we have

Now onsider

√ ng(θ0 ).

 √ √  a.s. n θˆ − θ0 → −H∞ (θ0 )−1 ng(θ0 ).

(4.2)

This is

√ √ ngn (θ0 ) = nDθ sn (θ) √ X n n = Dθ ln ft (yt |xt , θ0 ) n t=1 n

= We've already seen that Note that

1 X √ gt (θ0 ) n t=1

Eθ [gt (θ)] = 0. As su h,

a.s.

gn (θ0 ) → 0,

by onsisten y.

it is reasonable to assume that a CLT applies.

To avoid this ollapse to a degenerate r.v.

(a

48

CHAPTER 4.



onstant ve tor) we need to s ale by

n.

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION

A generi CLT states that, for

Xn

a random ve tor

that satises ertain onditions,

d

Xn − E(Xn ) → N (0, lim V (Xn )) The  ertain onditions that

Xn

must satisfy depend on the ase at hand. Usually,

be of the form of an average, s aled by

√ n:

√ Xn = n This is the ase for of the

Xt .



ng(θ0 ) for example.

For example, if the

Xt

Pn

that

will

t=1 Xt

n Xn

Then the properties of

depend on the properties

have nite varian es and are not too strongly dependent,

then a CLT for dependent pro esses will apply.

√ E( ngn (θ0 ) = 0,

Xn

Supposing that a CLT applies, and noting

we get

√ d I∞ (θ0 )−1/2 ngn (θ0 ) → N [0, IK ] where

I∞ (θ0 ) = = This an also be written as

• I∞ (θ0 ) •

is known as the



lim Eθ0 n [gn (θ0 )] [gn (θ0 )]′  √ lim Vθ0 ngn (θ0 )

n→∞ n→∞



d

ngn (θ0 ) → N [0, I∞ (θ0 )]

(4.3)

information matrix.

Combining [4.2℄ and [4.3℄, we get

   √  a n θˆ − θ0 ∼ N 0, H∞ (θ0 )−1 I∞ (θ0 )H∞ (θ0 )−1 .

The MLE estimator is asymptoti ally normally distributed. Denition 1 (CAN) An estimator θˆ of a parameter θ0 is

normally distributed if

√ n- onsistent

 √  d n θˆ − θ0 → N (0, V∞ )

(4.4)

where V∞ is a nite positive denite matrix.

There do exist, in spe ial ases, estimators that are onsistent su h that These are known as

and asymptoti ally

super onsistent

estimators, sin e normally,



n

 p √ ˆ n θ − θ0 → 0.

is the highest fa tor that

we an multiply by and still get onvergen e to a stable limiting distribution.

Denition 2 (Asymptoti unbiasedness) An estimator θˆ of a parameter θ0 is asymptot-

i ally unbiased if

ˆ = θ. lim Eθ (θ)

n→∞

(4.5)

4.5.

49

THE INFORMATION MATRIX EQUALITY

Estimators that are CAN are asymptoti ally unbiased, though not all onsistent estimators are asymptoti ally unbiased. Su h ases are unusual, though. An example is

4.4.1 Coin ipping, again In se tion 4.1.1 we saw that the MLE for the parameter of a Bernoulli trial, with i.i.d. data, is the sample mean:

pˆ = y¯ (equation

4.1). Now let's nd the limiting varian e of



n (ˆ p − p).

√ lim V ar n (ˆ p − p) = lim nV ar (ˆ p − p) = lim nV ar (ˆ p) = lim nV ar (¯ y) P  yt = lim nV ar n X 1 V ar(yt ) (by independen e of obs.) = lim n 1 = lim nV ar(y) (by identi ally distributed obs.) n = p (1 − p)

4.5 The information matrix equality We will show that

H∞ (θ) = −I∞ (θ).

Let

Z

1 =

Z

0 =

Z

=

ft (θ)

be short for

ft (θ)dy,

f (yt |xt , θ)

so

Dθ ft (θ)dy (Dθ ln ft (θ)) ft (θ)dy

Now dierentiate again:

Z





Dθ2 ln ft (θ)

Z

ft (θ)dy + [Dθ ln ft (θ)] Dθ′ ft (θ)dy Z  2  = Eθ Dθ ln ft (θ) + [Dθ ln ft (θ)] [Dθ′ ln ft (θ)] ft (θ)dy   = Eθ Dθ2 ln ft (θ) + Eθ [Dθ ln ft (θ)] [Dθ′ ln ft (θ)]

0 =

= Eθ [Ht (θ)] + Eθ [gt (θ)] [gt (θ)]′ Now sum over

n

and multiply by

(4.6)

1 n

# " n n 1X 1X [Ht (θ)] = −Eθ [gt (θ)] [gt (θ)]′ Eθ n t=1 n t=1 The s ores

gt

and

gs

are un orrelated for

t 6= s,

sin e for

onditioned on prior information, so what was random in

s

t > s, ft (yt |y1 , ..., yt−1 , θ) is xed in

t.

has

(This forms the

50

CHAPTER 4.

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION

basis for a spe i ation test proposed by White: if the s ores appear to be orrelated one may question the spe i ation of the model). This allows us to write

Eθ [H(θ)] = −Eθ n [g(θ)] [g(θ)]′



sin e all ross produ ts between dierent periods expe t to zero. Finally take limits, we get

H∞ (θ) = −I∞ (θ). This holds for all

θ,

in parti ular, for

θ0 .

(4.7)

Using this,

   √  a.s. n θˆ − θ0 → N 0, H∞ (θ0 )−1 I∞ (θ0 )H∞ (θ0 )−1

simplies to

   √  a.s. n θˆ − θ0 → N 0, I∞ (θ0 )−1

To estimate the asymptoti varian e, we need estimators of

I\ ∞ (θ0 ) = n

n X

(4.8)

H∞ (θ0 )

and

I∞ (θ0 ).

We an use

ˆ t (θ) ˆ′ gt (θ)g

t=1

ˆ H\ ∞ (θ0 ) = H(θ). Note, one an't use

h ih i′ ˆ ˆ I\ (θ ) = n g ( θ) g ( θ) ∞ 0 n n

to estimate the information matrix. Why not?

From this we see that there are alternative ways to estimate

V∞ (θ0 )

that are all valid.

These in lude

\ V\ ∞ (θ0 ) = −H∞ (θ0 )

\ V\ ∞ (θ0 ) = I∞ (θ0 )

−1

\ V\ ∞ (θ0 ) = H∞ (θ0 )

These are known as the estimators, respe tively.

−1

−1

−1

\ I\ ∞ (θ0 )H∞ (θ0 )

inverse Hessian, outer produ t of the gradient

(OPG) and

sandwi h

The sandwi h form is the most robust, sin e it oin ides with the

ovarian e estimator of the

quasi-ML estimator.

4.6 The Cramér-Rao lower bound The limiting varian e of a CAN estimator of θ0 , say θ˜, minus the inverse of the information matrix is a positive semidenite matrix.

Theorem 3

[Cramer-Rao Lower Bound℄

4.6.

51

THE CRAMÉR-RAO LOWER BOUND

Proof: Sin e the estimator is CAN, it is asymptoti ally unbiased, so

lim Eθ (θ˜ − θ) = 0

n→∞

θ′ :

Dierentiate wrt

Dθ′

lim Eθ (θ˜ − θ) =

lim

n→∞

n→∞

Z

= 0 (this Noting that

Dθ′ f (Y, θ) = f (θ)Dθ′ ln f (θ), lim

n→∞

Now note that

Z 

h  i Dθ′ f (Y, θ) θ˜ − θ dy

is a

K ×K

matrix of zeros).

we an write

Z    f (Y, θ)Dθ′ θ˜ − θ dy = 0. θ˜ − θ f (θ)Dθ′ ln f (θ)dy + lim n→∞

  Dθ′ θ˜ − θ = −IK , lim

n→∞

and

Z 

R

f (Y, θ)(−IK )dy = −IK .

With this we have

 θ˜ − θ f (θ)Dθ′ ln f (θ)dy = IK .

n we get Z √ 1 √  lim n θ˜ − θ n [Dθ′ ln f (θ)] f (θ)dy = IK n→∞ {z } |n

Playing with powers of

Note that the bra keted part is just the transpose of the s ore ve tor,

lim Eθ

n→∞

g(θ),

so we an write

i h√  √ n θ˜ − θ ng(θ)′ = IK

 √ ˜ n θ − θ , for θ˜ any CAN esti √ ˜ ˜ varian e of n θ − θ tends to V∞ (θ).

This means that the ovarian e of the s ore fun tion with mator, is an identity matrix. Using this, suppose the Therefore,

 # " " √  # ˜ n θ˜ − θ V∞ (θ) IK V∞ . = √ IK I∞ (θ) ng(θ)

(4.9)

Sin e this is a ovarian e matrix, it is positive semi-denite. Therefore, for any

h

−1 α′ −α′ I∞ (θ)

This simplies to

Sin e

α

is arbitrary,

This means that

"

˜ V∞ (θ) IK

IK I∞ (θ)

#"

α −I∞ (θ)−1 α

#

-ve tor

α,

≥ 0.

h i ˜ − I −1 (θ) α ≥ 0. α′ V∞ (θ) ∞

˜ − I −1 (θ) V∞ (θ) ∞

−1 (θ) I∞

Asymptoti e ien y )

(

i

K

is a

is positive semidenite. This onludes the proof.

lower bound

for the asymptoti varian e of a CAN estimator.

Given two CAN estimators of a parameter

asymptoti ally e ient with respe t to

˜ − V∞ (θ) ˆ θ˜ if V∞ (θ)

θ0 ,

say

θ˜

and

θˆ, θˆ

is

is a positive semidenite matrix.

52

CHAPTER 4.

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION

A dire t proof of asymptoti e ien y of an estimator is infeasible, but if one an show that the asymptoti varian e is equal to the inverse of the information matrix, then the estimator is asymptoti ally e ient.

In parti ular,

any other CAN estimator.

the MLE is asymptoti ally e ient with respe t to

Summary of MLE •

Consistent



Asymptoti ally normal (CAN)



Asymptoti ally e ient



Asymptoti ally unbiased



This is for general MLE: we haven't spe ied the distribution or the linearity/nonlinearity of the estimator

4.7 Exer ises 1. Consider oin tossing with a single possibly biased oin. The density fun tion for the random variable

y = 1(heads)

is

fY (y, p0 ) = py0 (1 − p0 )1−y , y ∈ {0, 1} = 0, y ∈ / {0, 1} Suppose that we have a sample of size is

pb0 = y¯.

n.

We know from above that the ML estimator

We also know from the theory above that



  a n (¯ y − p0 ) ∼ N 0, H∞ (p0 )−1 I∞ (p0 )H∞ (p0 )−1

a) nd the analyti expression for gt (θ) and show that Eθ [gt (θ)] = 0 b) nd the analyti al expressions for H∞ (p0 ) and I∞ (p0 ) for this problem √

) verify that the result for lim V ar n (ˆ p − p) found in se tion 4.4.1 is equal to H∞ (p0 )−1 I∞ (p0 )H∞ (p0 )−1 √ d) Write an O tave program that does a Monte Carlo study that shows that n (¯y − p0 ) is approximately normally distributed when show the sampling frequen y of

2. Consider the model



n (¯ y − p0 )

yt = x′t β + αǫt

n

is large. Please give me histograms that

for several values of

n.

where the errors follow the Cau hy (Student-t with

1 degree of freedom) density. So

f (ǫt ) =

1  , −∞ < ǫt < ∞ π 1 + ǫ2t

The Cau hy density has a shape similar to a normal density, but with mu h thi ker tails. Thus, extremely small and large errors o

ur mu h more frequently with this density

4.7.

53

EXERCISES

than would happen if the errors were normally distributed.

gn (θ)

where

θ=



β′ α

′

.

3. Consider the model lassi al linear regression model Find the s ore fun tion

Find the s ore fun tion

gn (θ)

where

θ=



β′ σ

′

yt = x′t β + ǫt

where

ǫt ∼ IIN (0, σ 2 ).

.

4. Compare the rst order onditions that dene the ML estimators of problems 2 and 3 and interpret the dieren es.

Why

are the rst order onditions that dene an e ient

estimator dierent in the two ases? 5. There is an ML estimation routine in the provided software that a

ompanies these notes. output.

Edit (to see what it does) then run the s ript mle_example.m.

Interpret the

54

CHAPTER 4.

MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD ESTIMATION

Chapter 5 Asymptoti properties of the least squares estimator 1

The OLS estimator under the lassi al assumptions is BLUE , for all sample sizes. Now let's see what happens when the sample size tends to innity.

5.1 Consisten y βˆ = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ y = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ (Xβ + ε) = β0 + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε  ′ −1 ′ XX Xε = β0 + n n Consider the last two terms. By assumption

limn→∞



X′X n



= QX ⇒ limn→∞



X ′X n

−1

=

Q−1 X , sin e the inverse of a nonsingular matrix is a ontinuous fun tion of the elements of the X′ε matrix. Considering n , n X ′ε 1X n

Ea h

xt εt

has expe tation zero, so

E

=



xt εt

n

X ′ε n

t=1



=0

The varian e of ea h term is

V (xt ǫt ) = xt x′t σ 2 . 1

BLUE



best linear unbiased estimator if I haven't dened it before

55

56CHAPTER 5.

ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF THE LEAST SQUARES ESTIMATOR

2

As long as these are nite, and given a te hni al ondition , the Kolmogorov SLLN applies, so

n

1X a.s. xt εt → 0. n t=1

This implies that

a.s. βˆ → β0 . This is the property of

strong onsisten y:

the estimator onverges in almost surely to the

true value.



The onsisten y proof does not use the normality assumption.



Remember that almost sure onvergen e implies onvergen e in probability.

5.2 Asymptoti normality We've seen that the OLS estimator is normally distributed

errors.

under the assumption of normal

If the error distribution is unknown, we of ourse don't know the distribution of the

estimator. However, we an get asymptoti results.

Assuming the distribution of ε is unknown,

but the the other lassi al assumptions hold:

βˆ = β0 + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε



βˆ − β0 = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε  ′ −1 ′  √  XX Xε √ n βˆ − β0 = n n

X′X n

−1

→ Q−1 X .



Now as before,



X ′ε Considering √ , the limit of the varian e is n

lim V

n→∞



X ′ε √ n



=

lim E

n→∞

= σ02 QX



X ′ ǫǫ′ X n



The mean is of ourse zero. To get asymptoti normality, we need to apply a CLT. We assume one (for instan e, the Lindeberg-Feller CLT) holds, so

2

 X ′ε d √ → N 0, σ02 QX n For appli ation of LLN's and CLT's, of whi h there are very many to hoose from, I'm going to avoid

the te hni alities. Basi ally, as long as terms that make up an average have nite varian es and are not too strongly dependent, one will be able to nd a LLN or CLT to apply. Whi h one it is doesn't matter, we only need the result.

5.3.

57

ASYMPTOTIC EFFICIENCY

Therefore,



  √  d n βˆ − β0 → N 0, σ02 Q−1 X

In summary, the OLS estimator is normally distributed in small and large samples if is normally distributed. If

ε

is not normally distributed,

βˆ

ε

is asymptoti ally normally

distributed when a CLT an be applied.

5.3 Asymptoti e ien y The least squares obje tive fun tion is

s(β) =

n X t=1

Supposing that

ε

yt − x′t β

2

is normally distributed, the model is

y = Xβ0 + ε,

ε ∼ N (0, σ02 In ), so   n Y 1 ε2t √ f (ε) = exp − 2 2σ 2πσ 2 t=1 The joint density for

y

∂ε so ∂y ′

= 1,

=

∂ε In and | ∂y ′|

an be onstru ted using a hange of variables. We have so

n Y



(yt − x′t β)2 √ f (y) = exp − 2σ 2 2πσ 2 t=1 Taking logs,

1



ε = y − Xβ,

.

n X √ (yt − x′t β)2 ln L(β, σ) = −n ln 2π − n ln σ − . 2σ 2 t=1

It's lear that the fon for the MLE of

β0

are the same as the fon for OLS (up to multipli ation

the estimators are the same, under the present assumptions. Therefore, their properties are the same. In parti ular, under the lassi al assumptions with normality, the OLS estimator βˆ is asymptoti ally e ient.

by a onstant), so

As we'll see later, it will be possible to use (iterated) linear estimation methods and still a hieve asymptoti e ien y even if the assumption that normally distributed. This is

V ar(ε) 6= σ 2 In ,

not the ase if ε is nonnormal.

as long as

ε

is still

In general with nonnormal errors

it will be ne essary to use nonlinear estimation methods to a hieve asymptoti ally e ient estimation. That possibility is addressed in the se ond half of the notes.

58CHAPTER 5.

ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF THE LEAST SQUARES ESTIMATOR

5.4 Exer ises 1. Write an O tave program that generates a histogram for

 √ ˆ n βj − βj ,

where

βˆ is

the OLS estimator and

βj

R

Monte Carlo repli ations of

is one of the

k

slope parameters.

R

should be a large number, at least 1000. The model used to generate data should follow the lassi al assumptions, ex ept that the errors should not be normally distributed (try

U (−a, a), t(p), χ2 (p) − p,

et ). Generate histograms for

observe eviden e of asymptoti normality? Comment.

n ∈ {20, 50, 100, 1000} .

Do you

Chapter 6 Restri tions and hypothesis tests 6.1 Exa t linear restri tions In many ases, e onomi theory suggests restri tions on the parameters of a model.

For

example, a demand fun tion is supposed to be homogeneous of degree zero in pri es and in ome. If we have a Cobb-Douglas (log-linear) model,

ln q = β0 + β1 ln p1 + β2 ln p2 + β3 ln m + ε, then we need that

k0 ln q = β0 + β1 ln kp1 + β2 ln kp2 + β3 ln km + ε, so

β1 ln p1 + β2 ln p2 + β3 ln m = β1 ln kp1 + β2 ln kp2 + β3 ln km = (ln k) (β1 + β2 + β3 ) + β1 ln p1 + β2 ln p2 + β3 ln m. The only way to guarantee this for arbitrary

k

is to set

β1 + β2 + β3 = 0, whi h is a

parameter restri tion.

In parti ular, this is a linear equality restri tion, whi h is

probably the most ommonly en ountered ase.

6.1.1 Imposition The general formulation of linear equality restri tions is the model

y = Xβ + ε Rβ = r where

R

is a

Q×K

matrix,

Q
and

r

is a

Q×1

59

ve tor of onstants.

60

CHAPTER 6.



We assume

R



We also assume that

is of rank

∃β

Let's onsider how to estimate

Q,

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

so that there are no redundant restri tions.

that satises the restri tions: they aren't infeasible.

β subje t to the restri tions Rβ = r. The most obvious approa h

is to set up the Lagrangean

min s(β) = β

1 (y − Xβ)′ (y − Xβ) + 2λ′ (Rβ − r). n

The Lagrange multipliers are s aled by 2, whi h makes things less messy. The fon are

ˆ λ) ˆ = −2X ′ y + 2X ′ X βˆR + 2R′ λ ˆ≡0 Dβ s(β, ˆ λ) ˆ = RβˆR − r ≡ 0, Dλ s(β, "

whi h an be written as

We get

"

X ′ X R′

βˆR ˆ λ

R #

0

=

"

#"

βˆR ˆ λ

#

X ′ X R′ R

0

=

"

X ′y

#−1 "

r

#

X ′y r

.

#

.

Maybe you're urious about how to invert a partitioned matrix? I an help you with that:

Note that

"

(X ′ X)−1

0

−R (X ′ X)−1 IQ

#"

X ′ X R′ R

0

#

≡ AB = ≡

"

"

IK

(X ′ X)−1 R′

0

−R (X ′ X)−1 R′ # (X ′ X)−1 R′

IK 0

−P

≡ C, and

"

IK

(X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1

0

−P −1

#"

IK

(X ′ X)−1 R′

0

−P

#

≡ DC = IK+Q ,

#

6.1.

61

EXACT LINEAR RESTRICTIONS

so

DAB = IK+Q DA = " B −1 # #" (X ′ X)−1 0 IK (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 −1 B = −R (X ′ X)−1 IQ 0 −P −1 # " (X ′ X)−1 − (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 R (X ′ X)−1 (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 , = P −1 R (X ′ X)−1 −P −1 If you weren't urious about that, please start paying attention again. Also, note that we have

P = R (X ′ X)−1 R′ )

made the denition

"

βˆR ˆ λ

#

=

"

(X ′ X)−1 − (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 R (X ′ X)−1 (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1

P −1 R (X ′ X)−1 −P −1    βˆ − (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 Rβˆ − r     = P −1 Rβˆ − r # " "  # ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 r (X IK − (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 R βˆ + = −P −1 r P −1 R 

X ′y r

#

ˆ are linear fun tions of βˆ makes it easy to determine their distributions, λ ˆ is already known. Re all that for x a random ve tor, and for A and sin e the distribution of β The fa t that

b

βˆR

#"

and

a matrix and ve tor of onstants, respe tively,

V ar (Ax + b) = AV ar(x)A′ .

Though this is the obvious way to go about nding the restri ted estimator, an easier way, if the number of restri tions is small, is to impose them by substitution. Write

h where

R1

is

Q×Q

an always make

R1 R2

i

"

β1 β2

y = X1 β1 + X2 β2 + ε # = r

nonsingular. Supposing the

R1

Q

restri tions are linearly independent, one

nonsingular by reorganizing the olumns of

X.

Then

β1 = R1−1 r − R1−1 R2 β2 . Substitute this into the model

y = X1 R1−1 r − X1 R1−1 R2 β2 + X2 β2 + ε   y − X1 R1−1 r = X2 − X1 R1−1 R2 β2 + ε

or with the appropriate denitions,

yR = XR β2 + ε.

62

CHAPTER 6.

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

This model satises the lassi al assumptions, estimate by OLS. The varian e of

βˆ2

supposing the restri tion is true.

is as before

′ V (βˆ2 ) = XR XR and the estimator is

′ Vˆ (βˆ2 ) = XR XR where one estimates

βˆ1 , use ˆ2 , so of β

To re over fun tion

σ02

−1 −1

σ02

σ ˆ2

in the normal way, using the restri ted model,

c2 = σ 0

One an

i.e.,

 ′   yR − XR βb2 yR − XR βb2 n − (K − Q)

the restri tion. To nd the varian e of

βˆ1 ,

use the fa t that it is a linear

′ V (βˆ1 ) = R1−1 R2 V (βˆ2 )R2′ R1−1 −1 ′ ′ R2 R1−1 σ02 = R1−1 R2 X2′ X2

6.1.2 Properties of the restri ted estimator We have that

  βˆR = βˆ − (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 Rβˆ − r

= βˆ + (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 r − (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 R(X ′ X)−1 X ′ y

= β + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε + (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 [r − Rβ] − (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 R(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε

βˆR − β = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε

+ (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 [r − Rβ]

− (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 R(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε

Mean squared error is

M SE(βˆR ) = E(βˆR − β)(βˆR − β)′ Noting that the rosses between the se ond term and the other terms expe t to zero, and that the ross of the rst and third has a an ellation with the square of the third, we obtain

M SE(βˆR ) = (X ′ X)−1 σ 2 + (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 [r − Rβ] [r − Rβ]′ P −1 R(X ′ X)−1 − (X ′ X)−1 R′ P −1 R(X ′ X)−1 σ 2

So, the rst term is the OLS ovarian e. The se ond term is PSD, and the third term is NSD.



If the restri tion is true, the se ond term is 0, so we are better o.

improve e ien y of estimation.

True restri tions

6.2.

63

TESTING



If the restri tion is false, we may be better or worse o, in terms of MSE, depending on the magnitudes of

r − Rβ

and

σ2.

6.2 Testing In many ases, one wishes to test e onomi theories. If theory suggests parameter restri tions, as in the above homogeneity example, one an test theory by testing parameter restri tions. A number of tests are available.

6.2.1 t-test Suppose one has the model

y = Xβ + ε and one wishes to test the

single restri tion H0 :Rβ = r

HA :Rβ 6= r

vs.

normality of the errors,

Rβˆ − r ∼ N 0, R(X ′ X)−1 R′ σ02 so

The problem is that

p

σ02

Rβˆ − r

R(X ′ X)−1 R′ σ02

=

σ0

p

Rβˆ − r

R(X ′ X)−1 R′

H0 ,

with



∼ N (0, 1) .

is unknown. One ould use the onsistent estimator

but the test would only be valid asymptoti ally in this ase.

Proposition 4

. Under

c2 σ 0

in pla e of

N (0, 1) q 2 ∼ t(q) χ (q) q

σ02 ,

(6.1)

as long as the N (0, 1) and the χ2 (q) are independent. We need a few results on the

χ2

distribution.

Proposition 5 If x ∼ N (µ, In ) is a ve tor of n independent r.v.'s., then x′ x ∼ χ2 (n, λ)

where λ =

P

When a

2 i µi

χ2

= µ′ µ

is the

(6.2)

non entrality parameter.

r.v. has the non entrality parameter equal to zero, it is referred to as a entral

χ2 r.v., and it's distribution is written as

χ2 (n),

suppressing the non entrality parameter.

Proposition 6 If the n dimensional random ve tor x ∼ N (0, V ), then x′ V −1 x ∼ χ2 (n). We'll prove this one as an indi ation of how the following unproven propositions ould be proved.

64

CHAPTER 6.

Proof: Fa tor

V −1

as

P ′P

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

(this is the Cholesky fa torization, where

y = P x.

upper triangular). Then onsider

P

is dened to be

We have

y ∼ N (0, P V P ′ ) but

so

P V P ′ = In

and thus

y ∼ N (0, In ).

V P ′P

= In

P V P ′P

= P

Thus

y ′ y ∼ χ2 (n)

but

y ′ y = x′ P ′ P x = xV −1 x and we get the result we wanted. A more general proposition whi h implies this result is

Proposition 7 If the n dimensional random ve tor x ∼ N (0, V ), then x′ Bx ∼ χ2 (ρ(B))

(6.3)

if and only if BV is idempotent. An immediate onsequen e is

Proposition 8 If the random ve tor (of dimension n) x ∼ N (0, I), and B is idempotent with

rank r, then

x′ Bx ∼ χ2 (r).

(6.4)

Consider the random variable

εˆ′ εˆ = σ02

ε′ MX ε σ02    ′ ε ε MX = σ0 σ0 ∼ χ2 (n − K)

Proposition 9 If the random ve tor (of dimension n) x ∼ N (0, I), then Ax and x′ Bx are

independent if AB = 0.

Now onsider (remember that we have only one restri tion in this ase)

ˆ

σ0

√ Rβ−r R(X ′ X)−1 R′ q = ′ εˆ εˆ (n−K)σ02

σ0 c

p

Rβˆ − r

R(X ′ X)−1 R′

6.2.

65

TESTING

This will have the

t(n−K) distribution if βˆ and εˆ′ εˆ are independent.

But

βˆ = β +(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε

and

(X ′ X)−1 X ′ MX = 0, so

σ0 c

p

Rβˆ − r Rβˆ − r = ∼ t(n − K) σ ˆRβˆ R(X ′ X)−1 R′

In parti ular, for the ommonly en ountered for whi h

H0 : βi = 0

vs.

H0 : βi 6= 0

test of signi an e

of an individual oe ient,

, the test statisti is

βˆi ∼ t(n − K) σ ˆβi ˆ • Note:

the

t−

test is stri tly valid only if the errors are a tually normally distributed.

If one has nonnormal errors, one ould use the above asymptoti result to justify taking

riti al values from the

N (0, 1)

distribution, sin e

d

t(n − K) → N (0, 1)

In pra ti e, a onservative pro edure is to take riti al values from the if nonnormality is suspe ted.

This will reje t

H0

less often sin e the

t

t

as

n → ∞.

distribution

distribution is

fatter-tailed than is the normal.

6.2.2 The

F

F

test

test allows testing multiple restri tions jointly.

Proposition 10 If x ∼ χ2 (r) and y ∼ χ2 (s), then x/r ∼ F (r, s) y/s

(6.5)

provided that x and y are independent. Proposition 11 If the random ve tor (of dimension n) x ∼ N (0, I), then x′ Ax and x′ Bx are

independent if AB = 0.

Using these results, and previous results on the the following statisti has the

F =

F

χ2

distribution, it is simple to show that

distribution:

−1    ′  Rβˆ − r Rβˆ − r R (X ′ X)−1 R′ qˆ σ2

∼ F (q, n − K).

A numeri ally equivalent expression is

(ESSR − ESSU ) /q ∼ F (q, n − K). ESSU /(n − K) • Note:

The

F

test is stri tly valid only if the errors are truly normally distributed. The

following tests will be appropriate when one annot assume normally distributed errors.

66

CHAPTER 6.

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

6.2.3 Wald-type tests The Wald prin iple is based on the idea that if a restri tion is true, the unrestri ted model should approximately satisfy the restri tion. Given that the least squares estimator is asymptoti ally normally distributed:

then under

H0 : Rβ0 = r,

Q−1 X

or

σ02

we have

  √  d ′ n Rβˆ − r → N 0, σ02 RQ−1 X R

so by Proposition [6℄

Note that

  √  d n βˆ − β0 → N 0, σ02 Q−1 X

  ′   d ′ −1 ˆ−r → R β n Rβˆ − r R χ2 (q) σ02 RQ−1 X are not observable. The test statisti we use substitutes the onsistent es-

′ −1 as the onsistent estimator of timators. Use (X X/n) of

n′ s,

Q−1 X . With this, there is a an ellation

and the statisti to use is

 ′     d c2 R(X ′ X)−1 R′ −1 Rβˆ − r → Rβˆ − r σ χ2 (q) 0



The Wald test is a simple way to test restri tions without having to estimate the re-



Note that this formula is similar to one of the formulae provided for the

stri ted model.

F

test.

6.2.4 S ore-type tests (Rao tests, Lagrange multiplier tests) In some ases, an unrestri ted model may be nonlinear in the parameters, but the model is linear in the parameters under the null hypothesis. For example, the model

y = (Xβ)γ + ε is nonlinear in

β

and

γ,

but is linear in

β

under

H0 : γ = 1.

Estimation of nonlinear models

is a bit more ompli ated, so one might prefer to have a test based upon the restri ted, linear model. The s ore test is useful in this situation.



S ore-type tests are based upon the general prin iple that the gradient ve tor of the unrestri ted model, evaluated at the restri ted estimate, should be asymptoti ally normally distributed with mean zero, if the restri tions are true. The original development was for ML estimation, but the prin iple is valid for a wide variety of estimation methods.

6.2.

67

TESTING

We have seen that

 −1  Rβˆ − r R(X ′ X)−1 R′   = P −1 Rβˆ − r

ˆ = λ

so



Given that

nPˆλ =

 √  n Rβˆ − r

  √  ˆ d ′ n Rβ − r → N 0, σ02 RQ−1 X R

under the null hypothesis, we obtain

 √ d ′ nPˆλ → N 0, σ02 RQ−1 X R

So

Noting that

√

′    d −1 ′ −1 √ ˆ 2 ˆ nP λ σ0 RQX R nP λ → χ2 (q)

−1 ′ R, lim nP = RQX

we obtain,

ˆ′ λ sin e the powers of

n



R(X ′ X)−1 R′ σ02



d ˆ→ λ χ2 (q)

an el. To get a usable test statisti substitute a onsistent estimator of

σ02 . •

This makes it lear why the test is sometimes referred to as a Lagrange multiplier test. It may seem that one needs the a tual Lagrange multipliers to al ulate this.

If we

impose the restri tions by substitution, these are not available. Note that the test an be written as



′

ˆ R′ λ

ˆ (X ′ X)−1 R′ λ σ02

d

→ χ2 (q)

However, we an use the fon for the restri ted estimator:

ˆ −X ′ y + X ′ X βˆR + R′ λ to get that

ˆ = X ′ (y − X βˆR ) R′ λ = X ′ εˆR

Substituting this into the above, we get

εˆ′R X(X ′ X)−1 X ′ εˆR d 2 → χ (q) σ02

68

CHAPTER 6.

but this is simply

εˆ′R

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

PX d εˆR → χ2 (q). 2 σ0

To see why the test is also known as a s ore test, note that the fon for restri ted least squares

ˆ −X ′ y + X ′ X βˆR + R′ λ give us

ˆ = X ′ y − X ′ X βˆR R′ λ and the rhs is simply the gradient (s ore) of the unrestri ted model, evaluated at the restri ted estimator. The s ores evaluated at the unrestri ted estimate are identi ally zero. The logi behind the s ore test is that the s ores evaluated at the restri ted estimate should be approximately zero, if the restri tion is true. The test is also known as a Rao test, sin e P. Rao rst proposed it in 1948.

6.2.5 Likelihood ratio-type tests The Wald test an be al ulated using the unrestri ted model. The s ore test an be al ulated using only the restri ted model. The likelihood ratio test, on the other hand, uses both the restri ted and the unrestri ted estimators. The test statisti is

  ˆ − ln L(θ) ˜ LR = 2 ln L(θ) where

θˆ

is the unrestri ted estimate and

asymptoti ally

χ2 ,

θ˜

is the restri ted estimate.

take a se ond order Taylor's series expansion of

˜ ≃ ln L(θ) ˆ + ln L(θ) (note, the rst order term drops out sin e

n

the se ond-order term by

sin e

H(θ)

To show that it is

˜ ln L(θ)

about

  n  ˜ ˆ′ ˆ θ˜ − θˆ θ − θ H(θ) 2

ˆ ≡0 Dθ ln L(θ)

by the fon and we need to multiply

is dened in terms of

1 n

ln L(θ))

so

 ′   ˆ θ˜ − θˆ LR ≃ −n θ˜ − θˆ H(θ) As

ˆ → H∞ (θ0 ) = −I(θ0 ), n → ∞, H(θ)

θˆ :

by the information matrix equality. So

 ′   a LR = n θ˜ − θˆ I∞ (θ0 ) θ˜ − θˆ

??℄ that

We also have that, from [

 √  a n θˆ − θ0 = I∞ (θ0 )−1 n1/2 g(θ0 ).

6.3.

THE ASYMPTOTIC EQUIVALENCE OF THE LR, WALD AND SCORE TESTS

69

An analogous result for the restri ted estimator is (this is unproven here, to prove this set up the Lagrangean for MLE subje t to

Rβ = r,

and manipulate the rst order onditions) :

   −1 √ ˜ a n θ − θ0 = I∞ (θ0 )−1 In − R′ RI∞ (θ0 )−1 R′ RI∞ (θ0 )−1 n1/2 g(θ0 ).

Combining the last two equations

 −1 √  a n θ˜ − θˆ = −n1/2 I∞ (θ0 )−1 R′ RI∞ (θ0 )−1 R′ RI∞ (θ0 )−1 g(θ0 )

??℄

so, substituting into [

But sin e

i h i −1 h a LR = n1/2 g(θ0 )′ I∞ (θ0 )−1 R′ RI∞ (θ0 )−1 R′ RI∞ (θ0 )−1 n1/2 g(θ0 ) d

n1/2 g(θ0 ) → N (0, I∞ (θ0 )) the linear fun tion

d

RI∞ (θ0 )−1 n1/2 g(θ0 ) → N (0, RI∞ (θ0 )−1 R′ ). We an see that LR is a quadrati form of this rv, with the inverse of its varian e in the middle, so

d

LR → χ2 (q).

6.3 The asymptoti equivalen e of the LR, Wald and s ore tests We have seen that the three tests all onverge to to the

same

χ2 random variables.

In fa t, they all onverge

χ2 rv, under the null hypothesis. We'll show that the Wald and LR tests are

asymptoti ally equivalent. We have seen that the Wald test is asymptoti ally equivalent to

Using

 ′    a d ′ −1 ˆ−r → W = n Rβˆ − r R β R σ02 RQ−1 χ2 (q) X βˆ − β0 = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε

and

Rβˆ − r = R(βˆ − β0 ) we get



nR(βˆ − β0 ) =



nR(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε  ′ −1 XX n−1/2 X ′ ε = R n

70

CHAPTER 6.

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

??℄ to get

Substitute this into [

a

a

= a

= where



PR

−1

′ RQ−1 X X ε −1 a = ε′ X(X ′ X)−1 R′ σ02 R(X ′ X)−1 R′ R(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε −1 ′ ′ 2 = n−1 ε′ XQ−1 X R σ0 RQX R

W

ε′ A(A′ A)−1 A′ ε σ02 ε′ PR ε σ02

is the proje tion matrix formed by the matrix

Note that this matrix is idempotent and has rank

q

X(X ′ X)−1 R′ .

olumns, so the proje tion matrix has

q.

Now onsider the likelihood ratio statisti

a

LR = n1/2 g(θ0 )′ I(θ0 )−1 R′ RI(θ0 )−1 R′

−1

RI(θ0 )−1 n1/2 g(θ0 )

Under normality, we have seen that the likelihood fun tion is

√ 1 (y − Xβ)′ (y − Xβ) ln L(β, σ) = −n ln 2π − n ln σ − . 2 σ2 Using this,

1 ln L(β, σ) n X ′ (y − Xβ0 ) nσ 2 ′ Xε nσ 2

g(β0 ) ≡ Dβ = = Also, by the information matrix equality:

I(θ0 ) = −H∞ (θ0 ) = lim −Dβ ′ g(β0 ) X ′ (y − Xβ0 ) = lim −Dβ ′ nσ 2 ′ XX = lim nσ 2 QX = σ2 so

I(θ0 )−1 = σ 2 Q−1 X

6.3.

THE ASYMPTOTIC EQUIVALENCE OF THE LR, WALD AND SCORE TESTS

71

??℄, we get

Substituting these last expressions into [

a

LR = ε′ X ′ (X ′ X)−1 R′ σ02 R(X ′ X)−1 R′ ε′ PR ε a = σ02

−1

R(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε

a

= W This ompletes the proof that the Wald and LR tests are asymptoti ally equivalent. Similarly, one an show that,

under the null hypothesis, a

a

a

qF = W = LM = LR •

The proof for the statisti s ex ept for



The



LR does not depend upon normality

of the errors,

as an be veried by examining the expressions for the statisti s.

LR

statisti

is

based upon distributional assumptions, sin e one an't write the

likelihood fun tion without them.

However, due to the lose relationship between the statisti s normality, the

qF

statisti an be thought of as a

qF

and

pseudo-LR statisti ,

LR,

supposing

in that it's like

a LR statisti in that it uses the value of the obje tive fun tions of the restri ted and unrestri ted models, but it doesn't require distributional assumptions.



The presentation of the s ore and Wald tests has been done in the ontext of the linear model.

This is readily generalizable to nonlinear models and/or other estimation

methods.

Though the four statisti s

are

asymptoti ally equivalent, they are numeri ally dierent in

small samples. The numeri values of the tests also depend upon how

σ2

is estimated, and

we've already seen than there are several ways to do this. For example all of the following are

onsistent for

σ2

under

H0

εˆ′ εˆ n−k εˆ′ εˆ n εˆ′R εˆR n−k+q εˆ′R εˆR n and in general the denominator all be repla ed with any quantity

a

su h that

lim a/n = 1.

It an be shown, for linear regression models subje t to linear restri tions, and if used to al ulate the Wald test and

εˆ′R εˆR is used for the s ore test, that n

W > LR > LM.

εˆ′ εˆ n is

72

CHAPTER 6.

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

For this reason, the Wald test will always reje t if the LR test reje ts, and in turn the LR test reje ts if the LM test reje ts. This is a bit problemati : there is the possibility that by

areful hoi e of the statisti used, one an manipulate reported results to favor or disfavor a hypothesis. A onservative/honest approa h would be to report all three test statisti s when they are available. In the ase of linear models with normal errors the

F

test is to be preferred,

sin e asymptoti approximations are not an issue. The small sample behavior of the tests an be quite dierent. The true size (probability of reje tion of the null when the null is true) of the Wald test is often dramati ally higher than the nominal size asso iated with the asymptoti distribution. Likewise, the true size of the s ore test is often smaller than the nominal size.

6.4 Interpretation of test statisti s Now that we have a menu of test statisti s, we need to know how to use them.

6.5 Conden e intervals Conden e intervals for single oe ients are generated in the normal manner. Given the statisti

t(β) = a

100 (1 − α) %

t(β)

onden e interval for

does not reje t

H0 : β0 = β,

β0

using a

βˆ − β σ cβˆ

is dened by the bounds of the set of

α

β

su h that

signi an e level:

C(α) = {β : −cα/2 < The set of su h

β

t

is the interval

βˆ − β < cα/2 } σ cβˆ

βˆ ± σ cβˆ cα/2

A onden e ellipse for two oe ients jointly would be, analogously, the set of {β1 , β2 }

su h that the

F

(or some other test statisti ) doesn't reje t at the spe ied riti al value. This

generates an ellipse, if the estimators are orrelated.



The region is an ellipse, sin e the CI for an individual oe ient denes a (innitely long) re tangle with total prob. mass

1 − α,

sin e the other oe ient is marginalized

(e.g., an take on any value). Sin e the ellipse is bounded in both dimensions but also

ontains mass



1 − α,

it must extend beyond the bounds of the individual CI.

From the pi tue we an see that:



Reje tion of hypotheses individually does not imply that the joint test will reje t.



Joint reje tion does not imply individal tests will reje t.

6.5.

CONFIDENCE INTERVALS

Figure 6.1: Joint and Individual Conden e Regions

73

74

CHAPTER 6.

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

6.6 Bootstrapping When we rely on asymptoti theory to use the normal distribution-based tests and onden e intervals, we're often at serious risk of making important errors. If the sample size is small and errors are highly nonnormal, the small sample distribution of

 √ ˆ n β − β0

may be very

dierent than its large sample distribution. Also, the distributions of test statisti s may not resemble their limiting distributions at all. A means of trying to gain information on the small sample distribution of test statisti s and estimators is the

bootstrap.

We'll onsider a simple

example, just to get the main idea. Suppose that

y

=

Xβ0 + ε

ε



IID(0, σ02 )

X Given that the distribution of samples.

ε

is nonsto hasti

is unknown, the distribution of

βˆ

will be unknown in small

However, sin e we have random sampling, we ould generate

arti ial data.

The

steps are: 1. Draw

n

observations from

εˆ with repla ement.

2. Then generate the data by

Call this ve tor

ε˜j

(it's a

n × 1).

y˜j = X βˆ + ε˜j

3. Now take this and estimate

β˜j = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ y˜j . 4. Save

β˜j J,

5. Repeat steps 1-4, until we have a large number, With this, we an use the repli ations to al ulate the form a 100(1-α)% onden e interval for and drop the rst and last

Jα/2

β0

of

β˜j .

empiri al distribution of β˜j . One way to

would be to order the

β˜j

from smallest to largest,

of the repli ations, and use the remaining endpoints as the

limits of the CI. Note that this will not give the shortest CI if the empiri al distribution is skewed.



Suppose one was interested in the distribution of some fun tion of test statisti . Simple: just al ulate the transformation for ea h

j,

ˆ β,

for example a

and work with the

empiri al distribution of the transformation.



If the assumption of iid errors is too strong (for example if there is heteros edasti ity or auto orrelation, see below) one an work with a bootstrap dened by sampling from

(y, x) •

with repla ement.

How to hoose

J: J

should be large enough that the results don't hange with repetition

of the entire bootstrap. in rease

J

and try again.

This is easy to he k.

If you nd the results hange a lot,

6.7.

75

TESTING NONLINEAR RESTRICTIONS, AND THE DELTA METHOD



The bootstrap is based fundamentally on the idea that the empiri al distribution of the sample data onverges to the a tual sampling distribution as

n

be omes large, so statis-

ti s based on sampling from the empiri al distribution should onverge in distribution to statisti s based on sampling from the a tual sampling distribution.



In nite samples, this doesn't hold.

At a minimum, the bootstrap is a good way to

he k if asymptoti theory results oer a de ent approximation to the small sample distribution.



Bootstrapping an be used to test hypotheses.

Basi ally, use the bootstrap to get an

approximation to the empiri al distribution of the test statisti under the alternative hypothesis, and use this to get riti al values.

Compare the test statisti al ulated

using the real data, under the null, to the bootstrap riti al values.

There are many

variations on this theme, whi h we won't go into here.

6.7 Testing nonlinear restri tions, and the delta method Testing nonlinear restri tions of a linear model is not mu h more di ult, at least when the model is linear. Sin e estimation subje t to nonlinear restri tions requires nonlinear estimation methods, whi h are beyond the s ore of this ourse, we'll just onsider the Wald test for nonlinear restri tions on a linear model. Consider the

q

nonlinear restri tions

r(β0 ) = 0. where

β

r(·)

is a

q -ve tor

valued fun tion. Write the derivative of the restri tion evaluated at

as

Dβ ′ r(β) β = R(β)

We suppose that the restri tions are not redundant in a neighborhood of

β0 ,

so that

ρ(R(β)) = q in a neighborhood of

β0 .

Take a rst order Taylor's series expansion of

ˆ r(β)

about

ˆ = r(β0 ) + R(β ∗ )(βˆ − β0 ) r(β) where

β∗

is a onvex ombination of

βˆ

and

β0 .

Under the null hypothesis we have

ˆ = R(β ∗ )(βˆ − β0 ) r(β) Due to onsisten y of

βˆ

we an repla e



β∗

by

a



ˆ = nr(β)

β0 ,

asymptoti ally, so

nR(β0 )(βˆ − β0 )

β0 :

76

CHAPTER 6.

We've already seen the distribution of



RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

n(βˆ − β0 ).

Using this we get

 √ d ′ 2 ˆ → nr(β) N 0, R(β0 )Q−1 X R(β0 ) σ0 .

Considering the quadrati form

ˆ ′ R(β0 )Q−1 R(β0 )′ nr(β) X σ02

−1

ˆ r(β)

d

→ χ2 (q)

under the null hypothesis. Substituting onsistent estimators for statisti is

−1  ′ X)−1 R(β) ˆ ˆ′ ˆ ˆ ′ R(β)(X r(β) r(β) c2 σ

under the null hypothesis.

β0, QX

and

σ02 ,

the resulting

d

→ χ2 (q)

delta method, or as Klein's approximation.



This is known in the literature as the



Sin e this is a Wald test, it will tend to over-reje t in nite samples. The s ore and LR tests are also possibilities, but they require estimation methods for nonlinear models, whi h aren't in the s ope of this ourse.

Note that this also gives a onvenient way to estimate nonlinear fun tions and asso iated

r(β0 ) is not hypothesized to be zero,

asymptoti onden e intervals. If the nonlinear fun tion we just have

  √  d ′ 2 ˆ − r(β0 ) → n r(β) N 0, R(β0 )Q−1 X R(β0 ) σ0

so an approximation to the distribution of the fun tion of the estimator is

ˆ ≈ N (r(β0 ), R(β0 )(X ′ X)−1 R(β0 )′ σ 2 ) r(β) 0 For example, the ve tor of elasti ities of a fun tion

η(x) = where



f (x)

is

x ∂f (x) ⊙ ∂x f (x)

means element-by-element multipli ation. Suppose we estimate a linear fun tion

y = x′ β + ε. The elasti ities of

y

w.r.t.

x

are

η(x) =

β ⊙x x′ β

(note that this is the entire ve tor of elasti ities). The estimated elasti ities are

ηb(x) =

βˆ ⊙x x′ βˆ

6.8.

77

EXAMPLE: THE NERLOVE DATA

To al ulate the estimated standard errors of all ve elasti ites, use

R(β) =

=

∂η(x) ∂β ′  x1 0 · · · 0  .  0 x . . 2   . ..  .. . 0  0 · · · 0 xk



     ′  x β −     

x.

β1 x21

0

0

β2 x22

βˆ.

···

. . .

..

0

···

(x′ β)2

To get a onsistent estimator just substitute in error are fun tions of



0



0 . . .

0

.

βk x2k

     

.

Note that the elasti ity and the standard

The program ExampleDeltaMethod.m shows how this an be done.

In many ases, nonlinear restri tions an also involve the data, not just the parameters. For example, onsider a model of expenditure shares. Let

p

is pri es and

m

x(p, m) be a demand fun ion, where

is in ome. An expenditure share system for

si (p, m) =

G

goods is

pi xi (p, m) , i = 1, 2, ..., G. m

Now demand must be positive, and we assume that expenditures sum to in ome, so we have the restri tions

G X

0 ≤ si (p, m) ≤ 1, ∀i si (p, m)

=

1

i=1

Suppose we postulate a linear model for the expenditure shares:

i si (p, m) = β1i + p′ βpi + mβm + εi It is fairly easy to write restri tions su h that the shares sum to one, but the restri tion that the shares lie in the

[0, 1]

interval depends on both parameters and the values of

is impossible to impose the restri tion that

0 ≤ si (p, m) ≤ 1

for all possible

p

p

and

and

m.

m.

It

In su h

ases, one might onsider whether or not a linear model is a reasonable spe i ation.

6.8 Example: the Nerlove data Remember that we in a previous example (se tion 3.8.3) that the OLS results for the Nerlove model are

********************************************************* OLS estimation results Observations 145

78

CHAPTER 6.

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

R-squared 0.925955 Sigma-squared 0.153943 Results (Ordinary var- ov estimator)

onstant output labor fuel

apital

estimate -3.527 0.720 0.436 0.427 -0.220

st.err. 1.774 0.017 0.291 0.100 0.339

t-stat. -1.987 41.244 1.499 4.249 -0.648

p-value 0.049 0.000 0.136 0.000 0.518

*********************************************************

Note that

sK = βK < 0,

and that

βL + βF + βK 6= 1.

Remember that if we have onstant returns to s ale, then geneity of degree 1 then

βL + βF + βK = 1.

βQ = 1,

and if there is homo-

We an test these hypotheses either separately or

jointly. NerloveRestri tions.m imposes and tests CRTS and then HOD1. From it we obtain the results that follow:

Imposing and testing HOD1 ******************************************************* Restri ted LS estimation results Observations 145 R-squared 0.925652 Sigma-squared 0.155686

onstant output labor fuel

apital

estimate -4.691 0.721 0.593 0.414 -0.007

st.err. 0.891 0.018 0.206 0.100 0.192

t-stat. -5.263 41.040 2.878 4.159 -0.038

p-value 0.000 0.000 0.005 0.000 0.969

******************************************************* Value p-value F 0.574 0.450 Wald 0.594 0.441 LR 0.593 0.441 S ore 0.592 0.442

6.8.

79

EXAMPLE: THE NERLOVE DATA

Imposing and testing CRTS ******************************************************* Restri ted LS estimation results Observations 145 R-squared 0.790420 Sigma-squared 0.438861 estimate -7.530 1.000 0.020 0.715 0.076

onstant output labor fuel

apital

st.err. 2.966 0.000 0.489 0.167 0.572

t-stat. -2.539 Inf 0.040 4.289 0.132

p-value 0.012 0.000 0.968 0.000 0.895

******************************************************* Value p-value F 256.262 0.000 Wald 265.414 0.000 LR 150.863 0.000 S ore 93.771 0.000

Noti e that the input pri e oe ients in fa t sum to 1 when HOD1 is imposed. HOD1 is

e.g., α = 0.10).

not reje ted at usual signi an e levels (

Also,

R2

does not drop mu h when

the restri tion is imposed, ompared to the unrestri ted results. For CRTS, you should note

βQ = 1 is 2 reje ted by the test statisti s at all reasonable signi an e levels. Note that R drops quite a that

βQ = 1,

so the restri tion is satised.

Also note that the hypothesis that

bit when imposing CRTS. If you look at the unrestri ted estimation results, you an see that a t-test for

βQ = 1

also reje ts, and that a onden e interval for

βQ

does not overlap 1.

From the point of view of neo lassi al e onomi theory, these results are not anomalous: HOD1 is an impli ation of the theory, but CRTS is not.

Exer ise 12 Modify the NerloveRestri tions.m program to impose and test the restri tions

jointly.

The Chow test

Sin e CRTS is reje ted, let's examine the possibilities more arefully. Re all

that the data is sorted by output (the third olumn). Dene 5 subsamples of rms, with the rst group being the 29 rms with the lowest output levels, then the next 29 rms, et . The ve subsamples an be indexed by

t = 30, 31, ...58,

j = 1, 2, ..., 5,

where

j = 1

for

t = 1, 2, ...29, j = 2

for

et . Dene a pie ewise linear model

ln Ct = β1j + β2j ln Qt + β3j ln PLt + β4j ln PF t + β5j ln PKt + ǫt

(6.6)

80

CHAPTER 6.

j

where

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

is a supers ript (not a power) that ini ates that the oe ients may be dierent

a

ording to the subsample in whi h the observation falls. upon

j

whi h in turn depends upon

That is, the oe ients depend

t. Note that the rst olumn of nerlove.data

indi ates this

way of breaking up the sample. The new model may be written as



y1





X1 0

    y2   0     ..   ..  . = .          y5 0 where

y1

ǫj is the

is 29×1,

29 × 1

X1

is 29×5,

βj

X2

···

0

X3 X4

is the

5×1



β1





ǫ1



 2      β2     ǫ      . + .   .          0     5 5 β ǫ X5

ve tor of oe ient for the

j th

(6.7)

subsample, and

th subsample. ve tor of errors for the j

The O tave program Restri tions/ChowTest.m estimates the above model. It also tests the hypothesis that the ve subsamples share the same parameter ve tor, or in other words, that there is oe ient stability a ross the ve subsamples. The null to test is that the parameter ve tors for the separate groups are all the same, that is,

β1 = β2 = β3 = β4 = β5 This type of test, that parameters are onstant a ross dierent sets of data, is sometimes referred to as a

Chow test.



There are 20 restri tions. If that's not lear to you, look at the O tave program.



The restri tions are reje ted at all onventional signi an e levels.

Sin e the restri tions are reje ted, we should probably use the unrestri ted model for analysis. What is the pattern of RTS as a fun tion of the output group (small to large)? Figure 6.2 plots RTS. We an see that there is in reasing RTS for small rms, but that RTS is approximately

onstant for large rms.

6.9 Exer ises 1. Using the Chow test on the Nerlove model, we reje t that there is oe ient stability a ross the 5 groups. But perhaps we ould restri t the input pri e oe ients to be the same but let the onstant and output oe ients vary by group size. This new model is

ln Ci = β1j + β2j ln Qi + β3 ln PLi + β4 ln PF i + β5 ln PKi + ǫi (a) estimate this model by OLS, giving

(6.8)

R2 , estimated standard errors for oe ients, t-

statisti s for tests of signi an e, and the asso iated p-values. Interpret the results in detail.

6.9.

81

EXERCISES

Figure 6.2: RTS as a fun tion of rm size 2.6 RTS 2.4

2.2

2

1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2

1 1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

(b) Test the restri tions implied by this model (relative to the model that lets all

oe ients vary a ross groups) using the F, qF, Wald, s ore and likelihood ratio tests. Comment on the results. ( ) Estimate this model but imposing the HOD1 restri tion,

using an OLS

estimation

program. Don't use m _olsr or any other restri ted OLS estimation program. Give estimated standard errors for all oe ients. (d) Plot the estimated RTS parameters as a fun tion of rm size. Compare the plot to that given in the notes for the unrestri ted model. Comment on the results. 2. For the simple Nerlove model, estimated returns to s ale is

[ RT S =

1 cq . β

Apply the

delta method to al ulate the estimated standard error for estimated RTS. Dire tly test

H0 : RT S = 1 versus HA : RT S 6= 1 rather than testing H0 : βQ = 1 versus HA : βQ 6= 1.

Comment on the results.

3. Perform a Monte Carlo study that generates data from the model

y = −2 + 1x2 + 1x3 + ǫ where the sample size is 30, and

x2

and

x3

are independently uniformly distributed on

[0, 1]

ǫ ∼ IIN (0, 1)

(a) Compare the means and standard errors of the estimated oe ients using OLS and restri ted OLS, imposing the restri tion that

β2 + β3 = 2.

(b) Compare the means and standard errors of the estimated oe ients using OLS and restri ted OLS, imposing the restri tion that

β2 + β3 = 1.

82

CHAPTER 6.

( ) Dis uss the results.

RESTRICTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS TESTS

Chapter 7 Generalized least squares One of the assumptions we've made up to now is that

εt ∼ IID(0, σ 2 ), or o

asionally

εt ∼ IIN (0, σ 2 ). Now we'll investigate the onsequen es of nonidenti ally and/or dependently distributed errors. We'll assume xed regressors for now, relaxing this admittedly unrealisti assumption later. The model is

y = Xβ + ε E(ε) = 0 V (ε) = Σ where

Σ is a general symmetri positive denite matrix (we'll write β

in pla e of

β0

to simplify

the typing of these notes).



The ase where



The ase where

Σ

is a diagonal matrix gives un orrelated, nonidenti ally distributed

errors. This is known as

Σ

heteros edasti ity.

has the same number on the main diagonal but nonzero elements

o the main diagonal gives identi ally (assuming higher moments are also the same) dependently distributed errors. This is known as



auto orrelation.

The general ase ombines heteros edasti ity and auto orrelation.

This is known as

nonspheri al disturban es, though why this term is used, I have no idea. Perhaps it's be ause under the lassi al assumptions, a joint onden e region for dimensional hypersphere.

83

ε

would be an

n−

84

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

7.1 Ee ts of nonspheri al disturban es on the OLS estimator The least square estimator is

βˆ = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ y = β + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε •

We have unbiasedness, as before.



The varian e of

βˆ

is

i h   E (βˆ − β)(βˆ − β)′ = E (X ′ X)−1 X ′ εε′ X(X ′ X)−1 = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ΣX(X ′ X)−1

(7.1)

σ2

is invalid, sin e there

Due to this, any test statisti that is based upon an estimator of

isn't

any

for the

• βˆ •

If

t,

σ2 ,

it doesn't exist as a feature of the true d.g.p. In parti ular, the formulas

F, χ2 based tests given above do not lead to statisti s with these distributions.

is still onsistent, following exa tly the same argument given before.

ε

is normally distributed, then

βˆ ∼ N β, (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ΣX(X ′ X)−1 The problem is that

Σ



is unknown in general, so this distribution won't be useful for

testing hypotheses.



Without normality, and un onditional on

X

we still have

 √ √ ˆ n β−β = n(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε  ′ −1 XX = n−1/2 X ′ ε n Dene the limiting varian e of

n−1/2 X ′ ε lim E

n→∞

so we obtain

Summary:



(supposing a CLT applies) as

X ′ εε′ X n

  √ ˆ d −1 n β − β → N 0, Q−1 X ΩQX



=Ω

OLS with heteros edasti ity and/or auto orrelation is:



unbiased in the same ir umstan es in whi h the estimator is unbiased with iid errors



has a dierent varian e than before, so the previous test statisti s aren't valid



is onsistent

7.2.

85

THE GLS ESTIMATOR

• •

is asymptoti ally normally distributed, but with a dierent limiting ovarian e matrix. Previous test statisti s aren't valid in this ase for this reason. is ine ient, as is shown below.

7.2 The GLS estimator Suppose

Σ

were known. Then one ould form the Cholesky de omposition

P ′ P = Σ−1 Here,

P

is an upper triangular matrix. We have

P ′ P Σ = In so

P ′ P ΣP ′ = P ′ , whi h implies that

P ΣP ′ = In Consider the model

P y = P Xβ + P ε, or, making the obvious denitions,

y ∗ = X ∗ β + ε∗ . This varian e of

ε∗ = P ε

is

E(P εε′ P ′ ) = P ΣP ′ = In Therefore, the model

y ∗ = X ∗ β + ε∗ E(ε∗ ) = 0

V (ε∗ ) = In satises the lassi al assumptions.

The GLS estimator is simply OLS applied to the trans-

formed model:

βˆGLS

= (X ∗′ X ∗ )−1 X ∗′ y ∗ = (X ′ P ′ P X)−1 X ′ P ′ P y = (X ′ Σ−1 X)−1 X ′ Σ−1 y

86

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

The GLS estimator is unbiased in the same ir umstan es under whi h the OLS estimator is unbiased. For example, assuming

X

is nonsto hasti

 E(βˆGLS ) = E (X ′ Σ−1 X)−1 X ′ Σ−1 y  = E (X ′ Σ−1 X)−1 X ′ Σ−1 (Xβ + ε = β.

The varian e of the estimator, onditional on

βˆGLS

X

an be al ulated using

= (X ∗′ X ∗ )−1 X ∗′ y ∗ = (X ∗′ X ∗ )−1 X ∗′ (X ∗ β + ε∗ ) = β + (X ∗′ X ∗ )−1 X ∗′ ε∗

so

  ′   ˆ ˆ βGLS − β βGLS − β E = E (X ∗′ X ∗ )−1 X ∗′ ε∗ ε∗′ X ∗ (X ∗′ X ∗ )−1 = (X ∗′ X ∗ )−1 X ∗′ X ∗ (X ∗′ X ∗ )−1 = (X ∗′ X ∗ )−1 = (X ′ Σ−1 X)−1 Either of these last formulas an be used.



All the previous results regarding the desirable properties of the least squares estimator hold, when dealing with the transformed model, sin e the transformed model satises the lassi al assumptions..



Tests are valid, using the previous formulas, as long as we substitute Furthermore, any test that involves

σ2

an set it to

1.

X∗

in pla e of

X.

This is preferable to re-deriving

the appropriate formulas.



The GLS estimator is more e ient than the OLS estimator. This is a onsequen e of the Gauss-Markov theorem, sin e the GLS estimator is based on a model that satises the lassi al assumptions but the OLS estimator is not. To see this dire tly, not that

ˆ − V ar(βˆGLS ) = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ΣX(X ′ X)−1 − (X ′ Σ−1 X)−1 V ar(β) ′

= AΣA where

i h A = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ − (X ′ Σ−1 X)−1 X ′ Σ−1 .

true, as you an verify for yourself.

This may not seem obvious, but it is

Then noting that

positive denite matrix, we on lude that



AΣA



AΣA

is a quadrati form in a

is positive semi-denite, and that GLS

is e ient relative to OLS.



As one an verify by al ulating fon , the GLS estimator is the solution to the mini-

7.3.

87

FEASIBLE GLS

mization problem

βˆGLS = arg min(y − Xβ)′ Σ−1 (y − Xβ) so the

metri Σ−1

is used to weight the residuals.

7.3 Feasible GLS The problem is that

Σ

isn't known usually, so this estimator isn't available.



Consider the dimension of

Σ



The number of parameters to estimate is larger than



The

: it's an

unique elements.

n×n

matrix with

n

  n2 − n /2 + n = n2 + n /2 and in reases faster than

n.

There's no way to devise an estimator that satises a LLN without adding restri tions.

feasible GLS estimator

form of

Σ

is based upon making su ient assumptions regarding the

so that a onsistent estimator an be devised.

Suppose that we

parameterize Σ as a fun tion of X

and

θ,

where

θ

may in lude

β

as well as

other parameters, so that

Σ = Σ(X, θ) where

Σ,

θ

is of xed dimension. If we an onsistently estimate

as long as

If we repla e

Σ(X, θ)

Σ

is a ontinuous fun tion of

θ

θ,

we an onsistently estimate

(by the Slutsky theorem). In this ase,

p ˆ → b = Σ(X, θ) Σ Σ(X, θ)

in the formulas for the GLS estimator with

b Σ,

we obtain the FGLS estimator.

The FGLS estimator shares the same asymptoti properties as GLS. These are 1. Consisten y 2. Asymptoti normality 3. Asymptoti e ien y

if

the errors are normally distributed. (Cramer-Rao).

4. Test pro edures are asymptoti ally valid.

In pra ti e, the usual way to pro eed is 1. Dene a onsistent estimator of parameterization 2. Form

Σ(θ).

θ.

This is a ase-by- ase proposition, depending on the

We'll see examples below.

ˆ b = Σ(X, θ) Σ

3. Cal ulate the Cholesky fa torization 4. Transform the model using

ˆ −1 ). Pb = Chol(Σ

Pˆ ′ y = Pˆ ′ Xβ + Pˆ ′ ε 5. Estimate using OLS on the transformed model.

88

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

7.4 Heteros edasti ity Heteros edasti ity is the ase where

E(εε′ ) = Σ is a diagonal matrix, so that the errors are un orrelated, but have dierent varian es. Heteros edasti ity is usually thought of as asso iated with ross se tional data, though there is absolutely no reason why time series data annot also be heteros edasti . A tually, the popular ARCH (autoregressive onditionally heteros edasti ) models expli itly assume that a time series is heteros edasti . Consider a supply fun tion

qi = β1 + βp Pi + βs Si + εi where

Pi

is pri e and

Si

is some measure of size of the

ith

rm.

One might suppose that

unobservable fa tors (e.g., talent of managers, degree of oordination between produ tion units,

et .)

εi .

a

ount for the error term

rms than for small rms, then

εi

If there is more variability in these fa tors for large

may have a higher varian e when

Si

is high than when it is

low. Another example, individual demand.

qi = β1 + βp Pi + βm Mi + εi where

P

is pri e and

M

is in ome. In this ase,

εi

an ree t variations in preferen es. There

are more possibilities for expression of preferen es when one is ri h, so it is possible that the varian e of

εi

ould be higher when

M

is high.

Add example of group means.

7.4.1 OLS with heteros edasti onsistent var ov estimation Ei ker (1967) and White (1980) showed how to modify test statisti s to a

ount for heteros edasti ity of unknown form. The OLS estimator has asymptoti distribution

  √  d −1 n βˆ − β → N 0, Q−1 X ΩQX

as we've already seen. Re all that we dened

lim E

n→∞ This matrix has dimension

Σ

K ×K



X ′ εε′ X n



=Ω

and an be onsistently estimated, even if we an't estimate

onsistently. The onsistent estimator, under heteros edasti ity but no auto orrelation is

n

X b= 1 xt x′t εˆ2t Ω n t=1

7.4.

89

HETEROSCEDASTICITY

One an then modify the previous test statisti s to obtain tests that are valid when there is heteros edasti ity of unknown form. For example, the Wald test for be

 ′ n Rβˆ − r

R



X ′X n

−1

ˆ Ω



X ′X n

−1

R′

!−1

H0 : Rβ − r = 0

would

  a Rβˆ − r ∼ χ2 (q)

7.4.2 Dete tion There exist many tests for the presen e of heteros edasti ity. We'll dis uss three methods.

Goldfeld-Quandt

The sample is divided in to three parts, with

n1 , n2

n1 + n2 + n3 = n. The model is estimated using the rst and ˆ1 and βˆ3 will be independent. Then we have separately, so that β

where

n3

and

observations,

third parts of the sample,



ε1 M 1 ε1 d 2 εˆ1′ εˆ1 → χ (n1 − K) = σ2 σ2 and ′

ε3 M 3 ε3 d 2 εˆ3′ εˆ3 = → χ (n3 − K) σ2 σ2 so

εˆ1′ εˆ1 /(n1 − K) d → F (n1 − K, n3 − K). εˆ3′ εˆ3 /(n3 − K)

The distributional result is exa t if the errors are normally distributed. This test is a two-tailed test. Alternatively, and probably more onventionally, if one has prior ideas about the possible magnitudes of the varian es of the observations, one ould order the observations a

ordingly, from largest to smallest. In this ase, one would use a onventional one-tailed F-test.

pi ture.

Draw



Ordering the observations is an important step if the test is to have any power.



The motive for dropping the middle observations is to in rease the dieren e between the average varian e in the subsamples, supposing that there exists heteros edasti ity. This

an in rease the power of the test. On the other hand, dropping too many observations will substantially in rease the varian e of the statisti s

εˆ1′ εˆ1

and

εˆ3′ εˆ3 .

A rule of thumb,

based on Monte Carlo experiments is to drop around 25% of the observations.



If one doesn't have any ideas about the form of the het. the test will probably have low power sin e a sensible data ordering isn't available.

White's test

When one has little idea if there exists heteros edasti ity, and no idea of its

potential form, the White test is a possibility. The idea is that if there is homos edasti ity, then

E(ε2t |xt ) = σ 2 , ∀t so that

xt

or fun tions of

xt

shouldn't help to explain

E(ε2t ).

The test works as follows:

90

CHAPTER 7.

1. Sin e

εt

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

isn't available, use the onsistent estimator

εˆt

instead.

2. Regress

εˆ2t = σ 2 + zt′ γ + vt where

zt

is a

P -ve tor. zt

may in lude some or all of the variables in

variables. White's original suggestion was to use and ross produ ts of variables in

γ = 0.

3. Test the hypothesis that

ESSR = T SSU ,

The

qF

R2

plus the set of all unique squares

statisti in this ase is

P (ESSR − ESSU ) /P ESSU / (n − P − 1)

so dividing both numerator and denominator by this we get

qF = (n − P − 1) Note that this is the

as well as other

xt .

qF = Note that

xt ,

xt ,

R2 1 − R2

or the arti ial regression used to test for heteros edasti ity,

2 not the R of the original model. An asymptoti ally equivalent statisti , under the null of no heteros edasti ity (so that

R2

should tend to zero), is

a

nR2 ∼ χ2 (P ). This doesn't require normality of the errors, though it does assume that the fourth moment of

εt

is onstant, under the null.

Question:

why is this ne essary?



The White test has the disadvantage that it may not be very powerful unless the

zt ve tor



It also has the problem that spe i ation errors other than heteros edasti ity may lead



Note: the null hypothesis of this test may be interpreted as

is hosen well, and this is hard to do without knowledge of the form of heteros edasti ity.

to reje tion.

V

(ε2t )

= h(α +

zt′ θ), where

h(·)

θ = 0 for the varian e model

is an arbitrary fun tion of unknown form. The test is

more general than is may appear from the regression that is used.

Plotting the residuals squares).

A very simple method is to simply plot the residuals (or their

Draw pi tures here.

Like the Goldfeld-Quandt test, this will be more informative if

the observations are ordered a

ording to the suspe ted form of the heteros edasti ity.

7.4.3 Corre tion Corre ting for heteros edasti ity requires that a parametri form for that a means for estimating

θ

onsistently be determined.

Σ(θ)

be supplied, and

The estimation method will be

7.4.

91

HETEROSCEDASTICITY

spe i to the for supplied for

Σ(θ).

We'll onsider two examples. Before this, let's onsider

the general nature of GLS when there is heteros edasti ity. Multipli ative heteros edasti ity Suppose the model is

yt = x′t β + εt σt2 = E(ε2t ) = zt′ γ but the other lassi al assumptions hold. In this ase

ε2t = zt′ γ and

vt





+ vt

has mean zero. Nonlinear least squares ould be used to estimate

γ

and

δ

onsistently,

ˆ2t in pla e of were εt observable. The solution is to substitute the squared OLS residuals ε ˆ we an estimate σ 2 ε2t , sin e it is onsistent by the Slutsky theorem. On e we have γˆ and δ, t

onsistently using

σ ˆt2 = zt′ γˆ

δˆ

p

→ σt2 .

In the se ond step, we transform the model by dividing by the standard deviation:

x′ β εt yt = t + σ ˆt σ ˆt σ ˆt or

∗ yt∗ = x∗′ t β + εt . Asymptoti ally, this model satises the lassi al assumptions.



This model is a bit omplex in that NLS is required to estimate the model of the varian e. A simpler version would be

yt

=

x′t β + εt

σt2 = E(ε2t ) = σ 2 ztδ where

zt

is a single variable. There are still two parameters to be estimated, and the

model of the varian e is still nonlinear in the parameters. However, the

sear h method

an be used in this ase to redu e the estimation problem to repeated appli ations of OLS.



First, we dene an interval of reasonable values for



Partition this interval into



For ea h of these values, al ulate the variable



The regression

M

δ,

e.g.,

equally spa ed values, e.g.,

ztδm .

εˆ2t = σ 2 ztδm + vt

δ ∈ [0, 3].

{0, .1, .2, ..., 2.9, 3}.

92

CHAPTER 7.

is linear in the parameters, onditional on

δm ,

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

so one an estimate

2

σ2

by OLS.



Save the pairs (σm , δm ), and the orresponding



Next, divide the model by the estimated standard deviations.



Can rene.



Works well when the parameter to be sear hed over is low dimensional, as in this ase.

mum

ESSm

ESSm .

Choose the pair with the mini-

as the estimate.

Draw pi ture.

Groupwise heteros edasti ity A ommon ase is where we have repeated observations on ea h of a number of e onomi agents: e.g., 10 years of ma roe onomi data on ea h of a set of ountries or regions, or daily observations of transa tions of 200 banks.

series model.

This sort of data is a

pooled ross-se tion time-

It may be reasonable to presume that the varian e is onstant over time within

the ross-se tional units, but that it diers a ross them (e.g., rms or ountries of dierent sizes...). The model is

yit = x′it β + εit E(ε2it ) = σi2 , ∀t where

i = 1, 2, ..., G

are the agents, and

t = 1, 2, ..., n

are the observations on ea h agent.



The other lassi al assumptions are presumed to hold.



In this ase, the varian e



In this model, we assume that

σi2 is spe i to ea h agent, but onstant over the n observations

for that agent.

later.

E(εit εis ) = 0.

This is a strong assumption that we'll relax

To orre t for heteros edasti ity, just estimate ea h

σi2

using the natural estimator:

n

σ ˆi2 =

1X 2 εˆit n t=1

1/n



Note that we use



With ea h of these, transform the model as usual:

n−K

here sin e it's possible that there are more than

n

regressors, so

ould be negative. Asymptoti ally the dieren e is unimportant.

yit x′ β εit = it + σ ˆi σ ˆi σ ˆi Do this for ea h ross-se tional group. assumptions, asymptoti ally.

This transformed model satises the lassi al

7.4.

93

HETEROSCEDASTICITY

Figure 7.1: Residuals, Nerlove model, sorted by rm size Regression residuals 1.5 Residuals

1

0.5

0

-0.5

-1

-1.5 0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

7.4.4 Example: the Nerlove model (again!) Let's he k the Nerlove data for eviden e of heteros edasti ity. In what follows, we're going to use the model with the onstant and output oe ient varying a ross 5 groups, but with the input pri e oe ients xed (see Equation 6.8 for the rationale behind this). Figure 7.1, whi h is generated by the O tave program GLS/NerloveResiduals.m plots the residuals. We

an see pretty learly that the error varian e is larger for small rms than for larger rms. Now let's try out some tests to formally he k for heteros edasti ity. The O tave program GLS/HetTests.m performs the White and Goldfeld-Quandt tests, using the above model. The results are

Value p-value White's test 61.903 0.000 Value p-value GQ test 10.886 0.000 All in all, it is very lear that the data are heteros edasti . That means that OLS estimation is not e ient, and tests of restri tions that ignore heteros edasti ity are not valid.

The

previous tests (CRTS, HOD1 and the Chow test) were al ulated assuming homos edasti ity. The O tave program GLS/NerloveRestri tions-Het.m uses the Wald test to he k for CRTS and HOD1, but using a heteros edasti - onsistent ovarian e estimator. 1

1

The results are

By the way, noti e that GLS/NerloveResiduals.m and GLS/HetTests.m use the restri ted LS estimator

dire tly to restri t the fully general model with all oe ients varying to the model with only the onstant and the output oe ient varying. But GLS/NerloveRestri tions-Het.m estimates the model by substituting

94

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

Testing HOD1 Wald test

Value 6.161

p-value 0.013

Value 20.169

p-value 0.001

Testing CRTS Wald test

We see that the previous on lusions are altered - both CRTS is and HOD1 are reje ted at the 5% level. Maybe the reje tion of HOD1 is due to to Wald test's tenden y to over-reje t? From the previous plot, it seems that the varian e of

ǫ

is a de reasing fun tion of output.

Suppose that the 5 size groups have dierent error varian es (heteros edasti ity by groups):

V ar(ǫi ) = σj2 , where

j = 1

if

i = 1, 2, ..., 29,

et .,

as before.

The O tave program GLS/NerloveGLS.m

estimates the model using GLS (through a transformation of the model so that OLS an be applied). The estimation results are

********************************************************* OLS estimation results Observations 145 R-squared 0.958822 Sigma-squared 0.090800 Results (Het. onsistent var- ov estimator)

onstant1

onstant2

onstant3

onstant4

onstant5 output1 output2 output3 output4 output5 labor fuel

estimate -1.046 -1.977 -3.616 -4.052 -5.308 0.391 0.649 0.897 0.962 1.101 0.007 0.498

st.err. 1.276 1.364 1.656 1.462 1.586 0.090 0.090 0.134 0.112 0.090 0.208 0.081

t-stat. -0.820 -1.450 -2.184 -2.771 -3.346 4.363 7.184 6.688 8.612 12.237 0.032 6.149

p-value 0.414 0.149 0.031 0.006 0.001 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.975 0.000

the restri tions into the model. The methods are equivalent, but the se ond is more onvenient and easier to understand.

7.4.

95

HETEROSCEDASTICITY

apital

-0.460

0.253

-1.818

0.071

********************************************************* ********************************************************* OLS estimation results Observations 145 R-squared 0.987429 Sigma-squared 1.092393 Results (Het. onsistent var- ov estimator) estimate -1.580 -2.497 -4.108 -4.494 -5.765 0.392 0.648 0.892 0.951 1.093 0.103 0.492 -0.366

onstant1

onstant2

onstant3

onstant4

onstant5 output1 output2 output3 output4 output5 labor fuel

apital

st.err. 0.917 0.988 1.327 1.180 1.274 0.090 0.094 0.138 0.109 0.086 0.141 0.044 0.165

t-stat. -1.723 -2.528 -3.097 -3.808 -4.525 4.346 6.917 6.474 8.755 12.684 0.733 11.294 -2.217

p-value 0.087 0.013 0.002 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.465 0.000 0.028

********************************************************* Testing HOD1 Value 9.312

Wald test

p-value 0.002

The rst panel of output are the OLS estimation results, whi h are used to onsistently estimate the



The

σj2 .

R2

The se ond panel of results are the GLS estimation results. Some omments:

measures are not omparable - the dependent variables are not the same. The

measure for the GLS results uses the transformed dependent variable. One ould al ulate a omparable



R2

measure, but I have not done so.

The dieren es in estimated standard errors (smaller in general for GLS)

an

be in-

terpreted as eviden e of improved e ien y of GLS, sin e the OLS standard errors are

96

CHAPTER 7.

al ulated using the Huber-White estimator.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

They would not be omparable if the

ordinary (in onsistent) estimator had been used.

• • •

Note that the previously noted pattern in the output oe ients persists. The non onstant CRTS result is robust.

The oe ient on apital is now negative and signi ant at the 3% level. That seems to indi ate some kind of problem with the model or the data, or e onomi theory.

Note that HOD1 is now reje ted.

Problem of Wald test over-reje ting?

Spe i ation

error in model?

7.5 Auto orrelation Auto orrelation, whi h is the serial orrelation of the error term, is a problem that is usually asso iated with time series data, but also an ae t ross-se tional data. For example, a sho k to oil pri es will simultaneously ae t all ountries, so one ould expe t ontemporaneous

orrelation of ma roe onomi variables a ross ountries.

7.5.1 Causes Auto orrelation is the existen e of orrelation a ross the error term:

E(εt εs ) 6= 0, t 6= s. Why might this o

ur? Plausible explanations in lude

1. Lags in adjustment to sho ks. In a model su h as

yt = x′t β + εt , one ould interpret of observations. equilibrium.

x′t β

as the equilibrium value. Suppose

One an interpret

εt

xt

is onstant over a number

as a sho k that moves the system away from

If the time needed to return to equilibrium is long with respe t to the

observation frequen y, one ould expe t

εt+1

to be positive, onditional on

εt

positive,

whi h indu es a orrelation.

2. Unobserved fa tors that are orrelated over time. to orrespond to unobservable fa tors.

The error term is often assumed

If these fa tors are orrelated, there will be

auto orrelation.

3. Misspe i ation of the model. Suppose that the DGP is

yt = β0 + β1 xt + β2 x2t + εt

7.5.

97

AUTOCORRELATION

Figure 7.2: Auto orrelation indu ed by misspe i ation

but we estimate

yt = β0 + β1 xt + εt The ee ts are illustrated in Figure 7.2.

7.5.2 Ee ts on the OLS estimator The varian e of the OLS estimator is the same as in the ase of heteros edasti ity - the standard formula does not apply. The orre t formula is given in equation 7.1. Next we dis uss two GLS orre tions for OLS. These will potentially indu e in onsisten y when the regressors are nonsto hasti (see Chapter 8) and should either not be used in that ase (whi h is usually the relevant ase) or used with aution. The more re ommended pro edure is dis ussed in se tion 7.5.5.

98

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

7.5.3 AR(1) There are many types of auto orrelation. We'll onsider two examples. The rst is the most

ommonly en ountered ase: autoregressive order 1 (AR(1) errors. The model is

yt = x′t β + εt εt = ρεt−1 + ut ut ∼ iid(0, σu2 ) E(εt us ) = 0, t < s We assume that the model satises the other lassi al assumptions.



We need a stationarity assumption:



By re ursive substitution we obtain

|ρ| < 1.

Otherwise the varian e of

εt

explodes as

t

in reases, so standard asymptoti s will not apply.

εt = ρεt−1 + ut = ρ (ρεt−2 + ut−1 ) + ut = ρ2 εt−2 + ρut−1 + ut = ρ2 (ρεt−3 + ut−2 ) + ρut−1 + ut In the limit the lagged

ε

drops out, sin e

εt =

ρm → 0

∞ X

as

m → ∞,

so we obtain

ρm ut−m

m=0 With this, the varian e of

εt

is found as

E(ε2t )



If we had dire tly assumed that

εt

∞ X

=

σu2

=

σu2 1 − ρ2

ρ2m

m=0

were ovarian e stationary, we ould obtain this using

V (εt ) = ρ2 E(ε2t−1 ) + 2ρE(εt−1 ut ) + E(u2t ) = ρ2 V (εt ) + σu2 ,

so

V (εt ) = 0th



The varian e is the



Note that the varian e does not depend on

σu2 1 − ρ2

order auto ovarian e:

t

γ0 = V (εt )

7.5.

99

AUTOCORRELATION

Likewise, the rst order auto ovarian e

γ1

is

Cov(εt , εt−1 ) = γs = E((ρεt−1 + ut ) εt−1 ) =

ρV (εt ) ρσu2 1 − ρ2

= •

s
Using the same method, we nd that for

Cov(εt , εt−s ) = γs = • The

The auto ovarian es don't depend on

t:

ρs σu2 1 − ρ2

the pro ess

{εt }

is

ovarian e stationary

orrelation ( in general, for r.v.'s x and y ) is dened as

orr(x, y)

=

ov(x, y) se(x)se(y)

but in this ase, the two standard errors are the same, so the

s-order

auto orrelation

ρs

is

ρs = ρs •

All this means that the overall matrix

Σ 

    Σ=   1 − ρ2  | {z }  this is the varian e σu2

|

has the form

1

ρ

ρ2

ρ

1

ρ

. . .

ρn−1 · · ·

..

.

{z

· · · ρn−1



 · · · ρn−2   .  . .   ..  . ρ  1 }

this is the orrelation matrix

So we have homos edasti ity, but elements o the main diagonal are not zero. this depends only on two parameters,

ρ

we an apply FGLS.

It turns out that it's easy to estimate these onsistently. The steps are 1. Estimate the model

yt = x′t β + εt

by OLS.

2. Take the residuals, and estimate the model

εˆt = ρˆ εt−1 + u∗t Sin e

p

εˆt → εt ,

All of

2 and σu . If we an estimate these onsistently,

this regression is asymptoti ally equivalent to the regression

εt = ρεt−1 + ut

100

CHAPTER 7.

whi h satises the lassi al assumptions.

εˆt =

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

Therefore,

p ρˆ εt−1 + u∗t is onsistent. Also, sin e u∗t →

ut ,

ρˆ

obtained by applying OLS to

the estimator

n

σ ˆu2 =

1X ∗ 2 p 2 (ˆ ut ) → σ u n t=2

3. With the onsistent estimators of

Σ,

σ ˆu2

and

ˆ = Σ(ˆ ρˆ, form Σ σu2 , ρˆ) using the previous stru ture

and estimate by FGLS. A tually, one an omit the fa tor

an els out in the formula

σ ˆu2 /(1 − ρ2 ),

sin e it

 −1 ˆ −1 X ˆ −1 y). βˆF GLS = X ′ Σ (X ′ Σ •

One an iterate the pro ess, by taking the rst FGLS estimator of

β,

re-estimating

ρ

2 and σu , et . If one iterates to onvergen es it's equivalent to MLE (supposing normal errors).



An asymptoti ally equivalent approa h is to simply estimate the transformed model

yt − ρˆyt−1 = (xt − ρˆxt−1 )′ β + u∗t using

n−1 observations (sin e y0 and x0 aren't available).

and Or utt.

This is the method of Co hrane

Dropping the rst observation is asymptoti ally irrelevant, but

very important in small samples.

it an be

One an re uperate the rst observation by putting

y1∗ = y1 x∗1 = x1

p

p

1 − ρˆ2 1 − ρˆ2

This somewhat odd-looking result is related to the Cholesky fa torization of

Σ−1 .

See

Davidson and Ma Kinnon, pg. 348-49 for more dis ussion. Note that the varian e of is

σu2 ,

y1∗

asymptoti ally, so we see that the transformed model will be homos edasti (and

nonauto orrelated, sin e the

u′ s

are un orrelated with the

y ′ s,

7.5.4 MA(1) The linear regression model with moving average order 1 errors is

yt = x′t β + εt εt = ut + φut−1 ut ∼ iid(0, σu2 ) E(εt us ) = 0, t < s

in dierent time periods.

7.5.

101

AUTOCORRELATION

In this ase,

i h V (εt ) = γ0 = E (ut + φut−1 )2 =

σu2 + φ2 σu2

=

σu2 (1 + φ2 )

Similarly

γ1 = E [(ut + φut−1 ) (ut−1 + φut−2 )] = φσu2

and

γ2 = [(ut + φut−1 ) (ut−2 + φut−3 )] = 0 so in this ase



    Σ = σu2    

1 + φ2

φ

0

φ

1 + φ2

φ

0

φ

..

···

. . .

.

. . .

..

0

0

···

φ

.

φ

1 + φ2

Note that the rst order auto orrelation is

ρ1 =

This a hieves a maximum at

φ=1

       

γ1 γ0 φ (1 + φ2 )

2 φσu 2 (1+φ2 ) σu

=

= •



and a minimum at

minimal auto orrelations are 1/2 and -1/2.

φ = −1,

and the maximal and

Therefore, series that are more strongly

auto orrelated an't be MA(1) pro esses.

Again the ovarian e matrix has a simple stru ture that depends on only two parameters. The problem in this ase is that one an't estimate

φ

using OLS on

εˆt = ut + φut−1 be ause the

ut

are unobservable and they an't be estimated onsistently. However, there is a

simple way to estimate the parameters.



Sin e the model is homos edasti , we an estimate

V (εt ) = σε2 = σu2 (1 + φ2 )

102

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

using the typi al estimator:

n

1X 2 c2 = σ 2 (1 \ 2) = εˆt σ + φ ε u n t=1



By the Slutsky theorem, we an interpret this as dening an (unidentied) estimator of both

σu2

and

φ,

e.g., use this as

n

X c2 (1 + φb2 ) = 1 εˆ2 σ u n t=1 t

However, this isn't su ient to dene onsistent estimators of the parameters, sin e it's unidentied.



To solve this problem, estimate the ovarian e of

εt

and

εt−1

using

n

X d2 = 1 d t , εt−1 ) = φσ Cov(ε εˆt εˆt−1 u n t=2 This is a onsistent estimator, following a LLN (and given that the epsilon hats are

onsistent for the epsilons). As above, this an be interpreted as dening an unidentied estimator:

n

X c2 = 1 εˆt εˆt−1 φˆσ u n t=2



Now solve these two equations to obtain identied (and therefore onsistent) estimators of both

φ

and

σu2 .

Dene the onsistent estimator

c2 ) ˆ σ ˆ = Σ(φ, Σ u

following the form we've seen above, and transform the model using the Cholesky de omposition. The transformed model satises the lassi al assumptions asymptoti ally.

7.5.5 Asymptoti ally valid inferen es with auto orrelation of unknown form See Hamilton Ch. 10, pp. 261-2 and 280-84. When the form of auto orrelation is unknown, one may de ide to use the OLS estimator, without orre tion. We've seen that this estimator has the limiting distribution

where, as before,



is

  √  d −1 n βˆ − β → N 0, Q−1 X ΩQX Ω = lim E n→∞

We need a onsistent estimate of

Ω.

Dene



X ′ εε′ X n

mt = xt εt

 (re all that

xt

is dened as a

K ×1

7.5.

103

AUTOCORRELATION

ve tor). Note that



Xε =

= =

h



t=1 n X



 i  ε2   · · · xn  .    ..  εn

x1 x2

n X

ε1

xt εt mt

t=1

so that

1 Ω = lim E n→∞ n We assume that

n X

mt

t=1

!

n X

m′t

t=1

!#

is ovarian e stationary (so that the ovarian e between

mt

and

mt−s

does

t).

not depend on Dene the

mt

"

v − th

mt

auto ovarian e of

as

Γv = E(mt m′t−v ). Note that

• mt

E(mt m′t+v ) = Γ′v .

(show this with an example).

will be auto orrelated, sin e

εt

In general, we expe t that:

is potentially auto orrelated:

Γv = E(mt m′t−v ) 6= 0 Note that this auto ovarian e does not depend on



ontemporaneously orrelated (



and heteros edasti (E(mit )

t,

due to ovarian e stationarity.

E(mit mjt ) 6= 0 ), sin e the regressors in xt

will in general

be orrelated (more on this later).

2

= σi2

, whi h depends upon

i

), again sin e the regressors

will have dierent varian es.

While one ould estimate



parametri ally, we in general have little information upon whi h

to base a parametri spe i ation. Re ent resear h has fo used on onsistent nonparametri estimators of

Ω.

Now dene

1 Ωn = E n We have (

"

n X t=1

mt

!

n X t=1

m′t

!#

show that the following is true, by expanding sum and shifting rows to left) Ω n = Γ0 +

 n−2   n−1 1 Γ1 + Γ′1 + Γ2 + Γ′2 · · · + Γn−1 + Γ′n−1 n n n

104

CHAPTER 7.

The natural, onsistent estimator of

Γv

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

is

n X cv = 1 m ˆ tm ˆ ′t−v . Γ n t=v+1

where

m ˆ t = xt εˆt (note: one ould put of

Ωn

would be

1/(n − v)

1/n

instead of

here). So, a natural, but in onsistent, estimator

      ′ c′ + n − 2 Γ c′ + · · · + 1 Γ [ c1 + Γ c2 + Γ ˆn = Γ c0 + n − 1 Γ [ + Γ Ω n−1 n−1 1 2 n n n n−1  Xn−v  c′ . c0 + cv + Γ = Γ Γ v n v=1

This estimator is in onsistent in general, sin e the number of parameters to estimate is more than the number of observations, and in reases more rapidly than build up as

n → ∞.

On the other hand, supposing that

Γv



p

q(n) → ∞

as

n→∞

so information does not

tends to zero su iently rapidly as

modied estimator

where

n,

ˆn = Γ c0 + Ω

q(n) 

X v=1

 c′ , cv + Γ Γ v

will be onsistent, provided

q(n)

v

tends to

∞,

a

grows su iently slowly.

The assumption that auto orrelations die o is reasonable in many ases. For example, the AR(1) model with

|ρ| < 1

has auto orrelations that die o.

n−v n an be dropped be ause it tends to one for



The term



A disadvantage of this estimator is that is may not be positive denite. This ould ause



Newey and West proposed and estimator (

in reases slowly relative to

one to al ulate a negative

v < q(n),

given that

q(n)

n.

χ2

statisti , for example!

E onometri a, 1987) that solves the problem

of possible nonpositive deniteness of the above estimator. Their estimator is

ˆn = Γ c0 + Ω

q(n)  X v=1

  v c′ . cv + Γ Γ 1− v q+1

This estimator is p.d. by onstru tion. The ondition for onsisten y is that

0.

Note that this is a very slow rate of growth for

q.

n−1/4 q(n) →

This estimator is nonparametri -

we've pla ed no parametri restri tions on the form of

Ω.

It is an example of a

kernel

estimator. Finally, sin e

Ωn

has



as its limit,

p ˆn → Ω Ω.

We an now use

ˆn Ω

and

d Q X =

1 ′ n X X to

onsistently estimate the limiting distribution of the OLS estimator under heteros edasti ity

7.5.

105

AUTOCORRELATION

and auto orrelation of unknown form. With this, asymptoti ally valid tests are onstru ted in the usual way.

7.5.6 Testing for auto orrelation Durbin-Watson test The Durbin-Watson test is not stri tly valid in most situations where we would like to use it. Nevertheless, it is ommonly enough en ountered so that it probably should be presented. The Durbin-Watson test statisti is

DW

= =



Pn

(ˆ εt − εˆt−1 )2 t=2P n ˆ2t t=1 ε Pn εt εˆt−1 ˆ2t − 2ˆ t=2 ε Pn 2 ˆt t=1 ε

+ εˆ2t−1



The null hypothesis is that the rst order auto orrelation of the errors is zero:

ρ1 = 0.

The alternative is of ourse

HA : ρ1 6= 0.

H0 :

Note that the alternative is not that

the errors are AR(1), sin e many general patterns of auto orrelation will have the rst order auto orrelation dierent than zero. For this reason the test is useful for dete ting auto orrelation in general.

For the same reason, one shouldn't just assume that an

AR(1) model is appropriate when the DW test reje ts the null.



Under the null, the middle term tends to zero, and the other two tend to one, so



Supposing that we had an AR(1) error pro ess with



tends to

−2,

so

ρ = 1.

In this ase the middle term

p

DW → 0

Supposing that we had an AR(1) error pro ess with term tends to

p

DW → 2.

2,

so

p

DW → 4

ρ = −1.

In this ase the middle



These are the extremes:



The distribution of the test statisti depends on the matrix of regressors,

DW

always lies between 0 and 4.

X,

so tables

an't give exa t riti al values. The give upper and lower bounds, whi h orrespond to the extremes that are possible. See Figure 7.3. There are means of determining exa t

riti al values onditional on

X.



Note that DW an be used to test for nonlinearity (add dis ussion).



The DW test is based upon the assumption that the matrix samples.

X

is xed in repeated

This is often unreasonable in the ontext of e onomi time series, whi h is

pre isely the ontext where the test would have appli ation. It is possible to relate the DW test to other test statisti s whi h are valid without stri t exogeneity.

Breus h-Godfrey test

106

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

Figure 7.3: Durbin-Watson riti al values

This test uses an auxiliary regression, as does the White test for heteros edasti ity. The regression is

εˆt = x′t δ + γ1 εˆt−1 + γ2 εˆt−2 + · · · + γP εˆt−P + vt and the test statisti is the

nR2

statisti , just as in the White test. There are

P

restri tions,

2 so the test statisti is asymptoti ally distributed as a χ (P ).



The intuition is that the lagged errors shouldn't ontribute to explaining the urrent error if there is no auto orrelation.

• xt

is in luded as a regressor to a

ount for the fa t that the

if the

εt

εˆt

are not independent even

are. This is a te hni ality that we won't go into here.



This test is valid even if the regressors are sto hasti and ontain lagged dependent



The alternative is not that the model is an AR(P), following the argument above. The

variables, so it is onsiderably more useful than the DW test for typi al time series data.

alternative is simply that some or all of the rst

P

auto orrelations are dierent from

zero. This is ompatible with many spe i forms of auto orrelation.

7.5.

107

AUTOCORRELATION

7.5.7 Lagged dependent variables and auto orrelation ′

We've seen that the OLS estimator is onsistent under auto orrelation, as long as This will be the ase when where

X

E(X ′ ε) = 0,

plim Xn ε = 0.

following a LLN. An important ex eption is the ase



ontains lagged y s and the errors are auto orrelated. A simple example is the ase

of a single lag of the dependent variable with AR(1) errors. The model is

yt = x′t β + yt−1 γ + εt εt = ρεt−1 + ut Now we an write

 E(yt−1 εt ) = E (x′t−1 β + yt−2 γ + εt−1 )(ρεt−1 + ut ) 6= 0

sin e one of the terms is therefore

plim

X ′ε n

6= 0.

E(ρε2t−1 )

whi h is learly nonzero.

In this ase

Sin e

plimβˆ = β + plim

E(X ′ ε) 6= 0,

and

X ′ε n

the OLS estimator is in onsistent in this ase. One needs to estimate by instrumental variables (IV), whi h we'll get to later.

7.5.8 Examples Nerlove model, yet again

The Nerlove model uses ross-se tional data, so one may not

think of performing tests for auto orrelation.

However, spe i ation error an indu e auto-

orrelated errors. Consider the simple Nerlove model

ln C = β1 + β2 ln Q + β3 ln PL + β4 ln PF + β5 ln PK + ǫ and the extended Nerlove model

ln C = β1j + β2j ln Q + β3 ln PL + β4 ln PF + β5 ln PK + ǫ. We have seen eviden e that the extended model is preferred. model, the simple model is misspe ied.

So if it is in fa t the proper

Let's he k if this misspe i ation might indu e

auto orrelated errors. The O tave program GLS/NerloveAR.m estimates the simple Nerlove model, and plots the residuals as a fun tion of

ln Q,

and it al ulates a Breus h-Godfrey test statisti .

residual plot is in Figure 7.4 , and the test results are:

Breus h-Godfrey test

Value 34.930

p-value 0.000

The

108

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

Figure 7.4: Residuals of simple Nerlove model Residuals Quadratic fit to Residuals 1.5

1

0.5

0

-0.5

-1 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Clearly, there is a problem of auto orrelated residuals. Repeat the auto orrelation tests using the extended Nerlove model (Equation

??)

to see

the problem is solved.

Klein model

Klein's Model I is a simple ma roe onometri model. One of the equations

in the model explains onsumption (C ) as a fun tion of prots (P ), both urrent and lagged,

p

as well as the sum of wages in the private se tor (W ) and wages in the government se tor

g

(W ). Have a look at the README le for this data set. This gives the variable names and other information. Consider the model

Ct = α0 + α1 Pt + α2 Pt−1 + α3 (Wtp + Wtg ) + ǫ1t The O tave program GLS/Klein.m estimates this model by OLS, plots the residuals, and performs the Breus h-Godfrey test, using 1 lag of the residuals. results are:

********************************************************* OLS estimation results Observations 21 R-squared 0.981008 Sigma-squared 1.051732

The estimation and test

7.5.

109

AUTOCORRELATION

Figure 7.5: OLS residuals, Klein onsumption equation Residuals

1.5

1

0.5

0

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2 5

10

15

20

Results (Ordinary var- ov estimator)

Constant Profits Lagged Profits Wages

estimate 16.237 0.193 0.090 0.796

st.err. 1.303 0.091 0.091 0.040

t-stat. 12.464 2.115 0.992 19.933

p-value 0.000 0.049 0.335 0.000

********************************************************* Value p-value Breus h-Godfrey test 1.539 0.215

and the residual plot is in Figure 7.5. The test does not reje t the null of nonauto orrelatetd errors, but we should remember that we have only 21 observations, so power is likely to be fairly low. The residual plot leads me to suspe t that there may be auto orrelation - there are some signi ant runs below and above the x-axis. Your opinion may dier. Sin e it seems that there

may

be auto orrelation, lets's try an AR(1) orre tion.

The

O tave program GLS/KleinAR1.m estimates the Klein onsumption equation assuming that the errors follow the AR(1) pattern. The results, with the Breus h-Godfrey test for remaining auto orrelation are:

*********************************************************

110

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

OLS estimation results Observations 21 R-squared 0.967090 Sigma-squared 0.983171 Results (Ordinary var- ov estimator)

Constant Profits Lagged Profits Wages

estimate 16.992 0.215 0.076 0.774

st.err. 1.492 0.096 0.094 0.048

t-stat. 11.388 2.232 0.806 16.234

p-value 0.000 0.039 0.431 0.000

********************************************************* Value p-value Breus h-Godfrey test 2.129 0.345



The test is farther away from the reje tion region than before, and the residual plot is a bit more favorable for the hypothesis of nonauto orrelated residuals, IMHO. For this reason, it seems that the AR(1) orre tion might have improved the estimation.



Nevertheless, there has not been mu h of an ee t on the estimated oe ients nor on their estimated standard errors. This is probably be ause the estimated AR(1) oe ient is not very large (around 0.2)



The existen e or not of auto orrelation in this model will be important later, in the se tion on simultaneous equations.

7.6 Exer ises 1. Comparing the varian es of the OLS and GLS estimators, I laimed that the following holds:

ˆ − V ar(βˆGLS ) = AΣA′ V ar(β) Verify that this is true. 2. Show that the GLS estimator an be dened as

βˆGLS = arg min(y − Xβ)′ Σ−1 (y − Xβ) 3. The limiting distribution of the OLS estimator with heteros edasti ity of unknown form

7.6.

111

EXERCISES

is

  √  d −1 n βˆ − β → N 0, Q−1 X ΩQX ,

where

lim E

n→∞ Explain why



X ′ εε′ X n



=Ω

n

X b= 1 xt x′t εˆ2t Ω n t=1

is a onsistent estimator of this matrix. 4. Dene the as

v − th auto ovarian e of a ovarian e stationary pro ess mt , where E(mt = 0) Γv = E(mt m′t−v ).

Show that

E(mt m′t+v ) = Γ′v .

5. For the Nerlove model

ln C = β1j + β2j ln Q + β3 ln PL + β4 ln PF + β5 ln PK + ǫ assume that

V (ǫt |xt ) = σj2 , j = 1, 2, ..., 5.

That is, the varian e depends upon whi h of

the 5 rm size groups the observation belongs to.

a) Apply White's test using the OLS residuals, to test for homos edasti ity b) Cal ulate the FGLS estimator and interpret the estimation results.

) Test the transformed model to he k whether it appears to satisfy homos edasti ity.

112

CHAPTER 7.

GENERALIZED LEAST SQUARES

Chapter 8 Sto hasti regressors Up to now we have treated the regressors as xed, whi h is learly unrealisti . Now we will assume they are random. interested in an analysis

There are several ways to think of the problem.

onditional

First, if we are

on the explanatory variables, then it is irrelevant if they

are sto hasti or not, sin e onditional on the values of they regressors take on, they are nonsto hasti , whi h is the ase already onsidered.

• •

In ross-se tional analysis it is usually reasonable to make the analysis onditional on the regressors. In dynami models, where

yt may depend on yt−1 , a onditional analysis is not su iently

general, sin e we may want to predi t into the future many periods out, so we need to

onsider the behavior of

βˆ

and the relevant test statisti s un onditional on

X.

The model we'll deal will involve a ombination of the following assumptions

Linearity:

the model is a linear fun tion of the parameter ve tor

β0 :

yt = x′t β0 + εt , or in matrix form,

where

y

is

n × 1, X =



x1 x2

y = Xβ0 + ε, ′ , where xt · · · xn

is

Sto hasti , linearly independent regressors X

has rank

X

is sto hasti

limn→∞ Pr

K

K × 1, and β0

and

ε are onformable.

with probability 1

1 ′ nX X

 = QX = 1,

where

QX

is a nite positive denite matrix.

Central limit theorem d

n−1/2 X ′ ε → N (0, QX σ02 )

Normality (Optional): ε|X ∼ N (0, σ2 In ): ǫ is normally distributed Strongly exogenous regressors: E(εt |X) = 0, ∀t 113

(8.1)

114

CHAPTER 8.

STOCHASTIC REGRESSORS

Weakly exogenous regressors: E(εt |xt ) = 0, ∀t In both ases,

x′t β

is the onditional mean of

yt

(8.2)

xt : E(yt |xt ) = x′t β

given

8.1 Case 1 Normality of ε, strongly exogenous regressors In this ase,

βˆ = β0 + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε ˆ E(β|X) = β0 + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ E(ε|X) = β0 and sin e this holds for all

ˆ = β, X, E(β)

un onditional on

ˆ ∼ N β, (X ′ X)−1 σ 2 β|X 0 •

If the density of

dµ(X),

is

onditional density by density for



X

ˆ β,

dµ(X)

X. 

the marginal density of and integrating over

X.

βˆ

Likewise,

is obtained by multiplying the

Doing this leads to a nonnormal

in small samples.

However, onditional on

X,

the usual test statisti s have the

t, F

and

χ2

distributions.

Importantly, these distributions don't depend on X, so when marginalizing to obtain the un onditional distribution, nothing hanges. The tests are valid in small samples.



Summary: When

X

is sto hasti but strongly exogenous and

1.

βˆ

is unbiased

2.

βˆ

is nonnormally distributed

ε

is normally distributed:

3. The usual test statisti s have the same distribution as with nonsto hasti 4. The Gauss-Markov theorem still holds, sin e it holds onditionally on is true for all

X,

X. and this

X.

5. Asymptoti properties are treated in the next se tion.

8.2 Case 2 ε

nonnormally distributed, strongly exogenous regressors The unbiasedness of

βˆ

arries through as before. However, the argument regarding test

8.3.

115

CASE 3

statisti s doesn't hold, due to nonnormality of

ε.

Still, we have

βˆ = β0 + (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε  ′ −1 ′ XX Xε = β0 + n n Now



X ′X n

−1

p

→ Q−1 X

by assumption, and

n−1/2 X ′ ε p X ′ε √ →0 = n n sin e the numerator onverges to a

N (0, QX σ 2 ) r.v.

and the denominator still goes to innity.

We have unbiasedness and the varian e disappearing, so,

the estimator is onsistent :

p βˆ → β0 . Considering the asymptoti distribution

 ′ −1 ′  √  √ XX Xε ˆ n β − β0 = n n n  ′ −1 XX n−1/2 X ′ ε = n so

 √  d 2 n βˆ − β0 → N (0, Q−1 X σ0 )

dire tly following the assumptions.

Asymptoti normality of the estimator still holds.

Sin e

the asymptoti results on all test statisti s only require this, all the previous asymptoti results on test statisti s are also valid in this ase.



Summary: Under strongly exogenous regressors, with

ε

normal or nonnormal,

βˆ has

the

properties: 1. Unbiasedness 2. Consisten y 3. Gauss-Markov theorem holds, sin e it holds in the previous ase and doesn't depend on normality. 4. Asymptoti normality 5. Tests are asymptoti ally valid 6. Tests are not valid in small samples if the error is normally distributed

8.3 Case 3 Weakly exogenous regressors

116

CHAPTER 8.

An important lass of models are

STOCHASTIC REGRESSORS

dynami models, where lagged dependent variables have

an impa t on the urrent value. A simple version of these models that aptures the important points is

yt = zt′ α +

p X

γs yt−s + εt

s=1

= x′t β + εt where now

xt

ontains lagged dependent variables. Clearly, even with

are not un orrelated, so one an't show unbiasedness. For example,

E(ǫt |xt ) = 0, X

and

ε

E(εt−1 xt ) 6= 0 sin e



xt

ontains

yt−1

(whi h is a fun tion of

εt−1 )

as an element.

This fa t implies that all of the small sample properties su h as unbiasedness, GaussMarkov theorem, and small sample validity of test statisti s

do not hold

in this ase.

Re all Figure 3.7. This is a ase of weakly exogenous regressors, and we see that the OLS estimator is biased in this ase.



Nevertheless, under the above assumptions, all asymptoti properties ontinue to hold, using the same arguments as before.

8.4 When are the assumptions reasonable? The two assumptions we've added are

1 ′ nX X

 = QX = 1,

1.

limn→∞ Pr

2.

n−1/2 X ′ ε → N (0, QX σ02 )

d

a

QX

nite positive denite matrix.

The most ompli ated ase is that of dynami models, sin e the other ases an be treated as nested in this ase. There exist a number of entral limit theorems for dependent pro esses, many of whi h are fairly te hni al. if you're interested).

We won't enter into details (see Hamilton, Chapter 7

A main requirement for use of standard asymptoti s for a dependent

sequen e

n

{st } = {

1X zt } n t=1

to onverge in probability to a nite limit is that



zt

be

stationary, in some sense.

Strong stationarity requires that the joint distribution of the set

{zt , zt+s , zt−q , ...} not depend on

t.

8.5.

117

EXERCISES



Covarian e (weak) stationarity requires that the rst and se ond moments of this set



An example of a sequen e that doesn't satisfy this is an AR(1) pro ess with a unit root

not depend on

(a

t.

random walk): xt = xt−1 + εt εt ∼ IIN (0, σ 2 )

One an show that the varian e of

xt

depends upon

t

in this ase, so it's not weakly

stationary.



The series

sin t + ǫt

has a rst moment that depends upon t, so it's not weakly stationary

either.

Stationarity prevents the pro ess from trending o to plus or minus innity, and prevents

y li al behavior whi h would allow orrelations between far removed

zt

znd

zs

to be high.

Draw a pi ture here. •

In summary, the assumptions are reasonable when the sto hasti onditioning variables have varian es that are nite, and are not too strongly dependent. The AR(1) model with unit root is an example of a ase where the dependen e is too strong for standard asymptoti s to apply.



The e onometri s of nonstationary pro esses has been an a tive area of resear h in the last two de ades. The standard asymptoti s don't apply in this ase. This isn't in the s ope of this ourse.

8.5 Exer ises 1. Show that for two random variables

A and B, if E(A|B) = 0, then E (Af (B)) = 0.

How

is this used in the proof of the Gauss-Markov theorem? 2. Is it possible for an AR(1) model for time series data, weak exogeneity? Strong exogeneity? Dis uss.

e.g., yt = 0 + 0.9yt−1 + εt

satisfy

118

CHAPTER 8.

STOCHASTIC REGRESSORS

Chapter 9 Data problems In this se tion well onsider problems asso iated with the regressor matrix: ollinearity, missing observation and measurement error.

9.1 Collinearity Collinearity is the existen e of linear relationships amongst the regressors.

We an always

write

λ1 x1 + λ2 x2 + · · · + λK xK + v = 0 where

xi

is the

ith

olumn of the regressor matrix

there exists ollinearity, the variation in

v

X, and v

is an

n × 1 ve tor.

In the ase that

is relatively small, so that there is an approximately

exa t linear relation between the regressors.



relative and approximate are impre ise, so it's di ult to dene when ollinearilty exists.

In the extreme, if there are exa t linear relationships (every element of

′ so ρ(X X)

< K,

v equal) then ρ(X) < K,

′ so X X is not invertible and the OLS estimator is not uniquely dened. For

example, if the model is

yt = β1 + β2 x2t + β3 x3t + εt x2t = α1 + α2 x3t then we an write

yt = β1 + β2 (α1 + α2 x3t ) + β3 x3t + εt = β1 + β2 α1 + β2 α2 x3t + β3 x3t + εt = (β1 + β2 α1 ) + (β2 α2 + β3 ) x3t = γ1 + γ2 x3t + εt •

The

γ′s

an be onsistently estimated, but sin e the

119

γ′s

dene two equations in three

120

CHAPTER 9.

β ′ s, the β ′ s an't be onsistently fon ). The



β′s

are

unidentied

DATA PROBLEMS

estimated (there are multiple values of

β

that solve the

in the ase of perfe t ollinearity.

Perfe t ollinearity is unusual, ex ept in the ase of an error in onstru tion of the regressor matrix, su h as in luding the same regressor twi e.

Another ase where perfe t ollinearity may be en ountered is with models with dummy variables, if one is not areful. Consider a model of rental pri e

(yi )

of an apartment. This

xi , as well as on the lo ation of th if the i apartment is in Bar elona, Bi = 0 otherwise. Similarly,

ould depend fa tors su h as size, quality et ., olle ted in the apartment. Let dene

Gi , Ti

and

Li

Bi = 1

for Girona, Tarragona and Lleida. One ould use a model su h as

yi = β1 + β2 Bi + β3 Gi + β4 Ti + β5 Li + x′i γ + εi In this model,

Bi + Gi + Ti + Li = 1, ∀i,

so there is an exa t relationship between these

variables and the olumn of ones orresponding to the onstant.

One must either drop the

onstant, or one of the qualitative variables.

9.1.1 A brief aside on dummy variables Introdu e a brief dis ussion of dummy variables here.

9.1.2 Ba k to ollinearity The more ommon ase, if one doesn't make mistakes su h as these, is the existen e of inexa t linear relationships,

i.e., orrelations between the regressors that are less than one in absolute

value, but not zero. The basi problem is that when two (or more) variables move together, it

i.e., With e onomi data, ollinearity is ommonly en ountered, and

is di ult to determine their separate inuen es. This is ree ted in impre ise estimates, estimates with high varian es.

is often a severe problem.

When there is ollinearity, the minimizing point of the obje tive fun tion that denes the OLS estimator (s(β), the sum of squared errors) is relatively poorly dened. This is seen in Figures 9.1 and 9.2. To see the ee t of ollinearity on varian es, partition the regressor matrix as

X= where

x

is the rst olumn of

X

h

x W

i

(note: we an inter hange the olumns of

X

isf we like, so

there's no loss of generality in onsidering the rst olumn). Now, the varian e of the lassi al assumptions, is

ˆ = X ′X V (β) Using the partition,



XX=

"

x′ x

−1

σ2

x′ W

W ′x W ′W

#

ˆ β,

under

9.1.

121

COLLINEARITY

Figure 9.1:

s(β)

when there is no ollinearity

6 4

60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15

2 0 -2 -4 -6 -6

-4

-2

Figure 9.2:

0

s(β)

2

4

6

when there is ollinearity

6 4 2 0 -2 -4 -6 -6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20

122

CHAPTER 9.

DATA PROBLEMS

and following a rule for partitioned inversion,

X ′X

where by

ESSx|W

−1 x′ x − x′ W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ x  −1   ′ = x′ In − W (W ′ W ) 1 W ′ x −1 = ESSx|W

−1

=

1,1

we mean the error sum of squares obtained from the regression

x = W λ + v. Sin e

R2 = 1 − ESS/T SS, we have

ESS = T SS(1 − R2 ) so the varian e of the oe ient orresponding to

V (βˆx ) =

x

is

σ2 2 T SSx (1 − Rx|W )

We see three fa tors inuen e the varian e of this oe ient. It will be high if 1.

σ2

is large

2. There is little variation in

x.

Draw a pi ture here.

3. There is a strong linear relationship between explain the movement in

x

well.

x

and the other regressors, so that

2 In this ase, R x|W will be lose to 1.

1, V (βˆx ) → ∞.

W

2 As R x|W

an



The last of these ases is ollinearity. Intuitively, when there are strong linear relations between the regressors, it is di ult to determine the separate inuen e of the regressors on the dependent variable. This an be seen by omparing the OLS obje tive fun tion in the ase of no orrelation between regressors with the obje tive fun tion with orrelation between the regressors. See the gures no ollin.ps (no

orrelation) and ollin.ps ( orrelation), available on the web site.

9.1.3 Dete tion of ollinearity The best way is simply to regress ea h explanatory variable in turn on the remaining regressors.

If any of these auxiliary regressions has a high

R2 ,

there is a problem of ollinearity.

Furthermore, this pro edure identies whi h parameters are ae ted.



Sometimes, we're only interested in ertain parameters. Collinearity isn't a problem if it doesn't ae t what we're interested in estimating.

9.1.

123

COLLINEARITY

An alternative is to examine the matrix of orrelations between the regressors. High orrelations are su ient but not ne essary for severe ollinearity. Also indi ative of ollinearity is that the model ts well (high

R2 ), but none of the variables

is signi antly dierent from zero (e.g., their separate inuen es aren't well determined). In summary, the arti ial regressions are the best approa h if one wants to be areful.

9.1.4 Dealing with ollinearity More information Collinearity is a problem of an uninformative sample. available information being used? that have been negle ted?

ollinearity.

Is more data available?

The rst question is:

is all the

Are there oe ient restri tions

Pi ture illustrating how a restri tion an solve problem of perfe t

Sto hasti restri tions and ridge regression Supposing that there is no more data or negle ted restri tions, one possibility is to hange perspe tives, to Bayesian e onometri s. One an express prior beliefs regarding the oe ients using sto hasti restri tions. A sto hasti linear restri tion would be something of the form

Rβ = r + v where

R

and

r

are as in the ase of exa t linear restri tions, but

v

is a random ve tor. For

example, the model ould be

y = Xβ + ε Rβ = r + v ! ! 0 ε , ∼ N 0 v

σε2 In 0n×q 0q×n

σv2 Iq

!

This sort of model isn't in line with the lassi al interpretation of parameters as onstants: a

ording to this interpretation the left hand side of

Rβ = r + v

is onstant but the right is

random. This model does t the Bayesian perspe tive: we ombine information oming from the model and the data, summarized in

y = Xβ + ε ε ∼ N (0, σε2 In ) with prior beliefs regarding the distribution of the parameter, summarized in

Rβ ∼ N (r, σv2 Iq ) Sin e the sample is random it is reasonable to suppose that

E(εv ′ ) = 0,

whi h is the last pie e

of information in the spe i ation. How an you estimate using this model? The solution is

124

CHAPTER 9.

DATA PROBLEMS

to treat the restri tions as arti ial data. Write

"

#

y r

"

=

X R

#

"

β+

ε v

#

σε2 6= σv2 .

Dene the

#

#

This model is heteros edasti , sin e

prior pre ision k = σε /σv .

This

expresses the degree of belief in the restri tion relative to the variability of the data. Supposing that we spe ify

k,

then the model

"

y kr

=

"

X kR

β+

"

ε kv

#

is homos edasti and an be estimated by OLS. Note that this estimator is biased.

onsistent, however, given that

k

is a xed onstant, even if the restri tion is false (this is in

ontrast to the ase of false exa t restri tions). To see this, note that there are where

Q is the number

of rows of

It is

Q

restri tions,

R. As n → ∞, these Q arti ial observations have

no weight

in the obje tive fun tion, so the estimator has the same limiting obje tive fun tion as the OLS estimator, and is therefore onsistent.

To motivate the use of sto hasti restri tions, onsider the expe tation of the squared length of

βˆ:  ′  −1 ′  Xε X ′ε β + X ′X  = β ′ β + E ε′ X(X ′ X)−1 (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε −1 2 σ = β′β + T r X ′X

ˆ = E E(βˆ′ β)



β + X ′X

= β ′ β + σ2

K X

−1

λi (the

tra e is the sum of eigenvalues)

i=1

> β ′ β + λmax(X ′ X −1 ) σ 2 (the

eigenvalues are all positive, sin eX

so

λmin(X ′ X)

is the minimum eigenvalue of

values) and

is p.d.

λmin(X ′ X)

X ′X

(whi h is the inverse of the maximum

′ −1 ). As ollinearity be omes worse and worse, eigenvalue of (X X) singular, so

X

σ2

ˆ > β′β + E(βˆ′ β) where



X ′X

be omes more nearly

λmin(X ′ X) tends to zero (re all that the determinant is the ˆ tends to innite. On the other hand, β ′ β is nite. E(βˆ′ β)

produ t of the eigen-

Now onsidering the restri tion

"

y 0

IK β = 0 + v. #

=

"

X kIK

With this restri tion the model be omes

#

β+

"

ε kv

#

9.2.

125

MEASUREMENT ERROR

and the estimator is

βˆridge = = This is the ordinary

h

X′

kIK

X ′ X + k2 IK

ridge regression

2 add k IK , whi h is nonsingular, to be omes worse and worse. As

i

"

−1

X kIK

#!−1

X ′y

h

X′

IK

i

"

y 0

#

estimator. The ridge regression estimator an be seen to

X ′ X, whi h is more and more nearly singular as ollinearity

k → ∞,

the restri tions tend to

β = 0,

that is, the oe ients

are shrunken toward zero. Also, the estimator tends to

βˆridge = X ′ X + k2 IK so

′ βˆridge βˆridge → 0.

−1

X ′ y → k2 IK

−1

X ′y =

X ′y →0 k2

This is learly a false restri tion in the limit, if our original model is at al

sensible.

There should be some amount of shrinkage that is in fa t a true restri tion. The problem is to determine the

k

su h that the restri tion is orre t. The interest in ridge regression enters

on the fa t that it an be shown that there exists a problem is that this

k

depends on

The ridge tra e method plots

β

k

su h that

M SE(βˆridge ) < βˆOLS .

′ βˆridge βˆridge

as a fun tion of

k,

and hooses the value of

that artisti ally seems appropriate (e.g., where the ee t of in reasing

pi ture here.

The

2 and σ , whi h are unknown.

This means of hoosing

k

the Bayesian perspe tive: the hoi e of

k

dies o ).

k

Draw

is obviously subje tive. This is not a problem from

k

ree ts prior beliefs about the length of

β.

In summary, the ridge estimator oers some hope, but it is impossible to guarantee that it will outperform the OLS estimator. Collinearity is a fa t of life in e onometri s, and there is no lear solution to the problem.

9.2 Measurement error Measurement error is exa tly what it says, either the dependent variable or the regressors are measured with error. Thinking about the way e onomi data are reported, measurement error is probably quite prevalent. For example, estimates of growth of GDP, ination, et . are

ommonly revised several times. Why should the last revision ne essarily be orre t?

9.2.1 Error of measurement of the dependent variable Measurement errors in the dependent variable and the regressors have important dieren es. First onsider error in measurement of the dependent variable. The data generating pro ess

126

CHAPTER 9.

DATA PROBLEMS

is presumed to be

y ∗ = Xβ + ε y = y∗ + v vt ∼ iid(0, σv2 ) where that

ε

y∗

is the unobservable true dependent variable, and

and

v

∗ are independent and that y

= Xβ + ε

y

is what is observed. We assume

satises the lassi al assumptions. Given

this, we have

y + v = Xβ + ε so

y = Xβ + ε − v = Xβ + ω ωt ∼ iid(0, σε2 + σv2 ) •

As long as

v

is un orrelated with

X,

this model satises the lassi al assumptions and

an be estimated by OLS. This type of measurement error isn't a problem, then.

9.2.2 Error of measurement of the regressors The situation isn't so good in this ase. The DGP is

yt = x∗′ t β + εt xt = x∗t + vt vt ∼ iid(0, Σv ) where

Σv

is a

K ×K

matrix.

X∗

Now

what is observed. Again assume that

v

ontains the true, unobserved regressors, and

is independent of

ε,

and that the model

satises the lassi al assumptions. Now we have

yt = (xt − vt )′ β + εt = x′t β − vt′ β + εt

= x′t β + ωt

The problem is that now there is a orrelation between

xt

and

ωt ,

E(xt ωt ) = E (x∗t + vt ) −vt′ β + εt = −Σv β where

 Σv = E vt vt′ .



sin e

y=

X

X ∗β

is



9.3.

127

MISSING OBSERVATIONS

Be ause of this orrelation, the OLS estimator is biased and in onsistent, just as in the ase of auto orrelated errors with lagged dependent variables. In matrix notation, write the estimated model as

y = Xβ + ω We have that

βˆ =



X ′X n

−1 

X ′y n



and

plim

sin e

X∗

and

V



X ′X n

−1

= plim

(X ∗′ + V ′ ) (X ∗ + V ) n

= (QX ∗ + Σv )−1

are independent, and

plim

V ′V n

n

= lim E = Σv

1X ′ vt vt n t=1

Likewise,

plim



X ′y n



(X ∗′ + V ′ ) (X ∗ β + ε) n = QX ∗ β = plim

so

plimβˆ = (QX ∗ + Σv )−1 QX ∗ β So we see that the least squares estimator is in onsistent when the regressors are measured with error.



A potential solution to this problem is the instrumental variables (IV) estimator, whi h we'll dis uss shortly.

9.3 Missing observations Missing observations o

ur quite frequently: time series data may not be gathered in a ertain year, or respondents to a survey may not answer all questions.

We'll onsider two ases:

missing observations on the dependent variable and missing observations on the regressors.

9.3.1 Missing observations on the dependent variable In this ase, we have

y = Xβ + ε

128

CHAPTER 9.

"

or

where



y2

y1 y2

#

=

"

X1 X2

#

β+

"

ε1 ε2

DATA PROBLEMS

#

is not observed. Otherwise, we assume the lassi al assumptions hold.

A lear alternative is to simply estimate using the ompete observations

y1 = X1 β + ε1 Sin e these observations satisfy the lassi al assumptions, one ould estimate by OLS.



The question remains whether or not one ould somehow repla e the unobserved a predi tor, and improve over OLS in some sense. Let

yˆ2

("

#′ "

βˆ = = Re all that the OLS fon are



X1 X2

#′ "

X1

#)−1 "

X1

be the predi tor of

y1

X2 X2 yˆ2    −1 X1′ X1 + X2′ X2 X1′ y1 + X2′ yˆ2

y2 .

#

X ′ X βˆ = X ′ y so if we regressed using only the rst ( omplete) observations, we would have

X1′ X1 βˆ1 = X1′ y1. Likewise, an OLS regression using only the se ond (lled in) observations would give

X2′ X2 βˆ2 = X2′ yˆ2 . Substituting these into the equation for the overall ombined estimator gives

i −1 h ′ X1 X1 βˆ1 + X2′ X2 βˆ2 −1 ′ −1 ′   X2 X2 βˆ2 X1 X1 βˆ1 + X1′ X1 + X2′ X2 = X1′ X1 + X2′ X2

βˆ =



X1′ X1 + X2′ X2

≡ Aβˆ1 + (IK − A)βˆ2

where

−1 ′  X1 X1 A ≡ X1′ X1 + X2′ X2

and we use



X1′ X1 + X2′ X2

−1

  −1  ′ X1 X1 + X2′ X2 − X1′ X1 X1′ X1 + X2′ X2 −1 ′  X1 X1 = IK − X1′ X1 + X2′ X2

X2′ X2 =



= IK − A.

y2

by

Now

9.3.

129

MISSING OBSERVATIONS

Now,

and this will be unbiased only



  ˆ = Aβ + (IK − A)E βˆ2 E(β)   ˆ2 = β. if E β

The on lusion is the this lled in observations alone would need to dene an unbiased estimator. This will be the ase only if

yˆ2 = X2 β + εˆ2 where of



εˆ2 has mean zero.

Clearly, it is di ult to satisfy this ondition without knowledge

β.

Note that putting

yˆ2 = y¯1

does not satisfy the ondition and therefore leads to a biased

estimator.

Exer ise 13 Formally prove this last statement. •

One possibility that has been suggested (see Greene, page 275) is to estimate

β

using a

rst round estimation using only the omplete observations

βˆ1 = (X1′ X1 )−1 X1′ y1 then use this estimate,

βˆ1 ,to

predi t

y2

:

yˆ2 = X2 βˆ1 = X2 (X1′ X1 )−1 X1′ y1 Now, the overall estimate is a weighted average of

βˆ1

and

βˆ2 ,

just as above, but we have

βˆ2 = (X2′ X2 )−1 X2′ yˆ2 = (X2′ X2 )−1 X2′ X2 βˆ1 = βˆ1 This shows that this suggestion is ompletely empty of ontent: the nal estimator is the same as the OLS estimator using only the omplete observations.

9.3.2 The sample sele tion problem In the above dis ussion we assumed that the missing observations are random. The sample sele tion problem is a ase where the missing observations are not random. Consider the model

yt∗ = x′t β + εt

130

CHAPTER 9.

DATA PROBLEMS

Figure 9.3: Sample sele tion bias 25 Data True Line Fitted Line 20

15

10

5

0

-5

-10 0

2

4

6

8

10

whi h is assumed to satisfy the lassi al assumptions. However, What is observed is

yt yt∗

is not always observed.

dened as

yt = yt∗ Or, in other words,

yt∗

if

yt∗ ≥ 0

is missing when it is less than zero.

The dieren e in this ase is that the missing values are not random: they are orrelated with the

xt .

Consider the ase

y∗ = x + ε with

V (ε) = 25,

but using only the observations for whi h

y∗ > 0

to estimate.

Figure 9.3

illustrates the bias. The O tave program is sampsel.m

9.3.3 Missing observations on the regressors Again the model is

"

y1 y2

but we assume now that ea h row of

#

=

X2

"

X1 X2

#

β+

"

ε1 ε2

#

has an unobserved omponent(s). Again, one ould

just estimate using the omplete observations, but it may seem frustrating to have to drop

X2 is ∗ repla ed by some predi tion, X2 , then we are in the ase of errors of observation. As before, ∗ this means that the OLS estimator is biased when X2 is used instead of X2 . Consisten y is

observations simply be ause of a single missing variable. In general, if the unobserved

salvaged, however, as long as the number of missing observations doesn't in rease with



In luding observations that have missing values repla ed by

ad ho

n.

values an be inter-

9.4.

131

EXERCISES

preted as introdu ing false sto hasti restri tions. In general, this introdu es bias. It is di ult to determine whether MSE in reases or de reases. Monte Carlo studies suggest that it is dangerous to simply substitute the mean, for example.



In the ase that there is only one regressor other than the onstant, subtitution of the missing

xt

does not lead to bias.

This is a spe ial ase that doesn't hold for

x ¯

for

K > 2.

Exer ise 14 Prove this last statement. •

In summary, if one is strongly on erned with bias, it is best to drop observations that have missing omponents.

There is potential for redu tion of MSE through lling in

missing elements with intelligent guesses, but this ould also in rease MSE.

9.4 Exer ises 1. Consider the Nerlove model

ln C = β1j + β2j ln Q + β3 ln PL + β4 ln PF + β5 ln PK + ǫ When this model is estimated by OLS, some oe ients are not signi ant. This may be due to ollinearity.

(a) Cal ulate the orrelation matrix of the regressors. (b) Perform arti ial regressions to see if ollinearity is a problem. ( ) Apply the ridge regression estimator. (d) Plot the ridge tra e diagram (e) Che k what happens as

k

goes to zero, and as

k

be omes very large.

132

CHAPTER 9.

DATA PROBLEMS

Chapter 10 Fun tional form and nonnested tests Though theory often suggests whi h onditioning variables should be in luded, and suggests the signs of ertain derivatives, it is usually silent regarding the fun tional form of the relationship between the dependent variable and the regressors. For example, onsidering a ost fun tion, one ould have a Cobb-Douglas model

c = Aw1β1 w2β2 q βq eε This model, after taking logarithms, gives

ln c = β0 + β1 ln w1 + β2 ln w2 + βq ln q + ε where

β0 = ln A.

Theory suggests that

A > 0, β1 > 0, β2 > 0, β3 > 0.

ompatible with a xed ost of produ tion sin e in input pri es suggests that

β1 + β2 = 1,

This model isn't

c = 0 when q = 0. Homogeneity

of degree one

while onstant returns to s ale implies

βq = 1.

While this model may be reasonable in some ases, an alternative



√ √ √ c = β0 + β1 w1 + β2 w2 + βq q + ε

may be just as plausible. Note that



x

and

ln(x)

look quite alike, for ertain values of the

regressors, and up to a linear transformation, so it may be di ult to hoose between these models. The basi point is that many fun tional forms are ompatible with the linear-in-parameters model, sin e this model an in orporate a wide variety of nonlinear transformations of the dependent variable and the regressors. For example, suppose that and that

x(·)

is a

K− ve tor-valued

g(·) is a real valued fun tion

fun tion. The following model is linear in the parameters

but nonlinear in the variables:

xt = x(zt ) yt = x′t β + εt There may be

P

fundamental onditioning variables

133

zt ,

but there may be

K

regressors, where

134

K

CHAPTER 10.

FUNCTIONAL FORM AND NONNESTED TESTS

may be smaller than, equal to or larger than

ross produ ts of the onditioning variables in

P.

For example,

xt

ould in lude squares and

zt .

10.1 Flexible fun tional forms Given that the fun tional form of the relationship between the dependent variable and the regressors is in general unknown, one might wonder if there exist parametri models that an

losely approximate a wide variety of fun tional relationships. A Diewert-Flexible fun tional form is dened as one su h that the fun tion, the ve tor of rst derivatives and the matrix of se ond derivatives an take on an arbitrary value

at a single data point.

Flexibility in this

sense learly requires that there be at least

 K = 1 + P + P 2 − P /2 + P

free parameters: one for ea h independent ee t that we wish to model. Suppose that the model is

y = g(x) + ε A se ond-order Taylor's series expansion (with remainder term) of the fun tion point

x=0

is

g(x) = g(0) + x′ Dx g(0) +

g(x) about the

x′ Dx2 g(0)x +R 2

Use the approximation, whi h simply drops the remainder term, as an approximation to

g(x) ≃ gK (x) = g(0) + x′ Dx g(0) + As

x → 0,

x′ Dx2 g(0)x 2

the approximation be omes more and more exa t, in the sense that

Dx gK (x) → Dx g(x)

2 and Dx gK (x)



Dx2 g(x). For

x = 0,

g(x) :

gK (x) → g(x),

the approximation is exa t, up to

g(0), Dx g(0) 2 and Dx g(0) are all onstants. If we treat them as parameters, the approximation will have the se ond order. The idea behind many exible fun tional forms is to note that

exa tly enough free parameters to approximate the fun tion exa tly, up to se ond order, at the point

x = 0.

g(x),

whi h is of unknown form,

The model is

gK (x) = α + x′ β + 1/2x′ Γx so the regression model to t is

y = α + x′ β + 1/2x′ Γx + ε • •

While the regression model has enough free parameters to be Diewert-exible, the question remains: is

plimα ˆ = g(0)?

The answer is no, in general.

Is

plimβˆ = Dx g(0)?

Is

ˆ = D 2 g(0)? plimΓ x

The reason is that if we treat the true values of the

parameters as these derivatives, then

ε

is for ed to play the part of the remainder term,

10.1.

135

FLEXIBLE FUNCTIONAL FORMS

whi h is a fun tion of

x,

so that

x

and

ε

are orrelated in this ase.

As before, the

estimator is biased in this ase.

• •

A simpler example would be to onsider a rst-order T.S. approximation to a quadrati fun tion.

Draw pi ture.

The on lusion is that exible fun tional forms aren't really exible in a useful statisti al sense, in that neither the fun tion itself nor its derivatives are onsistently estimated, unless the fun tion belongs to the parametri family of the spe ied fun tional form. In order to lead to onsistent inferen es, the regression model must be orre tly spe ied.

10.1.1 The translog form In spite of the fa t that FFF's aren't really exible for the purposes of e onometri estimation and inferen e, they are useful, and they are ertainly subje t to less bias due to misspe i ation of the fun tional form than are many popular forms, su h as the Cobb-Douglas or the simple linear in the variables model. The translog model is probably the most widely used FFF. This model is as above, ex ept that the variables are subje ted to a logarithmi tranformation. Also, the expansion point is usually taken to be the sample mean of the data, after the logarithmi transformation. The model is dened by

y = ln(c) z  x = ln z¯ = ln(z) − ln(¯ z)

y = α + x′ β + 1/2x′ Γx + ε

In this presentation, the

t subs ript that distinguishes observations is suppressed for simpli ity.

Note that

∂y ∂x

= β + Γx = =

whi h is the elasti ity of

∂ ln(c) ∂ ln(z) ∂c z ∂z c

(the other part of

β

onstant)

c with respe t to z. This is a onvenient

Note that at the means of the onditioning variables,

so the

x is

z¯, x = 0,

∂y =β ∂x z=¯z

feature of the translog model. so

are the rst-order elasti ities, at the means of the data.

To illustrate, onsider that

y

is ost of produ tion:

y = c(w, q)

136

CHAPTER 10.

where

q

w

is a ve tor of input pri es and

FUNCTIONAL FORM AND NONNESTED TESTS

q

is output. We ould add other variables by extending

in the obvious manner, but this is supressed for simpli ity.

onditional fa tor demands are

x=

By Shephard's lemma, the

∂c(w, q) ∂w

and the ost shares of the fa tors are therefore

s=

wx ∂c(w, q) w = c ∂w c

whi h is simply the ve tor of elasti ities of ost with respe t to input pri es. If the ost fun tion is modeled using a translog fun tion, we have

ln(c) = α + x′ β + z ′ δ + 1/2 ′



h

i

x′ z



"

Γ11 Γ12 Γ′12 Γ22



#"

x z

#

2

= α + x β + z δ + 1/2x Γ11 x + x Γ12 z + 1/2z γ22 where

x = ln(w/w) ¯

(element-by-element division) and

"

Γ11 =

"

Γ12 =

z = ln(q/¯ q ),

γ11 γ12 γ12 γ22 # γ13

and

#

γ23

Γ22 = γ33 . Note that symmetry of the se ond derivatives has been imposed.

Then the share equations are just

s=β+

h

i

Γ11 Γ12

"

x z

#

Therefore, the share equations and the ost equation have parameters in ommon. By pooling the equations together and imposing the (true) restri tion that the parameters of the equations be the same, we an gain e ien y.

To illustrate in more detail, onsider the ase of two inputs, so

x=

"

x1 x2

#

.

In this ase the translog model of the logarithmi ost fun tion is

ln c = α + β1 x1 + β2 x2 + δz +

γ11 2 γ22 2 γ33 2 x + x + z + γ12 x1 x2 + γ13 x1 z + γ23 x2 z 2 1 2 2 2

10.1.

137

FLEXIBLE FUNCTIONAL FORMS

The two ost shares of the inputs are the derivatives of

ln c

with respe t to

x1

and

x2 :

s1 = β1 + γ11 x1 + γ12 x2 + γ13 z s2 = β2 + γ12 x1 + γ22 x2 + γ13 z Note that the share equations and the ost equation have parameters in ommon.

One

an do a pooled estimation of the three equations at on e, imposing that the parameters are the same. In this way we're using more observations and therefore more information, whi h will lead to imporved e ien y. Note that this does assume that the ost equation is orre tly

i.e.,

spe ied (

not an approximation), sin e otherwise the derivatives would not be the true

derivatives of the log ost fun tion, and would then be misspe ied for the shares. To pool the equations, write the model in matrix form (adding in error terms)





ln c

  s1 s2

This is





1 x1 x2 z

  = 0 1 0 0

one

x21 2

x22 2

z2 2

x1 x2

0

x2

x2 0

x1

0

0 x1 0

1

0 0

       x1 z x2 z    z 0    0 z       

α



 β1   β2      δ   ε1  γ11     +  ε2  γ22   ε3 γ33    γ12   γ13   γ23

observation on the three equations. With the appropriate notation, a single

observation an be written as

yt = Xt θ + εt The overall model would sta k

n

vations:



observations on the three equations for a total of

y1





X1





ε1

3n

obser-



       ε   y2   X2  θ +  .2   . = .   .   .   .   .   .   . yn Xn εn

Next we need to onsider the errors. For observation



ε1t

t

the errors an be pla ed in a ve tor



  εt =  ε2t  ε3t First onsider the ovarian e matrix of this ve tor: the shares are ertainly orrelated sin e they must sum to one. (In fa t, with 2 shares the varian es are equal and the ovarian e is -1 times the varian e. General notation is used to allow easy extension to the ase of more

138

CHAPTER 10.

FUNCTIONAL FORM AND NONNESTED TESTS

than 2 inputs). Also, it's likely that the shares and the ost equation have dierent varian es. Supposing that the model is ovarian e stationary, the varian e of





won t depend upon

t:



σ11 σ12 σ13

 V arεt = Σ0 =  · ·

εt

 σ22 σ23  · σ33

Note that this matrix is singular, sin e the shares sum to 1.

Assuming that there is no

seemingly unrelated regressions

auto orrelation, the overall ovarian e matrix has the

(SUR)

stru ture.



ε1



   ε2   V ar  .   = Σ  ..  εn 

Σ0 0

  0  =  .  ..  0

··· 0 ..

Σ0 ..

.

. . .

0

.

··· 0

Σ0

= In ⊗ Σ0 where the symbol

A

and

B

is



indi ates the

Krone ker produ t. 

      

The Krone ker produ t of two matri es

a11 B a12 B · · · a1q B

  a B ...  21 A⊗B = .  ..  apq B · · ·

. . .

apq B



   .  

10.1.2 FGLS estimation of a translog model So, this model has heteros edasti ity and auto orrelation, so OLS won't be e ient. The next question is: how do we estimate e iently using FGLS? FGLS is based upon inverting the estimated error ovarian e

ˆ Σ.

So we need to estimate

Σ.

An asymptoti ally e ient pro edure is (supposing normality of the errors)

1. Estimate ea h equation by OLS

2. Estimate

Σ0

using

n

X ˆ0 = 1 Σ εˆt εˆ′t n t=1

3. Next we need to a

ount for the singularity of

Σ0 .

It an be shown that

ˆ0 Σ

will be

singular when the shares sum to one, so FGLS won't work. The solution is to drop one

10.1.

139

FLEXIBLE FUNCTIONAL FORMS

of the share equations, for example the se ond. The model be omes



"

ln c s1

#

=

"

1 x1 x2 z 0 1

0

x21 2

x22 2

0 x1 0

z2 2

x1 x2

0

x2

       # x1 z x2 z     z 0        

α



 β1   β2    δ   " # γ11  ε1  + γ22  ε2   γ33   γ12   γ13   γ23

or in matrix notation for the observation:

yt∗ = Xt∗ θ + ε∗t and in sta ked notation for all observations we have the



y1∗





X1∗





ε∗1

2n

observations:



 ∗   ∗   ∗   ε   y2   X2  θ +  .2   . = .   .   .   .   .   .   . yn∗ Xn∗ ε∗n or, nally in matrix notation for all observations:

y ∗ = X ∗ θ + ε∗ Considering the error ovarian e, we an dene

Σ∗0 = V ar Σ Dene

ˆ∗ Σ 0

as the leading

2×2



= In ⊗

blo k of

ˆ0 Σ

"

ε1 ε2

#

Σ∗0

, and form

ˆ ∗ = In ⊗ Σ ˆ ∗0 . Σ This is a onsistent estimator, following the onsisten y of OLS and applying a LLN.

4. Next ompute the Cholesky fa torization

 −1 ˆ ∗0 Pˆ0 = Chol Σ (I am assuming this is dened as an upper triangular matrix, whi h is onsistent with

140

CHAPTER 10.

FUNCTIONAL FORM AND NONNESTED TESTS

the way O tave does it) and the Cholesky fa torization of the overall ovarian e matrix of the 2 equation model, whi h an be al ulated as

ˆ ∗ = In ⊗ Pˆ0 Pˆ = CholΣ 5. Finally the FGLS estimator an be al ulated by applying OLS to the transformed model

ˆ′ Pˆ ′ y ∗ = Pˆ ′ X ∗ θ + ˆP ε∗ or by dire tly using the GLS formula

θˆF GLS =



−1  −1  −1 ˆ ∗0 ˆ ∗0 y∗ X∗ X ∗′ Σ X ∗′ Σ

It is equivalent to transform ea h observation individually:

Pˆ0′ yy∗ = Pˆ0′ Xt∗ θ + Pˆ0′ ε∗ and then apply OLS. This is probably the simplest approa h. A few last omments. 1. We have assumed no auto orrelation a ross time. This is learly restri tive. It is relatively simple to relax this, but we won't go into it here. 2. Also, we have only imposed symmetry of the se ond derivatives.

Another restri tion

that the model should satisfy is that the estimated shares should sum to 1. This an be a

omplished by imposing

β1 + β2 = 1 3 X γij = 0, j = 1, 2, 3. i=1

These are linear parameter restri tions, so they are easy to impose and will improve e ien y if they are true. 3. The estimation pro edure outlined above an be

iterated.

That is, estimate

θˆF GLS

as

∗ above, then re-estimate Σ0 using errors al ulated as

εˆ = y − X θˆF GLS These might be expe ted to lead to a better estimate than the estimator based on sin e FGLS is asymptoti ally more e ient. Then re-estimate

θ

θˆOLS ,

using the new estimated

error ovarian e. It an be shown that if this is repeated until the estimates don't hange

i.e., iterated to onvergen e) then the resulting estimator is the MLE. At any rate, the

(

10.2.

141

TESTING NONNESTED HYPOTHESES

asymptoti properties of the iterated and uniterated estimators are the same, sin e both are based upon a onsistent estimator of the error ovarian e.

10.2 Testing nonnested hypotheses Given that the hoi e of fun tional form isn't perfe tly lear, in that many possibilities exist, how an one hoose between forms? When one form is a parametri restri tion of another, the previously studied tests su h as Wald, LR, s ore or

qF

are all possibilities. For example, the

Cobb-Douglas model is a parametri restri tion of the translog: The translog is

yt = α + x′t β + 1/2x′t Γxt + ε where the variables are in logarithms, while the Cobb-Douglas is

yt = α + x′t β + ε so a test of the Cobb-Douglas versus the translog is simply a test that The situation is more ompli ated when we want to test

Γ = 0.

non-nested hypotheses.

If the

two fun tional forms are linear in the parameters, and use the same transformation of the dependent variable, then they may be written as

M1 : y = Xβ + ε εt ∼ iid(0, σε2 ) M2 : y = Zγ + η η ∼ iid(0, ση2 ) We wish to test hypotheses of the form:

H0 : Mi

misspe ied, for i = 1, 2.

is orre tly spe ied

versus



One ould a

ount for non-iid errors, but we'll suppress this for simpli ity.



There are a number of ways to pro eed. We'll onsider the and Ma Kinnon,

E onometri a

J

HA : Mi

is

test, proposed by Davidson

(1981). The idea is to arti ially nest the two models,

e.g.,

y = (1 − α)Xβ + α(Zγ) + ω If the rst model is orre tly spe ied, then the true value of hand, if the se ond model is orre tly spe ied then



α

is zero. On the other

α = 1.

The problem is that this model is not identied in general. models share some regressors, as in

M1 : yt = β1 + β2 x2t + β3 x3t + εt M2 : yt = γ1 + γ2 x2t + γ3 x4t + ηt

For example, if the

142

CHAPTER 10.

FUNCTIONAL FORM AND NONNESTED TESTS

then the omposite model is

yt = (1 − α)β1 + (1 − α)β2 x2t + (1 − α)β3 x3t + αγ1 + αγ2 x2t + αγ3 x4t + ωt Combining terms we get

yt = ((1 − α)β1 + αγ1 ) + ((1 − α)β2 + αγ2 ) x2t + (1 − α)β3 x3t + αγ3 x4t + ωt = δ1 + δ2 x2t + δ3 x3t + δ4 x4t + ωt The four

δ′ s

α

are onsistently estimable, but

knowns, so one an't test the hypothesis that The idea of the

J

test is to substitute

is not, sin e we have four equations in 7 un-

α = 0.

γˆ

in pla e of

γ.

This is a onsistent estimator

supposing that the se ond model is orre tly spe ied. It will tend to a nite probability limit even if the se ond model is misspe ied. Then estimate the model

y = (1 − α)Xβ + α(Z γˆ ) + ω = Xθ + αˆ y+ω where

yˆ = Z(Z ′ Z)−1 Z ′ y = PZ y.

In this model,

α

is onsistently estimable, and one an show

that, under the hypothesis that the rst model is orre t, -statisti for

α=0

is asymptoti ally normal:

t= •

p

α → 0

and that the ordinary

t

α ˆ a ∼ N (0, 1) σ ˆαˆ

If the se ond model is orre tly spe ied, then

p

t → ∞,

sin e

α ˆ

tends in probability to

1, while it's estimated standard error tends to zero. Thus the test will always reje t the false null model, asymptoti ally, sin e the statisti will eventually ex eed any riti al value with probability one.



We an reverse the roles of the models, testing the se ond against the rst.



It may be the ase that

neither

model is orre tly spe ied. In this ase, the test will

still reje t the null hypothesis, asymptoti ally, if we use riti al values from the distribution, sin e as long as

N (0, 1)

p

α ˆ tends to something dierent from zero, |t| → ∞. Of ourse,

when we swit h the roles of the models the other will also be reje ted asymptoti ally.

• •

In summary, there are 4 possible out omes when we test two models, ea h against the other. Both may be reje ted, neither may be reje ted, or one of the two may be reje ted.

There are other tests available for non-nested models. The when both models are linear in the parameters. The when



M1

J−

test is simple to apply

P -test is similar, but easier to apply

is nonlinear.

The above presentation assumes that the same transformation of the dependent variable

10.2.

143

TESTING NONNESTED HYPOTHESES

is used by both models.

Ma Kinnon, White and Davidson,

Journal of E onometri s,

(1983) shows how to deal with the ase of dierent transformations.



Monte-Carlo eviden e shows that these tests often over-reje t a orre tly spe ied model. Can use bootstrap riti al values to get better-performing tests.

144

CHAPTER 10.

FUNCTIONAL FORM AND NONNESTED TESTS

Chapter 11 Exogeneity and simultaneity Several times we've en ountered ases where orrelation between regressors and the error term lead to biasedness and in onsisten y of the OLS estimator. Cases in lude auto orrelation with lagged dependent variables and measurement error in the regressors. Another important ase is that of simultaneous equations. The ause is dierent, but the ee t is the same.

11.1 Simultaneous equations Up until now our model is

y = Xβ + ε where, for purposes of estimation we an treat we

ondition

on

X.

X

as xed. This means that when estimating

When analyzing dynami models, we're not interested in onditioning on

X, as we saw in the se tion on sto hasti regressors. by treating

X

β

Nevertheless, the OLS estimator obtained

as xed ontinues to have desirable asymptoti properties even in that ase.

Simultaneous equations is a dierent prospe t.

An example of a simultaneous equation

system is a simple supply-demand system:

Demand:

E

"

The presumption is that

ε1t ε2t

qt

#

and

Supply:

h

ε1t ε2t

pt

qt = α1 + α2 pt + α3 yt + ε1t q = β1 + β2 pt + ε2t # !t " i σ11 σ12 = · σ22 ≡ Σ, ∀t

are jointly determined at the same time by the interse tion

of these equations. We'll assume that

yt

is determined by some unrelated pro ess. It's easy

to see that we have orrelation between regressors and errors. Solving for

pt

α1 + α2 pt + α3 yt + ε1t = β1 + β2 pt + ε2t β2 pt − α2 pt = α1 − β1 + α3 yt + ε1t − ε2t α3 yt ε1t − ε2t α1 − β1 + + pt = β2 − α2 β2 − α2 β2 − α2 145

:

146

CHAPTER 11.

pt

Now onsider whether

is un orrelated with

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

ε1t :



α1 − β1 α3 yt ε1t − ε2t + + β2 − α2 β2 − α2 β2 − α2 σ11 − σ12 β2 − α2

E(pt ε1t ) = E =



ε1t



Be ause of this orrelation, OLS estimation of the demand equation will be biased and in onsistent. The same applies to the supply equation, for the same reason. In this model, the system.

yt

qt

is an

and

pt

endogenous

are the

exogenous

varibles (endogs), that are determined within

variable (exogs).

These on epts are a bit tri ky, and we'll

return to it in a minute. First, some notation. Suppose we group together urrent endogs in the ve tor

Yt .

G

If there are

lagged endogs in the ve tor error ve tor

Et .

endogs,

Xt

Yt

is

, whi h is

G × 1.

K × 1.

Group urrent and lagged exogs, as well as Sta k the errors of the

G

equations into the

The model, with additional assumtions, an be written as

Yt′ Γ = Xt′ B + Et′ Et ∼ N (0, Σ), ∀t

E(Et Es′ ) = 0, t 6= s We an sta k all

n

observations and write the model as

Y Γ = XB + E ′

E(X E) = 0(K×G) vec(E) ∼ N (0, Ψ) where

Y

is

n × G, X



is

n × K,

Y1′





X1′

 ′  ′   X2  Y2    . , X = Y =  .  ..   .  .  ′ Yn Xn′

and

E

is

n × G.





E1′



  ′    E  ,E =  . 2    .    .  En′

omplete, in that there are as many equations as endogs.



This system is



There is a normality assumption.



Sin e there is no auto orrelation of the

This isn't ne essary, but allows us to onsider the

relationship between least squares and ML estimators.

Et

's, and sin e the olumns of

E

are individually

11.2.

147

EXOGENEITY

homos edasti , then



   Ψ =   

σ11 In σ12 In · · · σ1G In . . .

σ22 In ..

.

·

. . .

σGG In

= In ⊗ Σ

• X

      

may ontain lagged endogenous and exogenous variables. These variables are

termined.



prede-

We need to dene what is meant by endogenous and exogenous when lassifying the

urrent period variables.

11.2 Exogeneity The model denes a

Xt ,

data generating pro ess.

The model involves two sets of variables,

Yt

and

as well as a parameter ve tor

θ=

h

vec(Γ)′ vec(B)′ vec∗ (Σ)′

i′

 θ is a G2 +GK + G2 − G /2+G dimensional



In general, without additional restri tions,



In prin iple, there exists a joint density fun tion for

ve tor. This is the parameter ve tor that were interested in estimating.

parameter ve tor

φ.

Yt

and

Xt ,

whi h depends on a

Write this density as

ft (Yt , Xt |φ, It ) where

It

is the information set in period

t.

This in ludes lagged

ourse. This an be fa tored into the density of density of

Xt

Yt

Yt′ s

onditional on

Xt

and lagged

Xt

's of

times the marginal

:

ft (Yt , Xt |φ, It ) = ft (Yt |Xt , φ, It )ft (Xt |φ, It ) This is a general fa torization, but is may very well be the ase that not all parameters in

φ

ae t both fa tors. So use

density and write

φ2

φ1

to indi ate elements of

φ

that enter into the onditional

for parameters that enter into the marginal. In general,

may share elements, of ourse. We have

ft (Yt , Xt |φ, It ) = ft (Yt |Xt , φ1 , It )ft (Xt |φ2 , It )

φ1

and

φ2

148

CHAPTER 11.



EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

Re all that the model is

Yt′ Γ = Xt′ B + Et′ Et ∼ N (0, Σ), ∀t

E(Et Es′ ) = 0, t 6= s

Normality and la k of orrelation over time imply that the observations are independent of one another, so we an write the log-likelihood fun tion as the sum of likelihood ontributions of ea h observation:

ln L(Y |θ, It ) = =

n X t=1

n X t=1

=

n X t=1

ln ft (Yt , Xt |φ, It ) ln (ft (Yt |Xt , φ1 , It )ft (Xt |φ2 , It )) ln ft (Yt |Xt , φ1 , It ) +

n X t=1

ln ft (Xt |φ2 , It ) =

Denition 15 (Weak Exogeneity) Xt is weakly exogeneous for θ (the original parameter

ve tor) if there is a mapping from φ to θ that is invariant to φ2 . More formally, for an arbitrary

(φ1 , φ2 ), θ(φ) = θ(φ1 ). This implies that

hange as

φ2

φ1 and φ2 annot share elements if Xt is weakly exogenous, sin e φ1 would

hanges, whi h prevents onsideration of arbitrary ombinations of

Supposing that

Xt

is weakly exogenous, then the MLE of

φ1

(φ1 , φ2 ).

using the joint density is the

same as the MLE using only the onditional density

ln L(Y |X, θ, It ) =

n X t=1

ln ft (Yt |Xt , φ1 , It )

sin e the onditional likelihood doesn't depend on log-likelihoods maximize at the same value of



φ1 .

With weak exogeneity, knowledge of the DGP of knowledge of

Xt •

φ2 . In other words, the joint and onditional

φ1

Xt

is irrelevant for inferen e on

is su ient to re over the parameter of interest,

is irrelevant, we an treat

Xt

θ.

φ1 , and

Sin e the DGP of

as xed in inferen e.

By the invarian e property of MLE, the MLE of

θ

is

θ(φˆ1 ),and

this mapping is assumed

to exist in the denition of weak exogeneity.

θˆ from φˆ1 .



Of ourse, we'll need to gure out just what this mapping is to re over



With la k of weak exogeneity, the joint and onditional likelihood fun tions maximize in

is the famous

This

identi ation problem.

dierent pla es. For this reason, we an't treat is valid, but the onditional MLE is not.

Xt

as xed in inferen e. The joint MLE

11.3.



149

REDUCED FORM

In resume, we require the variables in

Xt

to be weakly exogenous if we are to be able to

treat them as xed in estimation. Lagged

onditioning information set, e.g.,

Yt

Yt−1 ∈ It .

satisfy the denition, sin e they are in the Lagged

Yt

aren't exogenous in the normal

are determined within the model, just earlier on. Weakly exogenous variables in lude exogenous (in the normal sense) variables as well as all predetermined variables. usage of the word, sin e their values

11.3 Redu ed form Re all that the model is

Yt′ Γ = Xt′ B + Et′ V (Et ) = Σ This is the model in

stru tural form.

Denition 16 (Stru tural form) An equation is in stru tural form when more than one

urrent period endogenous variable is in luded.

The solution for the urrent period endogs is easy to nd. It is

Yt′ = Xt′ BΓ−1 + Et′ Γ−1 = Xt′ Π + Vt′ = Now only one urrent period endog appears in ea h equation. This is the

redu ed form.

Denition 17 (Redu ed form) An equation is in redu ed form if only one urrent period

endog is in luded.

An example is our supply/demand system. The redu ed form for quantity is obtained by solving the supply equation for pri e and substituting into demand:

qt = β2 qt − α2 qt = qt = =



 qt − β1 − ε2t α1 + α2 + α3 yt + ε1t β2 β2 α1 − α2 (β1 + ε2t ) + β2 α3 yt + β2 ε1t β2 α3 yt β2 ε1t − α2 ε2t β2 α1 − α2 β1 + + β2 − α2 β2 − α2 β2 − α2 π11 + π21 yt + V1t

150

CHAPTER 11.

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

Similarly, the rf for pri e is

β1 + β2 pt + ε2t = α1 + α2 pt + α3 yt + ε1t β2 pt − α2 pt = α1 − β1 + α3 yt + ε1t − ε2t α3 yt ε1t − ε2t α1 − β1 + + pt = β2 − α2 β2 − α2 β2 − α2 = π12 + π22 yt + V2t The interesting thing about the rf is that the equations individually satisfy the lassi al assumptions, sin e i=1,2,

∀t.

yt

is un orrelated with

ε1t

and

ε2t

by assumption, and therefore

The errors of the rf are

The varian e of

" V1t

V1t V2t

#

=

"

β2 ε1t −α2 ε2t β2 −α2 ε1t −ε2t β2 −α2

E(yt Vit ) = 0,

#

is



  β2 ε1t − α2 ε2t β2 ε1t − α2 ε2t V (V1t ) = E β2 − α2 β2 − α2 2 β2 σ11 − 2β2 α2 σ12 + α2 σ22 = (β2 − α2 )2 •

This is onstant over time, so the rst rf equation is homos edasti .



Likewise, sin e the

εt

are independent over time, so are the

Vt .

The varian e of the se ond rf error is



  ε1t − ε2t ε1t − ε2t V (V2t ) = E β2 − α2 β2 − α2 σ11 − 2σ12 + σ22 = (β2 − α2 )2 and the ontemporaneous ovarian e of the errors a ross equations is

  ε1t − ε2t β2 ε1t − α2 ε2t E(V1t V2t ) = E β2 − α2 β2 − α2 β2 σ11 − (β2 + α2 ) σ12 + σ22 = (β2 − α2 )2 



In summary the rf equations individually satisfy the lassi al assumptions, under the assumtions we've made, but they are ontemporaneously orrelated.

The general form of the rf is

Yt′ = Xt′ BΓ−1 + Et′ Γ−1 = Xt′ Π + Vt′

11.4.

151

IV ESTIMATION

so we have that

and that the

Vt

  ′ ′ Vt = Γ−1 Et ∼ N 0, Γ−1 ΣΓ−1 , ∀t

are timewise independent (note that this wouldn't be the ase if the

Et

were

auto orrelated).

11.4 IV estimation The IV estimator may appear a bit unusual at rst, but it will grow on you over time. The simultaneous equations model is

Y Γ = XB + E Considering the rst equation (this is without loss of generality, sin e we an always reorder the equations) we an partition the

Y

matrix as

Y = • y

h

i

y Y1 Y2

is the rst olumn

• Y1

are the other endogenous variables that enter the rst equation

• Y2

are endogs that are ex luded from this equation

Similarly, partition

X

as

X= • X1

are the in luded exogs, and

X2

h

X1 X2

i

are the ex luded exogs.

Finally, partition the error matrix as

E= Assume that

Γ

h

ε E12

i

has ones on the main diagonal. These are normalization restri tions that

simply s ale the remaining oe ients on ea h equation, and whi h s ale the varian es of the error terms. Given this s aling and our partitioning, the oe ient matri es an be written as



1

Γ12



  Γ =  −γ1 Γ22  0 Γ32 " # β1 B12 B = 0 B22

152

CHAPTER 11.

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

With this, the rst equation an be written as

y = Y1 γ1 + X1 β1 + ε = Zδ + ε The problem, as we've seen is that

Z

is orrelated with

ε,

sin e

Y1

is formed of endogs.

Now, let's onsider the general problem of a linear regression model with orrelation between regressors and the error term:

y = Xβ + ε ε ∼ iid(0, In σ 2 )

E(X ′ ε) 6= 0.

The present ase of a stru tural equation from a system of equations ts into this notation, but so do other problems, su h as measurement error or lagged dependent variables with auto orrelated errors. with

ε.

Consider some matrix

W

whi h is formed of variables un orrelated

This matrix denes a proje tion matrix

PW = W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ so that anything that is proje ted onto the spa e spanned by by the denition of

W.

W

will be un orrelated with

ε,

Transforming the model with this proje tion matrix we get

PW y = PW Xβ + PW ε or

y ∗ = X ∗ β + ε∗ Now we have that

ε∗

and

X∗

are un orrelated, sin e this is simply

′ E(X ∗′ ε∗ ) = E(X ′ PW PW ε)

= E(X ′ PW ε)

and

PW X = W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ X is the tted value from a regression of

X

W,

This implies that applying OLS to the model

so it must be un orrelated with

ε.

on

W.

This is a linear ombination of the olumns of

y ∗ = X ∗ β + ε∗ will lead to a onsistent estimator, given a few more assumptions.

This is the

generalized

11.4.

153

IV ESTIMATION

instrumental variables estimator. W

is known as the matrix of instruments. The estimator is

βˆIV = (X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW y from whi h we obtain

βˆIV

= (X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW (Xβ + ε) = β + (X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW ε

so

βˆIV − β = (X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW ε

X ′ W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ X

= Now we an introdu e fa tors of

βˆIV − β =



X ′W n



n

to get

W ′ W −1 n

! n

Assuming that ea h of the terms with a

p



W ′W n

→ QW W ,



X ′W n

→ QXW ,



W ′ε p n →

p

W ′X n

−1

X ′ W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ ε

!−1 

X ′W n



W ′W n

−1 

W ′ε n



in the denominator satises a LLN, so that

a nite pd matrix

a nite matrix with rank

K

(= ols(X) )

0

then the plim of the rhs is zero. This last term has plim 0 sin e we assume that

W

and

ε

un orrelated, e.g.,

E(Wt′ εt ) = 0, Given these assumtions the IV estimator is onsistent

p βˆIV → β. Furthermore, s aling by

 √  n βˆIV − β =

√ n,



we have

X ′W n



W ′W n

−1 

W ′X n

!−1 

X ′W n



W ′W n

Assuming that the far right term saties a CLT, so that



′ d W √ε → n

then we get

N (0, QW W σ 2 )   √  d ′ −1 2 n βˆIV − β → N 0, (QXW Q−1 W W QXW ) σ

−1 

W ′ε √ n



are

154

CHAPTER 11.

The estimators for

QXW

and

QW W

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

are the obvious ones. An estimator for

σ2

is

 ′   2 = 1 y − Xβ ˆIV . ˆIV y − X β σd IV n

This estimator is onsistent following the proof of onsisten y of the OLS estimator of

σ2 ,

when the lassi al assumptions hold. The formula used to estimate the varian e of

Vˆ (βˆIV ) =

The IV estimator is



X ′W



βˆIV

W ′W

is

−1

W ′X

−1 d 2 σIV

1. Consistent 2. Asymptoti ally normally distributed 3. Biased in general, sin e even though

′ −1 and zero, sin e (X PW X)

E(X ′ PW ε) = 0, E(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW ε

An important point is that the asymptoti distribution of and these depend upon the hoi e of

the estimator. •

W.

W1 .

W2

βˆIV

depends upon

QXW

and

QW W ,

The hoi e of instruments inuen es the e ien y of

When we have two sets of instruments, estimator using

may not be

X ′ PW ε are not independent.

W1

and

W2

su h that

W1 ⊂ W2 ,

then the IV

is at least as e iently asymptoti ally as the estimator that used

More instruments leads to more asymptoti ally e ient estimation, in general.



There are spe ial ases where there is no gain (simultaneous equations is an example of



The penalty for indis riminant use of instruments is that the small sample bias of the

this, as we'll see).

IV estimator rises as the number of instruments in reases. The reason for this is that

PW X •

be omes loser and loser to

X

itself as the number of instruments in reases.

IV estimation an learly be used in the ase of simultaneous equations. The only issue is whi h instruments to use.

11.5 Identi ation by ex lusion restri tions The identi ation problem in simultaneous equations is in fa t of the same nature as the identi ation problem in any estimation setting: does the limiting obje tive fun tion have the proper urvature so that there is a unique global minimum or maximum at the true parameter value? In the ontext of IV estimation, this is the ase if the limiting ovarian e of the IV estimator is positive denite and

plim n1 W ′ ε = 0.

This matrix is

′ −1 2 V∞ (βˆIV ) = (QXW Q−1 W W QXW ) σ

11.5.

155

IDENTIFICATION BY EXCLUSION RESTRICTIONS



The ne essary and su ient ondition for identi ation is simply that this matrix be



For this matrix to be positive denite, we need that the onditions noted above hold:



These identi ation onditions are not that intuitive nor is it very obvious how to he k

positive denite, and that the instruments be (asymptoti ally) un orrelated with

QW W

must be positive denite and

QXW

must be of full rank (

K

ε.

).

them.

11.5.1 Ne essary onditions If we use IV estimation for a single equation of the system, the equation an be written as

y = Zδ + ε where

Z=

Notation: •

Let

K



Let

K ∗ = cols(X1 )



Let

h

Y1 X1

i

be the total numer of weakly exogenous variables.

be the number of in luded exogs, and let

number of ex luded exogs (in this equation).

G∗ = cols(Y1 ) + 1

K ∗∗ = K − K ∗

be the total number of in luded endogs, and let

the number of ex luded endogs.

be the

G∗∗ = G − G∗

be

Using this notation, onsider the sele tion of instruments.



Now the



It turns out that

X

X1

are weakly exogenous and an serve as their own instruments.

X

exhausts the set of possible instruments, in that if the variables in

don't lead to an identied model then no other instruments will identify the model

either. Assuming this is true (we'll prove it in a moment), then a ne essary ondition for identi ation is that must be used twi e, so

cols(X2 ) ≥ cols(Y1 )

W

sin e if not then at least one instrument

will not have full olumn rank:

ρ(W ) < K ∗ + G∗ − 1 ⇒ ρ(QZW ) < K ∗ + G∗ − 1 This is the

order ondition

for identi ation in a set of simultaneous equations. When

the only identifying information is ex lusion restri tions on the variables that enter an equation, then the number of ex luded exogs must be greater than or equal to the number of in luded endogs, minus 1 (the normalized lhs endog), e.g.,

K ∗∗ ≥ G∗ − 1

156

CHAPTER 11.



EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

To show that this is in fa t a ne essary ondition onsider some arbitrary set of instruments

W.

A ne essary ondition for identi ation is that



1 ρ plim W ′ Z n where

h

Z= Re all that we've partitioned the model



= K ∗ + G∗ − 1

Y1 X1

i

Y Γ = XB + E as

Y =

X=

h

h

y Y1 Y2

X1 X2

i

i

Given the redu ed form

Y = XΠ + V we an write the redu ed form using the same partition

h

y Y1 Y2

i

=

h

X1 X2

i

"

π11 Π12 Π13 π21 Π22 Π23

#

+

h

i

v V1 V2

so we have

Y1 = X1 Π12 + X2 Π22 + V1 so

Be ause the

V1

W

i h 1 1 ′ W Z = W ′ X1 Π12 + X2 Π22 + V1 X1 n n

's are un orrelated with the

V1

's, by assumption, the ross between

W

and

onverges in probability to zero, so

i h 1 1 plim W ′ Z = plim W ′ X1 Π12 + X2 Π22 X1 n n Sin e the far rhs term is formed only of linear ombinations of olumns of matrix an never be greater than than

K

K,

X,

the rank of this

regardless of the hoi e of instruments. If

olumns, then it is not of full olumn rank. When

Z

has more than

K

Z

has more

olumns we

have

G∗ − 1 + K ∗ > K or noting that

K ∗∗ = K − K ∗ ,

G∗ − 1 > K ∗∗

In this ase, the limiting matrix is not of full olumn rank, and the identi ation ondition

11.5.

IDENTIFICATION BY EXCLUSION RESTRICTIONS

157

fails.

11.5.2 Su ient onditions Identi ation essentially requires that the stru tural parameters be re overable from the data. This won't be the ase, in general, unless the stru tural model is subje t to some restri tions. We've already identied ne essary onditions. Turning to su ient onditions (again, we're only onsidering identi ation through zero restri itions on the parameters, for the moment). The model is

Yt′ Γ = Xt′ B + Et V (Et ) = Σ This leads to the redu ed form

Yt′ = Xt′ BΓ−1 + Et Γ−1 = Xt′ Π + Vt ′ V (Vt ) = Γ−1 ΣΓ−1 = Ω

The redu ed form parameters are onsistently estimable, but none of them are known

a priori,

and there are no restri tions on their values. The problem is that more than one stru tural form has the same redu ed form, so knowledge of the redu ed form parameters alone isn't enough to determine the stru tural parameters. To see this, onsider the model

Yt′ ΓF

= Xt′ BF + Et F

V (Et F ) = F ′ ΣF where

F

is some arbirary nonsingular

G×G

matrix. The rf of this new model is

Yt′ = Xt′ BF (ΓF )−1 + Et F (ΓF )−1 = Xt′ BF F −1 Γ−1 + Et F F −1 Γ−1 = Xt′ BΓ−1 + Et Γ−1 = Xt′ Π + Vt Likewise, the ovarian e of the rf of the transformed model is

V (Et F (ΓF )−1 ) = V (Et Γ−1 ) = Ω Sin e the two stru tural forms lead to the same rf, and the rf is all that is dire tly estimable, the models are said to be

observationally equivalent.

What we need for identi ation are

158

CHAPTER 11.

restri tions on

Γ

and

B

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

F

su h that the only admissible

is an identity matrix (if all of the

equations are to be identied). Take the oe ient matri es as partitioned before:

"

#

Γ B



1

Γ12

  −γ1  =  0   β1 0



 Γ22   Γ32    B12  B22

The oe ients of the rst equation of the transformed model are simply these oe ients multiplied by the rst olumn of

"

Γ B

F.

#"

This gives

#

f11 F2



1

Γ12

  −γ1  =  0   β1 0



 # Γ22  "  f11 Γ32   F  2 B12  B22

For identi ation of the rst equation we need that there be enough restri tions so that the only admissible

"

#

f11 F2

be the leading olumn of an identity matrix, so that



1

Γ12

  −γ1   0    β1 0





1

 #  Γ22  "  −γ1  f11  = Γ32   F  0  2  B12   β1 0 B22

       

Note that the third and fth rows are

"

Γ32 B22

#

F2 =

"

0 0

#

Supposing that the leading matrix is of full olumn rank, e.g.,

ρ

"

Γ32 B22

#!

= cols

"

Γ32 B22

#!

=G−1

then the only way this an hold, without additional restri tions on the model's parameters, is if

F2

is a ve tor of zeros. Given that

h

F2

1 Γ12

i

is a ve tor of zeros, then the rst equation

"

f11 F2

#

= 1 ⇒ f11 = 1

11.5.

159

IDENTIFICATION BY EXCLUSION RESTRICTIONS

Therefore, as long as

ρ "

then

"

B22

#!

#

"

Γ32

f11 F2

=

=G−1 1 0G−1

#

The rst equation is identied in this ase, so the ondition is su ient for identi ation. It is also ne essary, sin e the ondition implies that this submatrix must have at least Sin e this matrix has

G−1

rows.

G∗∗ + K ∗∗ = G − G∗ + K ∗∗ rows, we obtain

G − G∗ + K ∗∗ ≥ G − 1 or

K ∗∗ ≥ G∗ − 1 whi h is the previously derived ne essary ondition. The above result is fairly intuitive (draw pi ture here). The ne essary ondition ensures that there are enough variables not in the equation of interest to potentially move the other equations, so as to tra e out the equation of interest. The su ient ondition ensures that those other equations in fa t do move around as the variables hange their values.

Some

points:

• •

When an equation has

K ∗∗ = G∗ − 1,

is is

exa tly identied,

in that omission of an

identiying restri tion is not possible without loosing onsisten y. When

K ∗∗ > G∗ − 1,

the equation is

and still retain onsisten y.

overidentied,

sin e one ould drop a restri tion

Overidentifying restri tions are therefore testable.

When

an equation is overidentied we have more instruments than are stri tly ne essary for

onsistent estimation. Sin e estimation by IV with more instruments is more e ient asymptoti ally, one should employ overidentifying restri tions if one is ondent that they're true.



We an repeat this partition for ea h equation in the system, to see whi h equations are



These results are valid assuming that the only identifying information omes from know-

identied and whi h aren't.

ing whi h variables appear in whi h equations, e.g., by ex lusion restri tions, and through the use of a normalization. There are other sorts of identifying information that an be used. These in lude

1. Cross equation restri tions 2. Additional restri tions on parameters within equations (as in the Klein model dis ussed below)

160

CHAPTER 11.

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

3. Restri tions on the ovarian e matrix of the errors

4. Nonlinearities in variables



When these sorts of information are available, the above onditions aren't ne essary for identi ation, though they are of ourse still su ient.

To give an example of how other information an be used, onsider the model

Y Γ = XB + E where

system

Γ

is an upper triangular matrix with 1's on the main diagonal.

This is a

triangular

of equations. In this ase, the rst equation is

y1 = XB·1 + E·1 Sin e only exogs appear on the rhs, this equation is identied.

The se ond equation is

y2 = −γ21 y1 + XB·2 + E·2 This equation has

K ∗∗ = 0

ex luded exogs, and

G∗ = 2

in luded endogs, so it fails the order

(ne essary) ondition for identi ation.



However, suppose that we have the restri tion

Σ21 = 0,

so that the rst and se ond

stru tural errors are un orrelated. In this ase

 E(y1t ε2t ) = E (Xt′ B·1 + ε1t )ε2t = 0

so there's no problem of simultaneity. If the entire

the same logi , all of the equations are identied. model.

Σ

matrix is diagonal, then following

This is known as a

fully re ursive

11.5.

161

IDENTIFICATION BY EXCLUSION RESTRICTIONS

11.5.3 Example: Klein's Model 1 To give an example of determining identi ation status, onsider the following ma ro model (this is the widely known Klein's Model 1)

Ct = α0 + α1 Pt + α2 Pt−1 + α3 (Wtp + Wtg ) + ε1t

Consumption: Investment:

Wtp = γ0 + γ1 Xt + γ2 Xt−1 + γ3 At + ε3t

Private Wages:

Xt = Ct + It + Gt

Output: Prots: Capital Sto k:



It = β0 + β1 Pt + β2 Pt−1 + β3 Kt−1 + ε2t

ǫ1t

Pt = Xt − Tt − Wtp Kt = Kt−1 + It  

0

 

σ11 σ12 σ13

      ǫ2t  ∼ IID  0  ,  0 ǫ3t The other variables are the government wage bill, ing,

Gt ,and

a time trend,

At .

Wtg ,



 σ22 σ23  σ33

taxes,

Tt ,

government nonwage spend-

The endogenous variables are the lhs variables,

Yt′ =

h

Ct It Wtp Xt Pt Kt

i

and the predetermined variables are all others:

Xt′

=

h

1

Wtg

Gt Tt At Pt−1 Kt−1 Xt−1

i

.

The model assumes that the errors of the equations are ontemporaneously orrelated, by nonauto orrelated. The model written as



     Γ=    

Y Γ = XB + E

1

0

0

0

1

0

−α3 0 0 0 0

0



       B=       

−1 0

0

0

0

α0 β0 γ0 0 0 α3 0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

γ3

α2 β2 0 0

β3 0

0

0

γ2

0

0



 0   1 0 0    0 −1 0   0 0 0    0 0 0   0 0 1   0 0 0 0 0



 −1   1 0    −1 0   1 0   0 1

−1 0

1 0 −γ1 1

−α1 −β1 0

gives

162

CHAPTER 11.

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

To he k this identi ation of the onsumption equation, we need to extra t submatri es of oe ients of endogs and exogs that

don't

Γ32

and

B22 ,

the

appear in this equation. These are

the rows that have zeros in the rst olumn, and we need to drop the rst olumn. We get



"

Γ32 B22

    #    =       

1

0

−1 0

−1

0

−γ1 1

−1 0

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

γ3

0

−1 0

0

0

β3 0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

0

γ2

               

We need to nd a set of 5 rows of this matrix gives a full-rank 5×5 matrix.

For example,

sele ting rows 3,4,5,6, and 7 we obtain the matrix



0

0

  0  A=  0   0 β3

0 0 γ3 0

0 0

1



 0   0 −1 0    0 0 0  0 0 1 1 0

This matrix is of full rank, so the su ient ondition for identi ation is met.

∗ in luded endogs, G

= 3,

∗∗ and ounting ex luded exogs, K

= 5,

Counting

so

K ∗∗ − L = G∗ − 1 5−L L •

=3−1 =3

The equation is over-identied by three restri tions, a

ording to the ounting rules, whi h are orre t when the only identifying information are the ex lusion restri tions. However, there is additional information in this ase.

Both

Wtp

and

Wtg

onsumption equation, and their oe ients are restri ted to be the same.

enter the For this

reason the onsumption equation is in fa t overidentied by four restri tions.

11.6 2SLS When we have no information regarding ross-equation restri tions or the stru ture of the error ovarian e matrix, one an estimate the parameters of a single equation of the system without regard to the other equations.



This isn't always e ient, as we'll see, but it has the advantage that misspe i ations in other equations will not ae t the onsisten y of the estimator of the parameters of

11.6.

163

2SLS

the equation of interest.



Also, estimation of the equation won't be ae ted by identi ation problems in other equations.

The 2SLS estimator is very simple: in the rst stage, ea h olumn of weakly exogenous variables in the system, e.g., the entire

X

Y1

is regressed on

all

the

matrix. The tted values are

Yˆ1 = X(X ′ X)−1 X ′ Y1 = PX Y1 ˆ1 = XΠ Sin e these tted values are the proje tion of

Y1

on the spa e spanned by

ˆ1 ve tor in this spa e is un orrelated with ε by assumption, Y simply the redu ed-form predi tion, it is orrelated with

X,

and sin e any

is un orrelated with

ε. Sin e Yˆ1

is

Y1 , The only other requirement is that

the instruments be linearly independent. This should be the ase when the order ondition is satised, sin e there are more olumns in The se ond stage substitutes

Yˆ1

X2

than in

in pla e of

Y1 ,

Y1

in this ase.

and estimates by OLS. This original model

is

y = Y1 γ1 + X1 β1 + ε = Zδ + ε and the se ond stage model is

y = Yˆ1 γ1 + X1 β1 + ε. Sin e

X1

is in the spa e spanned by

X, PX X1 = X1 ,

so we an write the se ond stage model

as

y = PX Y1 γ1 + PX X1 β1 + ε ≡ PX Zδ + ε The OLS estimator applied to this model is

δˆ = (Z ′ PX Z)−1 Z ′ PX y whi h is exa tly what we get if we estimate using IV, with the redu ed form predi tions of the endogs used as instruments. Note that if we dene

Zˆ = PX Z h i = Yˆ1 X1

164

CHAPTER 11.

so that



are the instruments for

Z,

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

then we an write

δˆ = (Zˆ ′ Z)−1 Zˆ ′ y •

Important note: estimate of However

OLS on the transformed model an be used to al ulate the 2SLS

δ, sin e we see that it's equivalent to IV using a parti ular set of instruments.

the OLS ovarian e formula is not valid.

We need to apply the IV ovarian e

formula already seen above.

A tually, there is also a simpli ation of the general IV varian e formula. Dene

Zˆ = PX Z h i = Yˆ X The IV ovarian e estimator would ordinarily be

 −1   −1 2 ˆ = Z ′ Zˆ Vˆ (δ) Zˆ ′ Zˆ Zˆ ′ Z σ ˆIV However, looking at the last term in bra kets

Zˆ ′ Z = but sin e

PX

h

Yˆ1 X1

i′ h

is idempotent and sin e

h

Yˆ1 X1

i′ h

Y1 X1

i

=

PX X = X,

Y1 X1

i

= =

" h

"

Y1′ (PX )Y1 Y1′ (PX )X1 X1′ Y1

X1′ X1

#

we an write

Y1′ PX PX Y1 Y1′ PX X1 X1′ X1 X1′ PX Y1 i′ h i Yˆ1 X1 Yˆ1 X1

#

= Zˆ ′ Zˆ

Therefore, the se ond and last term in the varian e formula an el, so the 2SLS var ov estimator simplies to

 −1 2 ˆ = Z ′ Zˆ Vˆ (δ) σ ˆIV

whi h, following some algebra similar to the above, an also be written as

 −1 2 ˆ = Zˆ ′ Zˆ Vˆ (δ) σ ˆIV Finally, re all that though this is presented in terms of the rst equation, it is general sin e any equation an be pla ed rst.

Properties of 2SLS: 1. Consistent 2. Asymptoti ally normal

11.7.

165

TESTING THE OVERIDENTIFYING RESTRICTIONS

3. Biased when the mean esists (the existen e of moments is a te hni al issue we won't go into here).

4. Asymptoti ally ine ient, ex ept in spe ial ir umstan es (more on this later).

11.7 Testing the overidentifying restri tions The sele tion of whi h variables are endogs and whi h are exogs

the model.

is part of the spe i ation of

As su h, there is room for error here: one might erroneously lassify a variable as

exog when it is in fa t orrelated with the error term. A general test for the spe i ation on the model an be formulated as follows: The IV estimator an be al ulated by applying OLS to the transformed model, so the IV obje tive fun tion at the minimized value is

  ′  s(βˆIV ) = y − X βˆIV PW y − X βˆIV , but

εˆIV

= y − X βˆIV

= y − X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW y  = I − X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW y  = I − X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW (Xβ + ε) = A (Xβ + ε)

where

A ≡ I − X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW so

Moreover,

A′ PW A

A′ PW A = = = Furthermore,

A

 s(βˆIV ) = ε′ + β ′ X ′ A′ PW A (Xβ + ε)

is idempotent, as an be veried by multipli ation:

  I − PW X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW I − X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW   PW − PW X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW PW − PW X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW  I − PW X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW .

is orthogonal to

X

AX =

 I − X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW X

= X −X = 0

166

CHAPTER 11.

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

so

s(βˆIV ) = ε′ A′ PW Aε Supposing the

ε

are normally distributed, with varian e

σ2 ,

then the random variable

ε′ A′ PW Aε s(βˆIV ) = σ2 σ2 is a quadrati form of a

N (0, 1)

random variable with an idempotent matrix in the middle, so

s(βˆIV ) ∼ χ2 (ρ(A′ PW A)) σ2 This isn't available, sin e we need to estimate



Even if the

ε

σ2 .

Substituting a onsistent estimator,

s(βˆIV ) a 2 ∼ χ (ρ(A′ PW A)) c 2 σ

aren't normally distributed, the asymptoti result still holds.

The last

thing we need to determine is the rank of the idempotent matrix. We have

A′ PW A = PW − PW X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW so



ρ(A′ PW A) = T r PW − PW X(X ′ PW X)−1 X ′ PW



= T rPW − T rX ′ PW PW X(X ′ PW X)−1

= T rW (W ′ W )−1 W ′ − KX

= T rW ′ W (W ′ W )−1 − KX = KW − KX

where

KW

is the number of olumns of

W

and

KX

is the number of olumns of

X.

The degrees of freedom of the test is simply the number of overidentifying restri tions: the number of instruments we have beyond the number that is stri tly ne essary for

onsistent estimation.



This test is an overall spe i ation test: is orre tly spe ied

and

that the

W

the joint null hypothesis is that the model

form valid instruments (e.g., that the variables

lassied as exogs really are un orrelated with model

• •

y = Zδ + ε

ε.

Reje tion an mean that either the

is misspe ied, or that there is orrelation between

X

and

ε.

This is a parti ular ase of the GMM riterion test, whi h is overed in the se ond half of the ourse. See Se tion 15.8.

Note that sin e

εˆIV = Aε

11.7.

167

TESTING THE OVERIDENTIFYING RESTRICTIONS

and

s(βˆIV ) = ε′ A′ PW Aε we an write

s(βˆIV ) c2 σ where

Ru2

  εˆ′ W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ εˆ = εˆ′ εˆ/n = n(RSSεˆIV |W /T SSεˆIV ) = nRu2

is the un entered

instruments

W.

R2

from a regression of the

IV

residuals on all of the

This is a onvenient way to al ulate the test statisti .

On an aside, onsider IV estimation of a just-identied model, using the standard notation

y = Xβ + ε and so

W ′

is the matrix of instruments. If we have exa t identi ation then

W X

cols(W ) = cols(X),

is a square matrix. The transformed model is

PW y = PW Xβ + PW ε and the fon are

X ′ PW (y − X βˆIV ) = 0 The IV estimator is

βˆIV = X ′ PW X Considering the inverse here

X ′ PW X

Now multiplying this by

βˆIV

−1

X ′ PW y,

=

−1

X ′ PW y

X ′ W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ X

−1

−1 = (W ′ X)−1 X ′ W (W ′ W )−1 −1 = (W ′ X)−1 (W ′ W ) X ′ W

we obtain

= (W ′ X)−1 (W ′ W ) X ′ W = (W ′ X)−1 (W ′ W ) X ′ W = (W ′ X)−1 W ′ y

−1

−1

X ′ PW y X ′ W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ y

168

CHAPTER 11.

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

The obje tive fun tion for the generalized IV estimator is

s(βˆIV ) = = = = =

 ′  y − X βˆIV PW y − X βˆIV     ′ X ′ PW y − X βˆIV y ′ PW y − X βˆIV − βˆIV   ′ ′ X ′ PW y + βˆIV X ′ PW X βˆIV y ′ PW y − X βˆIV − βˆIV     ′ X ′ PW y + X ′ PW X βˆIV y ′ PW y − X βˆIV − βˆIV   y ′ PW y − X βˆIV 

by the fon for generalized IV. However, when we're in the just indentied ase, this is

 s(βˆIV ) = y ′ PW y − X(W ′ X)−1 W ′ y  = y ′ PW I − X(W ′ X)−1 W ′ y

 = y ′ W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ − W (W ′ W )−1 W ′ X(W ′ X)−1 W ′ y = 0

The value of the obje tive fun tion of the IV estimator is zero in the just identied ase. makes sense, sin e we've already shown that the obje tive fun tion after dividing by asymptoti ally

χ2

This

σ2

is

with degrees of freedom equal to the number of overidentifying restri tions.

In the present ase, there are no overidentifying restri tions, so we have a

χ2 (0)

rv, whi h has

mean 0 and varian e 0, e.g., it's simply 0. This means we're not able to test the identifying restri tions in the ase of exa t identi ation.

11.8 System methods of estimation 2SLS is a single equation method of estimation, as noted above. The advantage of a single equation method is that it's unae ted by the other equations of the system, so they don't need to be spe ied (ex ept for dening what are the exogs, so 2SLS an use the omplete set of instruments). The disadvantage of 2SLS is that it's ine ient, in general.



Re all that overidenti ation improves e ien y of estimation, sin e an overidentied



Se ondly, the assumption is that

equation an use more instruments than are ne essary for onsistent estimation.

Y Γ = XB + E E(X ′ E) = 0(K×G) vec(E) ∼ N (0, Ψ) •

Sin e there is no auto orrelation of the

Et

's, and sin e the olumns of

E

are individually

11.8.

169

SYSTEM METHODS OF ESTIMATION

homos edasti , then



   Ψ =   

σ11 In σ12 In · · · σ1G In . . .

σ22 In ..

.

·

. . .

σGG In

= Σ ⊗ In

      

This means that the stru tural equations are heteros edasti and orrelated with one another



In general, ignoring this will lead to ine ient estimation, following the se tion on GLS. When equations are orrelated with one another estimation should a

ount for the orrelation in order to obtain e ien y.



Also, sin e the equations are orrelated, information about one equation is impli itly information about all equations. Therefore, overidenti ation restri tions in any equation improve e ien y for



all

equations, even the just identied equations.

Single equation methods an't use these types of information, and are therefore ine ient (in general).

11.8.1 3SLS Note: It is easier and more pra ti al to treat the 3SLS estimator as a generalized method of moments estimator (see Chapter 15). I no longer tea h the following se tion, but it is retained Another alternative is to use FIML (Subse tion 11.8.2),

for its possible histori al interest.

if you are willing to make distributional assumptions on the errors. This is omputationally feasible with modern omputers. Following our above notation, ea h stru tural equation an be written as

yi = Yi γ1 + Xi β1 + εi = Zi δi + εi Grouping the

G

equations together we get



y1

  y2  .  .  . yG or





Z1 0

    0 =   . .    .

0

··· 0 . . .

Z2 ..

··· 0

.

0 ZG

y = Zδ + ε



δ1

   δ2   .   ..  δG





ε1

    ε2 + .   .   . εG

     

170

CHAPTER 11.

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

where we already have that

E(εε′ ) = Ψ = Σ ⊗ In The 3SLS estimator is just 2SLS ombined with a GLS orre tion that takes advantage of the stru ture of

Ψ.

Dene





as

X(X ′ X)−1 X ′ Z1 0

  0  ˆ Z =  .  ..  0  Yˆ1 X1   0  =  .  .  . 0

X(X ′ X)−1 X ′ Z2

. . .

..

··· 0 Yˆ2 X2

0 ··· 0 . . .

..

···

These instruments are simply the

.

0

unrestri ted



··· 0

0 YˆG XG

0

.



X(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ZG

     

     

rf predi itions of the endogs, ombined with

the exogs. The distin tion is that if the model is overidentied, then

Π = BΓ−1 may be subje t to some zero restri tions, depending on the restri tions on does not impose these restri tions.

Also, note that

ˆ Π

Γ

and

B,

and

ˆ Π

is al ulated using OLS equation by

equation. More on this later. The 2SLS estimator would be

δˆ = (Zˆ ′ Z)−1 Zˆ ′ y as an be veried by simple multipli ation, and noting that the inverse of a blo k-diagonal matrix is just the matrix with the inverses of the blo ks on the main diagonal.

This IV

estimator still ignores the ovarian e information. The natural extension is to add the GLS transformation, putting the inverse of the error ovarian e into the formula, whi h gives the 3SLS estimator

δˆ3SLS

 −1 Zˆ ′ (Σ ⊗ In )−1 Z Zˆ ′ (Σ ⊗ In )−1 y    −1 ′ −1 = Zˆ Σ ⊗ In y Zˆ ′ Σ−1 ⊗ In Z =

This estimator requires knowledge of a onsistent estimator of

Σ.

Σ.

The solution is to dene a feasible estimator using

The obvious solution is to use an estimator based on the 2SLS

residuals:

εˆi = yi − Zi δˆi,2SLS

11.8.

171

SYSTEM METHODS OF ESTIMATION

(IMPORTANT NOTE:

this is al ulated using

estimated by

σ ˆij = Substitute

ˆ Σ

Zi ,

not

Zˆi ).

Then the element

i, j

of

Σ

is

εˆ′i εˆj n

into the formula above to get the feasible 3SLS estimator.

Analogously to what we did in the ase of 2SLS, the asymptoti distribution of the 3SLS estimator an be shown to be

  !   Zˆ ′ (Σ ⊗ I )−1 Zˆ −1   √  a n  n δˆ3SLS − δ ∼ N 0, lim E n→∞   n

A formula for estimating the varian e of the 3SLS estimator in nite samples ( an elling out the powers of

n)

is

     −1 ˆ −1 ⊗ In Zˆ Vˆ δˆ3SLS = Zˆ ′ Σ

??), ombined with the GLS orre -



This is analogous to the 2SLS formula in equation (



In the ase that all equations are just identied, 3SLS is numeri ally equivalent to 2SLS.

tion.

Proving this is easiest if we use a GMM interpretation of 2SLS and 3SLS. GMM is presented in the next e onometri s ourse. For now, take it on faith.

The 3SLS estimator is based upon the rf parameter estimator

ˆ Π,

al ulated equation by

equation using OLS:

ˆ = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ Y Π whi h is simply

ˆ = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ Π that is, OLS equation by equation using

all

h

y1 y2 · · · yG

i

the exogs in the estimation of ea h olumn of

Π.

It may seem odd that we use OLS on the redu ed form, sin e the rf equations are orrelated:

Yt′ = Xt′ BΓ−1 + Et′ Γ−1 = Xt′ Π + Vt′ and

  ′ ′ Vt = Γ−1 Et ∼ N 0, Γ−1 ΣΓ−1 , ∀t

Let this var- ov matrix be indi ated by

′ Ξ = Γ−1 ΣΓ−1

172

CHAPTER 11.

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

OLS equation by equation to get the rf is equivalent to



y1

  y2  .  .  . yG where

yi

is the

n×1





X 0

    0 =   . .    .

0



··· 0

   π2   . . 0   . πG X . . .

X ..

.

··· 0

ve tor of observations of the

th olumn of exogs, πi is the i

Π,

π1

ith



v1

    v2 + .   .   . vG

endog,

th olumn of and vi is the i



X

V.

     

is the entire

n×K

matrix of

Use the notation

y = Xπ + v to indi ate the pooled model. Following this notation, the error ovarian e matrix is

V (v) = Ξ ⊗ In •

This is a spe ial ase of a type of model known as a set of

(SUR)

seemingly unrelated equations

sin e the parameter ve tor of ea h equation is dierent. The equations are on-

temporanously orrelated, however. The general ase would have a dierent

Xi

for ea h

equation.



Note that ea h equation of the system individually satises the lassi al assumptions.



However, pooled estimation using the GLS orre tion is more e ient, sin e equationby-equation estimation is equivalent to pooled estimation, sin e

X is blo k diagonal,

but

ignoring the ovarian e information.



The model is estimated by GLS, where



In the spe ial ase that all the

Ξ

is estimated using the OLS residuals from

equation-by-equation estimation, whi h are onsistent.

Xi

are the same, whi h is true in the present ase

of estimation of the rf parameters, SUR

X = In ⊗ X.

Using the rules

1.

(A ⊗ B)−1 = (A−1 ⊗ B −1 )

2.

(A ⊗ B)′ = (A′ ⊗ B ′ )

and

≡OLS.

To show this note that in this ase

11.8.

173

SYSTEM METHODS OF ESTIMATION

3.

(A ⊗ B)(C ⊗ D) = (AC ⊗ BD), π ˆSU R = = = =

=

we get



−1 (In ⊗ X)′ (Ξ ⊗ In )−1 (In ⊗ X) (In ⊗ X)′ (Ξ ⊗ In )−1 y  −1 −1  Ξ−1 ⊗ X ′ (In ⊗ X) Ξ ⊗ X′ y   Ξ ⊗ (X ′ X)−1 Ξ−1 ⊗ X ′ y   IG ⊗ (X ′ X)−1 X ′ y   π ˆ1   ˆ   π  .2   .   .  π ˆG



So the unrestri ted rf oe ients an be estimated e iently (assuming normality) by



We have ignored any potential zeros in the matrix



OLS, even if the equations are orrelated.

Π, whi h if they exist ould potentially

in rease the e ien y of estimation of the rf.

Another example where SUR≡OLS is in estimation of ve tor autoregressions. See two

se tions ahead.

11.8.2 FIML Full information maximum likelihood is an alternative estimation method.

FIML will be

asymptoti ally e ient, sin e ML estimators based on a given information set are asymptoti ally e ient w.r.t. all other estimators that use the same information set, and in the ase of the full-information ML estimator we use the entire information set. The 2SLS and 3SLS estimators don't require distributional assumptions, while FIML of ourse does. Our model is, re all

Yt′ Γ = Xt′ B + Et′ Et ∼ N (0, Σ), ∀t

E(Et Es′ ) = 0, t 6= s The joint normality of

Et

means that the density for

−g/2

(2π) The transformation from

Et

to

Yt

det Σ

 −1 −1/2

Et



1 exp − Et′ Σ−1 Et 2

requires the Ja obian

| det

is the multivariate normal, whi h is

dEt | = | det Γ| dYt′



174

CHAPTER 11.

so the density for

Yt

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

is

(2π)−G/2 | det Γ| det Σ−1

−1/2

   ′ 1 exp − Yt′ Γ − Xt′ B Σ−1 Yt′ Γ − Xt′ B 2

Given the assumption of independen e over time, the joint log-likelihood fun tion is

n

ln L(B, Γ, Σ) = −

 ′ nG n 1X ′ ln(2π)+n ln(| det Γ|)− ln det Σ−1 − Yt Γ − Xt′ B Σ−1 Yt′ Γ − Xt′ B 2 2 2 t=1



This is a nonlinear in the parameters obje tive fun tion. Maximixation of this an be



It turns out that the asymptoti distribution of 3SLS and FIML are the same,



One an al ulate the FIML estimator by iterating the 3SLS estimator, thus avoiding

done using iterative numeri methods. We'll see how to do this in the next se tion.

normality of the errors.

assuming

the use of a nonlinear optimizer. The steps are

1. Cal ulate

ˆ 3SLS Γ

2. Cal ulate

ˆ =B ˆ3SLS Γ ˆ −1 . Π 3SLS

and

ˆ3SLS B

as normal. This is new, we didn't estimate

Π

in this way before.

This estimator may have some zeros in it. When Greene says iterated 3SLS doesn't lead to FIML, he means this for a pro edure that doesn't update updates

ˆ Σ

and

ˆ B

and

ˆ Γ.

If you update

3. Cal ulate the instruments

ˆ Yˆ = X Π

ˆ Π

you

do

ˆ Π,

but only

onverge to FIML.

and al ulate

ˆ Σ

using

ˆ Γ

and

ˆ B

to get the

estimated errors, applying the usual estimator. 4. Apply 3SLS using these new instruments and the estimate of

Σ.

5. Repeat steps 2-4 until there is no hange in the parameters.



FIML is fully e ient, sin e it's an ML estimator that uses all information. This implies that 3SLS is fully e ient

when the errors are normally distributed.

Also, if ea h equation

is just identied and the errors are normal, then 2SLS will be fully e ient, sin e in this

ase 2SLS≡3SLS.



When the errors aren't normally distributed, the likelihood fun tion is of ourse dierent than what's written above.

11.9 Example: 2SLS and Klein's Model 1 The O tave program Simeq/Klein.m performs 2SLS estimation for the 3 equations of Klein's model 1, assuming nonauto orrelated errors, so that lagged endogenous variables an be used as instruments. The results are:

CONSUMPTION EQUATION

11.9.

175

EXAMPLE: 2SLS AND KLEIN'S MODEL 1

******************************************************* 2SLS estimation results Observations 21 R-squared 0.976711 Sigma-squared 1.044059

Constant Profits Lagged Profits Wages

estimate 16.555 0.017 0.216 0.810

st.err. 1.321 0.118 0.107 0.040

t-stat. 12.534 0.147 2.016 20.129

p-value 0.000 0.885 0.060 0.000

******************************************************* INVESTMENT EQUATION ******************************************************* 2SLS estimation results Observations 21 R-squared 0.884884 Sigma-squared 1.383184

Constant Profits Lagged Profits Lagged Capital

estimate 20.278 0.150 0.616 -0.158

st.err. 7.543 0.173 0.163 0.036

t-stat. 2.688 0.867 3.784 -4.368

p-value 0.016 0.398 0.001 0.000

******************************************************* WAGES EQUATION ******************************************************* 2SLS estimation results Observations 21 R-squared 0.987414 Sigma-squared 0.476427

Constant Output Lagged Output Trend

estimate 1.500 0.439 0.147 0.130

st.err. 1.148 0.036 0.039 0.029

t-stat. 1.307 12.316 3.777 4.475

p-value 0.209 0.000 0.002 0.000

176

CHAPTER 11.

EXOGENEITY AND SIMULTANEITY

*******************************************************

The above results are not valid (spe i ally, they are in onsistent) if the errors are auto orrelated, sin e lagged endogenous variables will not be valid instruments in that ase. You might onsider eliminating the lagged endogenous variables as instruments, and re-estimating by 2SLS, to obtain onsistent parameter estimates in this more omplex ase. Standard errors will still be estimated in onsistently, unless use a Newey-West type ovarian e estimator. Food for thought...

Chapter 12 Introdu tion to the se ond half We'll begin with study of on a sample of size

extremum estimators in general.

sn (Zn , θ)

Zn

be the available data, based

n.

[Extremum estimator℄ An extremum estimator fun tion

Let

over a set

θˆ is

the optimizing element of an obje tive

Θ.

We'll usually write the obje tive fun tion suppressing the dependen e on

Zn .

Example: Least squares, linear model yt = x′t θ0 + εt , t = 1, 2, ...,  n, θ 0 ∈ Θ. Sta king observations verti ally, ′ . The least squares estimator is dened as yn = Xn θ 0 + εn , where Xn = x1 x2 · · · xn Let the d.g.p. be

θˆ ≡ arg min sn (θ) = (1/n) [yn − Xn θ]′ [yn − Xn θ] Θ

We readily nd that

θˆ = (X′ X)−1 X′ y.

Example: Maximum likelihood Suppose that the ontinuous random variable estimator is dened as

θˆ ≡ arg max Ln (θ) = Θ

n Y

(2π)

yt ∼ IIN (θ 0 , 1).

−1/2

t=1

The maximum likelihood

(yt − θ)2 exp − 2 (0, ∞), ˆ as same θ

!

Be ause the logarithmi fun tion is stri tly in reasing on

maximization of the average

logarithm of the likelihood fun tion is a hieved at the

for the likelihood fun tion:

θˆ ≡ arg max sn (θ) = (1/n) ln Ln (θ) = −1/2 ln 2π − (1/n) Θ

Solution of the f.o. . leads to the familiar result that

n X (yt − θ)2 t=1

2

¯. θˆ = y

sup-



MLE estimators are asymptoti ally e ient (Cramér-Rao lower bound, Theorem3),



One an investigate the properties of an ML estimator supposing that the distributional

posing the strong distributional assumptions upon whi h they are based are true. assumptions are in orre t. This gives a

quasi-ML estimator, whi h we'll study later.

177

178

CHAPTER 12.



INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND HALF

The strong distributional assumptions of MLE may be questionable in many ases. It is possible to estimate using weaker distributional assumptions based only on some of the moments of a random variable(s).

Example: Method of moments Suppose we draw a random sample of

yt

from the

• µ1 = µ1 (θ 0 ) •

is a

distribution.

Here,

θ0

is the

µ1 , of a random variable will in general

parameter of interest. The rst moment (expe tation), be a fun tion of the parameters of the distribution,

χ2 (θ 0 )

i.e., µ1 (θ 0 ) .

moment-parameter equation. µ1 (θ 0 ) = θ 0 ,

In this example, the relationship is the identity fun tion

though in general

the relationship may be more ompli ated. The sample rst moment is

µ c1 =

n X

yt /n.

t=1



Dene



The method of moments prin iple is to hoose the estimator of the parameter to set the

m1 (θ) = µ1 (θ) − µ c1

ˆ ≡ 0. , i.e., m1 (θ)

estimate of the population moment equal to the sample moment

Then

the moment-parameter equation is inverted to solve for the parameter estimate.

In this ase,

ˆ = θˆ − m1 (θ) Sin e

Pn

t=1 yt /n

p

→ θ0

n X

yt /n = 0.

t=1

by the LLN, the estimator is onsistent.

More on the method of moments Continuing with the above example, the varian e of a

V (yt ) = E yt − θ 0 •



Dene

m2 (θ) = 2θ −

2

χ2 (θ 0 )

r.v. is

= 2θ 0 .

Pn

t=1 (yt

n

− y¯)2

The MM estimator would set

ˆ = 2θˆ − m2 (θ)

Pn

t=1 (yt

n

− y¯)2

≡ 0.

Again, by the LLN, the sample varian e is onsistent for the true varian e, that is,

Pn

t=1 (yt

n

− y¯)2

p

→ 2θ 0 .

179

So,

θˆ =

Pn

− y¯)2

t=1 (yt

2n

,

whi h is obtained by inverting the moment-parameter equation, is onsistent.

Example: Generalized method of moments (GMM) The previous two examples give two estimators of

θ0

whi h are both onsistent. With a

given sample, the estimators will be dierent in general.



With two moment-parameter equations and only one parameter, we have

overidenti a-

tion, whi h means that we have more information than is stri tly ne essary for onsistent estimation of the parameter.



The GMM ombines information from the two moment-parameter equations to form a new estimator whi h will be

From the rst example, dene average of

m1t (θ),

i.e.,

more e ient, in general (proof of this below).

m1t (θ) = θ − yt .

m1 (θ) = 1/n = θ−

We already have that

n X

t=1 n X

m1 (θ)

is the sample

m1t (θ) yt /n.

t=1

Clearly, when evaluated at the true parameter value

0.

    θ 0 , both E m1t (θ 0 ) = 0 and E m1 (θ 0 ) =

From the se ond example we dene additional moment onditions

m2t (θ) = 2θ − (yt − y¯)2 and

m2 (θ) = 2θ − Again, it is lear from the LLN that either

ˆ =0 m1 (θ)

or

ˆ = 0. m2 (θ)

Pn

t=1 (yt

a.s.

m2 (θ 0 ) → 0.

n

− y¯)2

.

The MM estimator would hose

In general, no single value of

θ

θˆ

to set

will solve the two equations

simultaneously.



The GMM estimator is based on dening a measure of distan e



(m1 (θ), m2 (θ)) ,

d(m(θ)),

where

m(θ) =

and hoosing

θˆ = arg min sn (θ) = d (m(θ)) . Θ

An example would be to hoose

d(m) = m′ Am,

where

A

is a positive denite matrix. While

it's lear that the MM gives onsistent estimates if there is a one-to-one relationship between

180

CHAPTER 12.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND HALF

parameters and moments, it's not immediately obvious that the GMM estimator is onsistent. (We'll see later that it is.) These examples show that these widely used estimators may all be interpreted as the solution of an optimization problem. useful for its generality.

For this reason, the study of extremum estimators is

We will see that the general results extend smoothly to the more

spe ialized results available for spe i estimators.

After studying extremum estimators in

general, we will study the GMM estimator, then QML and NLS. The reason we study GMM rst is that LS, IV, NLS, MLE, QML and other well-known parametri estimators may all be interpreted as spe ial ases of the GMM estimator, so the general results on GMM an simplify and unify the treatment of these other estimators. Nevertheless, there are some spe ial results on QML and NLS, and both are important in empiri al resear h, whi h makes fo us on them useful.

One of the fo al points of the ourse will be nonlinear models.

This is not to suggest that

linear models aren't useful. Linear models are more general than they might rst appear, sin e one an employ nonlinear transformations of the variables:

ϕ0 (yt ) = For example,

h

ϕ1 (xt ) ϕ2 (xt ) · · · ϕp (xt )

i

θ 0 + εt

ln yt = α + βx1t + γx21t + δx1t x2t + εt ts this form.



The important point is that the model is

linear in the variables.

linear in the parameters

but not ne essarily

In spite of this generality, situations often arise whi h simply an not be onvin ingly represented by linear in the parameters models. Also, theory that applies to nonlinear models also applies to linear models, so one may as well start o with the general ase.

Example: Expenditure shares Roy's Identity states that the quantity demanded of the

xi =

ith

of

G

goods is

−∂v(p, y)/∂pi . ∂v(p, y)/∂y

An expenditure share is

so ne essarily

si ∈ [0, 1],

and

PG

i=1 si

si ≡ pi xi /y, = 1.

No linear in the parameters model for

xi

or

si

with

a parameter spa e that is dened independent of the data an guarantee that either of these

onditions holds. These onstraints will often be violated by estimated linear models, whi h

alls into question their appropriateness in ases of this sort.

Example: Binary limited dependent variable The referendum ontingent valuation (CV) method of infering the so ial value of a proje t provides a simple example. This example is a spe ial ase of more general dis rete hoi e (or

181

binary response) models. Individuals are asked if they would pay an amount a proje t. Indire t utility in the base ase (no proje t) is

z

v 0 (m, z) + ε0 , where m is in ome and

is a ve tor of other variables su h as pri es, personal hara teristi s,

1 utility is v (m, z)

+

ε1 . The random terms

εi , i 1

population. With this, an individual agrees

0 − ε1} |ε {z ε

ε = ε0 − ε1 ,

Dene

y =1

let

w

olle t

m

<

= 1, 2,

to pay

A

A for provision of

et .

After provision,

ree t variations of preferen es in the if

v 1 (m − A, z) − v 0 (m, z) {z } | ∆v(w, A)

z, and let ∆v(w, A) = v 1 (m − A, z) − v 0 (m, z). Dene A for the hange, y = 0 otherwise. The probability of

and

if the onsumer agrees to pay

agreement is

Pr(y = 1) = Fε [∆v(w, A)] . To simplify notation, dene that

p(w, A) ≡ Fε [∆v(w, A)] .

(12.1)

To make the example spe i , suppose

v 1 (m, z) = α − βm

v 0 (m, z) = −βm and

ε0

and

ε1

are i.i.d.

extreme value random variables.

That is, utility depends only on

in ome, preferen es in both states are homotheti , and a spe i distributional assumption is made on the distribution of preferen es in the population. With these assumptions (the details are unimportant here, see arti les by D. M Fadden if you're interested) it an be shown that

p(A, θ) = Λ (α + βA) , where

Λ(z) is

the logisti distribution fun tion

Λ(z) = (1 + exp(−z))−1 . This is the simple logit model:

the hoi e probability is the logit fun tion of a linear in

parameters fun tion. Now,

y

is either

0

or 1, and the expe ted value of

y

is

Λ (α + βA)

. Thus, we an write

y = Λ (α + βA) + η E(η) = 0. One ould estimate this by (nonlinear) least squares

 1

 1X (y − Λ (α + βA))2 α, ˆ βˆ = arg min n t

We assume here that responses are truthful, that is there is no strategi behavior and that individuals are

able to order their preferen es in this hypotheti al situation.

182

CHAPTER 12.

The main point is that it is impossible that

INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND HALF

Λ (α + βA)

parameters model, in the sense that, for arbitrary

A,

an be written as a linear in the

there are no

θ, ϕ(A)

su h that

Λ (α + βA) = ϕ(A)′ θ, ∀A where

ϕ(A)

is a

be ause for any

1,

p-ve tor θ,

valued fun tion of

we an always nd a

A

A

and

θ

is a

p

dimensional parameter. This is

′ su h that ϕ(A) θ will be negative or greater than

whi h is illogi al, sin e it is the expe tation of a 0/1 binary random variable.

Sin e this

sort of problem o

urs often in empiri al work, it is useful to study NLS and other nonlinear models. After dis ussing these estimation methods for parametri models we'll briey introdu e

nonparametri estimation methods.

These methods allow one, for example, to estimate

f (xt )

onsistently when we are not willing to assume that a model of the form

yt = f (xt ) + εt

an be restri ted to a parametri form

yt = f (xt , θ) + εt Pr(εt < z) = Fε (z|φ, xt ) θ ∈ Θ, φ ∈ Φ where

f (·)

and perhaps

Fε (z|φ, xt )

are of known fun tional form.

This is important sin e

e onomi theory gives us general information about fun tions and the signs of their derivatives, but not about their spe i form. Then we'll look at simulation-based methods in e onometri s. These methods allow us to substitute omputer power for mental power.

Sin e omputer power is be oming relatively

heap ompared to mental eort, any e onometri ian who lives by the prin iples of e onomi theory should be interested in these te hniques. Finally, we'll look at how e onometri omputations an be done in parallel on a luster of

omputers. This allows us to harness more omputational power to work with more omplex models that an be dealt with using a desktop omputer.

Chapter 13 Numeri optimization methods Readings:

Hamilton, h. 5, se tion 7 (pp. 133-139)

∗ ; Gourieroux and Monfort, Vol. 1, h.



13, pp. 443-60 ; Goe, et. al. (1994). If we're going to be applying extremum estimators, we'll need to know how to nd an extremum.

This se tion gives a very brief introdu tion to what is a large literature on nu-

meri optimization methods. We'll onsider a few well-known te hniques, and one fairly new te hnique that may allow one to solve di ult problems.

The main obje tive is to be ome

familiar with the issues, and to learn how to use the BFGS algorithm at the pra ti al level. The general problem we onsider is how to nd the maximizing element of a fun tion

s(θ).

θˆ (a K

-ve tor)

This fun tion may not be ontinuous, and it may not be dierentiable.

Even if it is twi e ontinuously dierentiable, it may not be globally on ave, so lo al maxima, minima and saddlepoints may all exist. Supposing

s(θ)

were a quadrati fun tion of

θ,

e.g.,

1 s(θ) = a + b′ θ + θ ′ Cθ, 2 the rst order onditions would be linear:

Dθ s(θ) = b + Cθ so the maximizing (minimizing) element would be

θˆ = −C −1 b.

This is the sort of problem we

have with linear models estimated by OLS. It's also the ase for feasible GLS, sin e onditional on the estimate of the var ov matrix, we have a quadrati obje tive fun tion in the remaining parameters. More general problems will not have linear f.o. ., and we will not be able to solve for the maximizer analyti ally. This is when we need a numeri optimization method.

13.1 Sear h The idea is to reate a grid over the parameter spa e and evaluate the fun tion at ea h point on the grid. Sele t the best point. Then rene the grid in the neighborhood of the best point, and ontinue until the a

ura y is good enough. See Figure

183

??.

One has to be areful that

184

CHAPTER 13.

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

the grid is ne enough in relationship to the irregularity of the fun tion to ensure that sharp peaks are not missed entirely. To he k

q

values in ea h dimension of a

q K points. For example, if

q = 100

and

K

dimensional parameter spa e, we need to he k

K = 10,

there would be

10010

points to he k. If 1000

9 points an be he ked in a se ond, it would take 3. 171 × 10 years to perform the al ulations,

whi h is approximately the age of the earth. The sear h method is a very reasonable hoi e if

K

K

is small, but it qui kly be omes infeasible if

is moderate or large.

13.2 Derivative-based methods 13.2.1 Introdu tion Derivative-based methods are dened by 1. the method for hoosing the initial value, 2. the iteration method for hoosing

θ k+1

θ1

given

θk

(based upon derivatives)

3. the stopping riterion. The iteration method an be broken into two problems: hoosing the stepsize

k and hoosing the dire tion of movement, d , whi h is of the same dimension of

ak θ,

(a s alar)

so that

θ (k+1) = θ (k) + ak dk .

A lo ally in reasing dire tion of sear h d is a dire tion su h that ∃a : for

a

positive but small.

∂s(θ + ad) >0 ∂a

That is, if we go in dire tion

d,

we will improve on the obje tive

fun tion, at least if we don't go too far in that dire tion.



As long as the gradient at

θ

is not zero there exist in reasing dire tions, and they an

k k all be represented as Q g(θ ) where the gradient at

θ.

Qk

is a symmetri pd matrix and

To see this, take a T.S. expansion around

g (θ) = Dθ s(θ)

is

a0 = 0

s(θ + ad) = s(θ + 0d) + (a − 0) g(θ + 0d)′ d + o(1) = s(θ) + ag(θ)′ d + o(1)

For small enough

′ we need g(θ) d

a

> 0.

the

o(1)

Dening

term an be ignored. If

d = Qg(θ),

where

Q

d

is to be an in reasing dire tion,

is positive denite, we guarantee that

g(θ)′ d = g(θ)′ Qg(θ) > 0 unless

g(θ) = 0. Every in reasing dire tion

are those su h that the angle between

g

an be represented in this way (p.d. matri es

and

Qg(θ)

is less that 90 degrees). See Figure

13.2.

185

DERIVATIVE-BASED METHODS

Figure 13.1: In reasing dire tions of sear h

13.1.



With this, the iteration rule be omes

θ (k+1) = θ (k) + ak Qk g(θ k ) and we keep going until the gradient be omes zero, so that there is no in reasing dire tion. The problem is how to hoose

• Conditional on Q,

a

and

hoosing

attra tive possibility, sin e

a

Q. a

is fairly straightforward.

A simple line sear h is an

is a s alar.



The remaining problem is how to hoose

Q.



Note also that this gives no guarantees to nd a global maximum.

13.2.2 Steepest des ent Steepest des ent (as ent if we're maximizing) just sets

Q

to and identity matrix, sin e the

gradient provides the dire tion of maximum rate of hange of the obje tive fun tion.



Advantages: fast - doesn't require anything more than rst derivatives.

186

CHAPTER 13.



Disadvantages:

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

This doesn't always work too well however (draw pi ture of banana

fun tion).

13.2.3 Newton-Raphson The Newton-Raphson method uses information about the slope and urvature of the obje tive fun tion to determine whi h dire tion and how far to move from an initial point. Supposing we're trying to maximize

sn (θ).

Take a se ond order Taylor's series approximation of

sn (θ)

k about θ (an initial guess).

′      sn (θ) ≈ sn (θ k ) + g(θ k )′ θ − θ k + 1/2 θ − θ k H(θ k ) θ − θ k To attempt to maximize depends on

θ,

sn (θ),

we an maximize the portion of the right-hand side that

i.e., we an maximize ′    s˜(θ) = g(θ k )′ θ + 1/2 θ − θ k H(θ k ) θ − θ k

with respe t to

θ. This is a mu h

easier problem, sin e it is a quadrati fun tion in

θ, so it has

linear rst order onditions. These are

  Dθ s˜(θ) = g(θ k ) + H(θ k ) θ − θ k

So the solution for the next round estimate is

θ k+1 = θ k − H(θ k )−1 g(θ k ) This is illustrated in Figure

??.

However, it's good to in lude a stepsize, sin e the approximation to away from the maximizer

ˆ θ,

sn (θ)

may be bad far

so the a tual iteration formula is

θ k+1 = θ k − ak H(θ k )−1 g(θ k ) •

A potential problem is that the Hessian may not be negative denite when we're far from the maximizing point. So

−H(θ k )−1

may not be positive denite, and

−H(θ k )−1 g(θ k )

may not dene an in reasing dire tion of sear h. This an happen when the obje tive

fun tion has at regions, in whi h ase the Hessian matrix is very ill- onditioned (e.g., is nearly singular), or when we're in the vi inity of a lo al minimum, denite, and our dire tion is a

de reasing

H(θ k )

is positive

dire tion of sear h. Matrix inverses by om-

puters are subje t to large errors when the matrix is ill- onditioned. Also, we ertainly don't want to go in the dire tion of a minimum when we're maximizing. To solve this problem,

Quasi-Newton

methods simply add a positive denite omponent to

ensure that the resulting matrix is positive denite,

hosen large enough so that

Q

e.g., Q = −H(θ) + bI,

is well- onditioned and positive denite.

benet that improvement in the obje tive fun tion is guaranteed.

H(θ)

to

b

is

where

This has the

13.2.



187

DERIVATIVE-BASED METHODS

Another variation of quasi-Newton methods is to approximate the Hessian by using su

essive gradient evaluations.

This avoids a tual al ulation of the Hessian, whi h

is an order of magnitude (in the dimension of the parameter ve tor) more ostly than

al ulation of the gradient. They an be done to ensure that the approximation is p.d. DFP and BFGS are two well-known examples.

Stopping riteria The last thing we need is to de ide when to stop. A digital omputer is subje t to limited ma hine pre ision and round-o errors. For these reasons, it is unreasonable to hope that a program an

exa tly nd the point that maximizes a fun tion.

We need to dene a

eptable

toleran es. Some stopping riteria are:



Negligable hange in parameters:

|θjk − θjk−1 | < ε1 , ∀j •

Negligable relative hange:

| •

θjk − θjk−1 θjk−1

| < ε2 , ∀j

Negligable hange of fun tion:

|s(θ k ) − s(θ k−1 )| < ε3 •

Gradient negligibly dierent from zero:

|gj (θ k )| < ε4 , ∀j •

Or, even better, he k all of these.



Also, if we're maximizing, it's good to he k that the last round (real, not approximate) Hessian is negative denite.

Starting values The Newton-Raphson and related algorithms work well if the obje tive fun tion is on ave (when maximizing), but not so well if there are onvex regions and lo al minima or multiple lo al maxima. The algorithm may onverge to a lo al minimum or to a lo al maximum that is not optimal. The algorithm may also have di ulties onverging at all.



The usual way to ensure that a global maximum has been found is to use many dierent starting values, and hoose the solution that returns the highest obje tive fun tion value.

THIS IS IMPORTANT in pra ti e.

More on this later.

Cal ulating derivatives The Newton-Raphson algorithm requires rst and se ond derivatives. It is often di ult to

al ulate derivatives (espe ially the Hessian) analyti ally if the fun tion

sn (·)

is ompli ated.

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CHAPTER 13.

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

Figure 13.2: Using MuPAD to get analyti derivatives

Possible solutions are to al ulate derivatives numeri ally, or to use programs su h as MuPAD 1

or Mathemati a to al ulate analyti derivatives. For example, Figure 13.2 shows MuPAD

al ulating a derivative that I didn't know o the top of my head, and one that I did know.



Numeri derivatives are less a

urate than analyti derivatives, and are usually more

ostly to evaluate. Both fa tors usually ause optimization programs to be less su

essful when numeri derivatives are used.



One advantage of numeri derivatives is that you don't have to worry about having made an error in al ulating the analyti derivative. When programming analyti derivatives it's a good idea to he k that they are orre t by using numeri derivatives. This is a lesson I learned the hard way when writing my thesis.



Numeri se ond derivatives are mu h more a

urate if the data are s aled so that the elements of the gradient are of the same order of magnitude. Example: if the model is

yt = h(αxt + βzt ) + εt , Dβ sn (·) = 0.001.

and estimation is by NLS, suppose that

∗ One ould dene α

In this ase, the gradients 1

Dα∗ sn (·)

= α/1000;

and

Dβ sn (·)

x∗t

= 1000xt

∗ ;β

=

Dα sn (·) = 1000 1000β; zt∗

and

= zt /1000.

will both be 1.

MuPAD is not a freely distributable program, so it's not on the CD. You an download it from

http://www.mupad.de/download.shtml

13.3.

189

SIMULATED ANNEALING

In general, estimation programs always work better if data is s aled in this way, sin e roundo errors are less likely to be ome important.



This is important in pra ti e.

There are algorithms (su h as BFGS and DFP) that use the sequential gradient evaluations to build up an approximation to the Hessian. The iterations are faster for this reason sin e the a tual Hessian isn't al ulated, but more iterations usually are required for onvergen e.



Swit hing between algorithms during iterations is sometimes useful.

13.3 Simulated Annealing Simulated annealing is an algorithm whi h an nd an optimum in the presen e of non on avities, dis ontinuities and multiple lo al minima/maxima.

Basi ally, the algorithm randomly

sele ts evaluation points, a

epts all points that yield an in rease in the obje tive fun tion, but also a

epts some points that de rease the obje tive fun tion. This allows the algorithm to es ape from lo al minima. As more and more points are tried, periodi ally the algorithm fo uses on the best point so far, and redu es the range over whi h random points are generated. Also, the probability that a negative move is a

epted redu es. The algorithm relies on many evaluations, as in the sear h method, but fo uses in on promising areas, whi h redu es fun tion evaluations with respe t to the sear h method. It does not require derivatives to be evaluated. I have a program to do this if you're interested.

13.4 Examples This se tion gives a few examples of how some nonlinear models may be estimated using maximum likelihood.

13.4.1 Dis rete Choi e: The logit model In this se tion we will onsider maximum likelihood estimation of the logit model for binary 0/1 dependent variables. We will use the BFGS algotithm to nd the MLE. We saw an example of a binary hoi e model in equation 12.1. A more general representation is

y ∗ = g(x) − ε

y = 1(y ∗ > 0)

P r(y = 1) = Fε [g(x)] ≡ p(x, θ) The log-likelihood fun tion is

190

CHAPTER 13.

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

n

sn (θ) =

1X (yi ln p(xi , θ) + (1 − yi ) ln [1 − p(xi , θ)]) n i=1

For the logit model (see the ontingent valuation example above), the probability has the spe i form

p(x, θ) =

1 1 + exp(−x′θ)

You should download and examine LogitDGP.m , whi h generates data a

ording to the logit model, logit.m , whi h al ulates the loglikelihood, and EstimateLogit.m , whi h sets things up and alls the estimation routine, whi h uses the BFGS algorithm. Here are some estimation results with

n = 100,

and the true

θ = (0, 1)′ .

*********************************************** Trial of MLE estimation of Logit model MLE Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Average Log-L: 0.607063 Observations: 100

onstant slope

estimate 0.5400 0.7566

st. err 0.2229 0.2374

t-stat 2.4224 3.1863

p-value 0.0154 0.0014

Information Criteria CAIC : 132.6230 BIC : 130.6230 AIC : 125.4127 ***********************************************

mle_results(), whi h in turn the o tave-forge repository.

The estimation program is alling routines. These fun tions are part of

alls a number of other

13.4.2 Count Data: The MEPS data and the Poisson model Demand for health are is usually thought of a a derived demand: health are is an input to a home produ tion fun tion that produ es health, and health is an argument of the utility fun tion. Grossman (1972), for example, models health as a apital sto k that is subje t to depre iation (e.g., the ee ts of ageing). Health are visits restore the sto k. Under the home produ tion framework, individuals de ide when to make health are visits to maintain their health sto k, or to deal with negative sho ks to the sto k in the form of a

idents or illnesses.

13.4.

191

EXAMPLES

As su h, individual demand will be a fun tion of the parameters of the individuals' utility fun tions. The MEPS health data le ,

meps1996.data,

ontains 4564 observations on six measures

of health are usage. The data is from the 1996 Medi al Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). You an get more information at

http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/.

The six measures of use are

are o e-based visits (OBDV), outpatient visits (OPV), inpatient visits (IPV), emergen y room visits (ERV), dental visits (VDV), and number of pres ription drugs taken (PRESCR). These form olumns 1 - 6 of

meps1996.data.

The onditioning variables are publi insuran e

(PUBLIC), private insuran e (PRIV), sex (SEX), age (AGE), years of edu ation (EDUC), and in ome (INCOME). These form olumns 7 - 12 of the le, in the order given here. PRIV and PUBLIC are 0/1 binary variables, where a 1 indi ates that the person has a

ess to publi or private insuran e overage. SEX is also 0/1, where 1 indi ates that the person is female. This data will be used in examples fairly extensively in what follows. The program ExploreMEPS.m shows how the data may be read in, and gives some des riptive information about variables, whi h follows: All of the measures of use are ount data, whi h means that they take on the values

0, 1, 2, ....

It might be reasonable to try to use this information by spe ifying the density as a

ount data density. One of the simplest ount data densities is the Poisson density, whi h is

exp(−λ)λy . y!

fY (y) = The Poisson average log-likelihood fun tion is

n

1X sn (θ) = (−λi + yi ln λi − ln yi !) n i=1

We will parameterize the model as

λi = exp(x′i β) xi = [1 P U BLIC P RIV SEX AGE EDU C IN C]′

(13.1)

This ensures that the mean is positive, as is required for the Poisson model. Note that for this parameterization

βj =

∂λ/∂βj λ

so

βj xj = ηxλj , the elasti ity of the onditional mean of

y

with respe t to the

j th

onditioning variable.

The program EstimatePoisson.m estimates a Poisson model using the full data set. The results of the estimation, using OBDV as the dependent variable are here:

MPITB extensions found

192

CHAPTER 13.

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

OBDV

****************************************************** Poisson model, MEPS 1996 full data set MLE Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Average Log-L: -3.671090 Observations: 4564

onstant pub. ins. priv. ins. sex age edu in

estimate -0.791 0.848 0.294 0.487 0.024 0.029 -0.000

st. err 0.149 0.076 0.071 0.055 0.002 0.010 0.000

t-stat -5.290 11.093 4.137 8.797 11.471 3.061 -0.978

p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.002 0.328

Information Criteria CAIC : 33575.6881 Avg. CAIC: 7.3566 BIC : 33568.6881 Avg. BIC: 7.3551 AIC : 33523.7064 Avg. AIC: 7.3452 ******************************************************

13.4.3 Duration data and the Weibull model In some ases the dependent variable may be the time that passes between the o

uren e of two events.

For example, it may be the duration of a strike, or the time needed to nd a

job on e one is unemployed. Su h variables take on values on the positive real line, and are referred to as duration data. A

spell

event.

is the period of time between the o

uren e of initial event and the on luding

For example, the initial event ould be the loss of a job, and the nal event is the

nding of a new job. The spell is the period of unemployment. Let

t0

be the time the initial event o

urs, and

t1

be the time the on luding event o

urs.

For simpli ity, assume that time is measured in years. The random variable of the spell,

D = t1 − t0 .

FD (t) = Pr(D < t).

Dene the density fun tion of

D, fD (t),

D

is the duration

with distribution fun tion

13.4.

193

EXAMPLES

Several questions may be of interest. For example, one might wish to know the expe ted time one has to wait to nd a job given that one has already waited

s

that a spell lasts

s

years. The probability

years is

Pr(D > s) = 1 − Pr(D ≤ s) = 1 − FD (s). The density of

D

onditional on the spell already having lasted

s

years is

fD (t) . 1 − FD (s)

fD (t|D > s) =

The expe tan ed additional time required for the spell to end given that is has already lasted

s

years is the expe tation of

D

with respe t to this density, minus

E = E(D|D > s) − s =

Z



t

fD (z) z dz 1 − FD (s)

To estimate this fun tion, one needs to spe ify the density

s.



−s

fD (t)

as a parametri density,

then estimate by maximum likelihood.

There are a number of possibilities in luding the

et .

A reasonably exible model that is a generalization

exponential density, the lognormal,

of the exponential density is the Weibull density

γ

fD (t|θ) = e−(λt) λγ(λt)γ−1 . A

ording to this model,

E(D) = λ−γ . The log-likelihood is just the produ t of the log densities.

To illustrate appli ation of this model, 402 observations on the lifespan of mongooses in Serengeti National Park (Tanzania) were used to t a Weibull model. The spell in this ase is the lifetime of an individual mongoose. The parameter estimates and standard errors are

ˆ = 0.559 (0.034) λ

and

γˆ = 0.867 (0.033)

and the log-likelihood value is -659.3.

Figure 13.3

presents tted life expe tan y (expe ted additional years of life) as a fun tion of age, with 95% onden e bands. The plot is a

ompanied by a nonparametri Kaplan-Meier estimate of life-expe tan y. This nonparametri estimator simply averages all spell lengths greater than age, and then subtra ts age. This is onsistent by the LLN. In the gure one an see that the model doesn't t the data well, in that it predi ts life expe tan y quite dierently than does the nonparametri model. For ages 4-6, the nonparametri estimate is outside the onden e interval that results from the parametri model, whi h asts doubt upon the parametri model.

Mongooses that are between 2-6 years old

seem to have a lower life expe tan y than is predi ted by the Weibull model, whereas young mongooses that survive beyond infan y have a higher life expe tan y, up to a bit beyond 2 years. Due to the dramati hange in the death rate as a fun tion of t, one might spe ify

fD (t)

as a mixture of two Weibull densities,

    γ2 γ1 fD (t|θ) = δ e−(λ1 t) λ1 γ1 (λ1 t)γ1 −1 + (1 − δ) e−(λ2 t) λ2 γ2 (λ2 t)γ2 −1 . The parameters

γi

and

λi , i = 1, 2

are the parameters of the two Weibull densities, and

δ

is

194

CHAPTER 13.

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

Figure 13.3: Life expe tan y of mongooses, Weibull model

13.5.

195

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION: PITFALLS

the parameter that mixes the two. With the same data, likelihood = -623.17.

θ

an be estimated using the mixed model. The results are a log-

Note that a standard likelihood ratio test annot be used to hose

between the two models, sin e under the null that

λ2

and

γ2

δ=1

(single density), the two parameters

are not identied. It is possible to take this into a

ount, but this topi is out of the

s ope of this ourse. Nevertheless, the improvement in the likelihood fun tion is onsiderable. The parameter estimates are

Parameter

Estimate

St. Error

λ1

0.233

0.016

γ1

1.722

0.166

λ2

1.731

0.101

γ2

1.522

0.096

δ

0.428

0.035

Note that the mixture parameter is highly signi ant. This model leads to the t in Figure 13.4.

Note that the parametri and nonparametri ts are quite lose to one another, up

to around

6

years.

The disagreement after this point is not too important, sin e less than

5% of mongooses live more than 6 years, whi h implies that the Kaplan-Meier nonparametri estimate has a high varian e (sin e it's an average of a small number of observations). Mixture models are often an ee tive way to model omplex responses, though they an suer from overparameterization. Alternatives will be dis ussed later.

13.5 Numeri optimization: pitfalls In this se tion we'll examine two ommon problems that an be en ountered when doing numeri optimization of nonlinear models, and some solutions.

13.5.1 Poor s aling of the data When the data is s aled so that the magnitudes of the rst and se ond derivatives are of dierent orders, problems an easily result.

If we un omment the appropriate line in Esti-

matePoisson.m, the data will not be s aled, and the estimation program will have di ulty

onverging (it seems to take an innite amount of time). With uns aled data, the elements of the s ore ve tor have very dierent magnitudes at the initial value of

θ

(all zeros). To see

this run Che kS ore.m. With uns aled data, one element of the gradient is very large, and the maximum and minimum elements are 5 orders of magnitude apart. This auses onvergen e problems due to serious numeri al ina

ura y when doing inversions to al ulate the BFGS dire tion of sear h. With s aled data, none of the elements of the gradient are very large, and the maximum dieren e in orders of magnitude is 3. Convergen e is qui k.

196

CHAPTER 13.

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

Figure 13.4: Life expe tan y of mongooses, mixed Weibull model

13.5.

197

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION: PITFALLS

Figure 13.5: A foggy mountain

13.5.2 Multiple optima Multiple optima (one global, others lo al) an ompli ate life, sin e we have limited means of determining if there is a higher maximum the the one we're at. Think of limbing a mountain in an unknown range, in a very foggy pla e (Figure 13.5). You an go up until there's nowhere else to go up, but sin e you're in the fog you don't know if the true summit is a ross the gap that's at your feet. Do you laim vi tory and go home, or do you trudge down the gap and explore the other side? The best way to avoid stopping at a lo al maximum is to use many starting values, for example on a grid, or randomly generated. Or perhaps one might have priors about possible

e.g., from previous studies of similar data).

values for the parameters (

Let's try to nd the true minimizer of minus 1 times the foggy mountain fun tion (sin e the algoritms are set up to minimize). From the pi ture, you an see it's lose to

(0, 0),

but let's

pretend there is fog, and that we don't know that. The program FoggyMountain.m shows that poor start values an lead to problems. It uses SA, whi h nds the true global minimum, and it shows that BFGS using a battery of random start values an also nd the global minimum help. The output of one run is here:

MPITB extensions found

198

CHAPTER 13.

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

====================================================== BFGSMIN final results Used numeri gradient -----------------------------------------------------STRONG CONVERGENCE Fun tion onv 1 Param onv 1 Gradient onv 1 -----------------------------------------------------Obje tive fun tion value -0.0130329 Stepsize 0.102833 43 iterations -----------------------------------------------------param gradient hange 15.9999 -0.0000 0.0000 -28.8119 0.0000 0.0000 The result with poor start values ans = 16.000 -28.812

================================================ SAMIN final results NORMAL CONVERGENCE Fun . tol. 1.000000e-10 Param. tol. 1.000000e-03 Obj. fn. value -0.100023 parameter sear h width 0.037419 0.000018 -0.000000 0.000051 ================================================ Now try a battery of random start values and a short BFGS on ea h, then iterate to onvergen e The result using 20 randoms start values ans = 3.7417e-02

2.7628e-07

13.5.

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION: PITFALLS

199

The true maximizer is near (0.037,0)

In that run, the single BFGS run with bad start values onverged to a point far from the true minimizer, whi h simulated annealing and BFGS using a battery of random start values both found the true maximizer. Using a battery of random start values, we managed to nd the global max. The moral of the story is to be autious and don't publish your results too qui kly.

200

CHAPTER 13.

NUMERIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

13.6 Exer ises 1. In o tave, type  help le to examine it and

bfgsmin_example, to nd out learn how to all bfgsmin. Run

the lo ation of the le. Edit the it, and examine the output.

2. In o tave, type  help to examine it and

samin_example, to nd out the lo ation of the le. Edit learn how to all samin. Run it, and examine the output.

the le

3. Using logit.m and EstimateLogit.m as templates, write a fun tion to al ulate the probit log likelihood, and a s ript to estimate a probit model. Run it using data that a tually follows a logit model (you an generate it in the same way that is done in the logit example). 4. Study

mle_results.m

to see what it does. Examine the fun tions that

mle_results.m

alls, and in turn the fun tions that those fun tions all. Write a omplete des ription of how the whole hain works. 5. Look at the Poisson estimation results for the OBDV measure of health are use and give an e onomi interpretation. Estimate Poisson models for the other 5 measures of health are usage.

Chapter 14 Asymptoti properties of extremum estimators Readings:

Hayashi (2000), Ch. 7; Gourieroux and Monfort (1995), Vol. 2, Ch. 24; Amemiya,

Ch. 4 se tion 4.1; Davidson and Ma Kinnon, pp. 591-96; Gallant, Ch. 3; Newey and M Fadden (1994),  Large Sample Estimation and Hypothesis Testing, in

Vol. 4, Ch.

Handbook of E onometri s,

36.

14.1 Extremum estimators In Denition 12 we dened an extremum estimator fun tion matrix

sn (θ)h over

Zn =

a set

Θ.

θˆ as the optimizing element of an obje tive

Let the obje tive fun tion

z1 z2 · · · zn

i′

where the

zt

are

sn (Zn , θ) depend

p-ve tors

and

p

upon a

n × p random

is nite.

Example 18 Given the model yi = x′i θ + εi , with n observations, dene zi = (yi , x′i )′ . The

OLS estimator minimizes

sn (Zn , θ) = 1/n

n X i=1

yi − x′i θ

2

= 1/n k Y − Xθ k2

where Y and X are dened similarly to Z.

14.2 Existen e If

sn (Zn , θ)

interest,

is ontinuous in

sn (Zn , θ)

θ

and

Θ

is ompa t, then a maximizer exists. In some ases of

may not be ontinuous. Nevertheless, it may still onverge to a ontinous

fun tion, in whi h ase existen e will not be a problem, at least asymptoti ally.

201

202

CHAPTER 14.

ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF EXTREMUM ESTIMATORS

14.3 Consisten y The following theorem is patterned on a proof in Gallant (1987) (the arti le, ref. later), whi h we'll see in its original form later in the ourse. It is interesting to ompare the following proof with Amemiya's Theorem 4.1.1, whi h is done in terms of onvergen e in probability.

Theorem 19

Suppose that θˆn is obtained by maximizing sn (θ) over Θ.

[Consisten y of e.e.℄

Assume

1. Compa tness: The parameter spa e Θ is an open bounded subset of Eu lidean spa e ℜK . So the losure of Θ, Θ, is ompa t. 2. Uniform Convergen e: There is a nonsto hasti fun tion s∞ (θ) that is ontinuous in θ on Θ su h that lim sup |sn (θ) − s∞ (θ)| = 0, a.s. n→∞ θ∈Θ

3. Identi ation: s∞ (·) has a unique global maximum at θ 0 ∈ Θ, i.e., s∞ (θ 0 ) > s∞ (θ), ∀θ 6= θ 0 , θ ∈ Θ

Then θˆn a.s. → θ0. Proof:

Sele t a

and hold it xed. Then

{sn (ω, θ)}

is a xed sequen e of fun tions.

ω is su h that sn (θ) onverges uniformly to s∞ (θ). This happens with probability ˆn } lies in the ompa t set Θ, by assumption (1) and assumption (b). The sequen e {θ

Suppose that one by

ω∈Ω

the fa t that maximixation is over

Θ.

Sin e every sequen e from a ompa t set has at least one

limit point (Davidson, Thm. 2.12), say that

{θˆnm } ({nm }

θˆ is

a limit point of

is simply a sequen e of in reasing integers) with

{θˆn }.

There is a subsequen e

limm→∞ θˆnm = θˆ.

By uniform

onvergen e and ontinuity

ˆ lim snm (θˆnm ) = s∞ (θ).

m→∞

To see this, rst of all, sele t an element

θˆt

from the sequen e

gen e implies

o n θˆnm .

lim snm (θˆt ) = s∞ (θˆt ).

m→∞ Continuity of

s∞ (·)

implies that

ˆ lim s∞ (θˆt ) = s∞ (θ)

t→∞ sin e the limit as

t→∞

of

Next, by maximization

n o θˆt

is

θˆ.

So the above laim is true.

snm (θˆnm ) ≥ snm (θ 0 ) whi h holds in the limit, so

lim snm (θˆnm ) ≥ lim snm (θ 0 ).

m→∞

m→∞

Then uniform onver-

14.3.

203

CONSISTENCY

However,

ˆ lim snm (θˆnm ) = s∞ (θ),

m→∞ as seen above, and

lim snm (θ 0 ) = s∞ (θ 0 )

m→∞ by uniform onvergen e, so

ˆ ≥ s∞ (θ 0 ). s∞ (θ) But by assumption (3), there is a unique global maximum of

ˆ = s∞ (θ 0 ), s∞ (θ) have held

ω

ˆ = θ 0 . Finally, and θ C⊂Ω

at

θ0,

so we must have

all of the above limits hold almost surely, sin e so far we

xed, but now we need to onsider all

0 point, θ , ex ept on a set

s∞ (θ)

with

P (C) = 0.

ω ∈ Ω.

Therefore

{θˆn }

has only one limit

Dis ussion of the proof: •

(2)

This proof relies on the identi ation assumption of a unique global maximum at

θ 0 . An

equivalent way to state this is

Identi ation:

Any point

θ

in

Θ

with

s∞ (θ) ≥ s∞ (θ 0 )

must be su h that

k θ − θ 0 k= 0,

whi h mat hes the way we will write the assumption in the se tion on nonparametri inferen e.



We assume that for

n

θˆn

is in fa t a global maximum of

sn (θ) . It is not required

to be unique

nite, though the identi ation assumption requires that the limiting obje tive

fun tion have a unique maximizing argument.

The previous se tion on numeri opti-

mization methods showed that a tually nding the global maximum of

sn (θ)

may be a

non-trivial problem.

• •

See Amemiya's Example 4.1.4 for a ase where dis ontinuity leads to breakdown of

onsisten y.

The assumption that

θ0

is in the interior of

Θ

(part of the identi ation assumption)

has not been used to prove onsisten y, so we ould dire tly assume that element of a ompa t set

Θ.

θ0

is simply an

The reason that we assume it's in the interior here is that

this is ne essary for subsequent proof of asymptoti normality, and I'd like to maintain a minimal set of simple assumptions, for larity.

Parameters on the boundary of the

parameter set ause theoreti al di ulties that we will not deal with in this ourse. Just note that onventional hypothesis testing methods do not apply in this ase.



Note that

sn (θ)



The following gures illustrate why uniform onvergen e is important.

is not required to be ontinuous, though

s∞ (θ)

is.

In the se ond

gure, if the fun tion is not onverging around the lower of the two maxima, there is no guarantee that the maximizer will be in the neighborhood of the global maximizer.

204

CHAPTER 14.

ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF EXTREMUM ESTIMATORS

With uniform convergence, the maximum of the sample objective function eventually must be in the neighborhood of the maximum of the limiting objective function

With pointwise convergence, the sample objective function may have its maximum far away from that of the limiting objective function

We need a uniform strong law of large numbers in order to verify assumption (2) of Theorem 19. The following theorem is from Davidson, pg. 337.

Let {Gn (θ)} be a sequen e of sto hasti real-valued fun tions on a totally-bounded metri spa e (Θ, ρ). Then

Theorem 20

[Uniform Strong LLN℄

a.s.

sup |Gn (θ)| → 0 θ∈Θ

if and only if

14.4.

205

EXAMPLE: CONSISTENCY OF LEAST SQUARES

→ 0 for ea h θ ∈ Θ0 , where Θ0 is a dense subset of Θ and (a) Gn (θ) a.s. (b) {Gn (θ)} is strongly sto hasti ally equi ontinuous.. Θ ⊂ ℜK , using the



The metri spa e we are interested in now is simply



The pointwise almost sure onvergen e needed for assuption (a) omes from one of the



Stronger assumptions that imply those of the theorem are:

Eu lidean norm.

usual SLLN's.



the parameter spa e is ompa t (this has already been assumed)



the obje tive fun tion is ontinuous and bounded with probability one on the entire parameter spa e

 •

a standard SLLN an be shown to apply to some point in the parameter spa e

These are reasonable onditions in many ases, and hen eforth when dealing with spe i estimators we'll simply assume that pointwise almost sure onvergen e an be extended to uniform almost sure onvergen e in this way.



The more general theorem is useful in the ase that the limiting obje tive fun tion an be

ontinuous in

θ

even if

sn (θ)

is dis ontinuous. This an happen be ause dis ontinuities

may be smoothed out as we take expe tations over the data. In the se tion on simlationbased estimation we will se a ase of a dis ontinuous obje tive fun tion.

14.4 Example: Consisten y of Least Squares We suppose that data is generated by random sampling of

(wt , εt )

(y, w),

where

yt = α0 + β 0 wt +εt .

µw µε (w and ε are independent) with support 2 2 W × E. Suppose that the varian es σw and σε are nite. Let θ 0 = (α0 , β 0 )′ ∈ Θ, for whi h Θ ′ ′ 0 is ompa t. Let xt = (1, wt ) , so we an write yt = xt θ + εt . The sample obje tive fun tion has the ommon distribution fun tion

for a sample size

n

is

sn (θ) = 1/n = 1/n

n X

t=1 n X t=1



yt − x′t θ

x′t θ 0 − θ

= 1/n

2

n X i=1

+ 2/n

x′t θ 0 + εt − x′t θ

n X t=1

2

n X  ε2t x′t θ 0 − θ εt + 1/n t=1

Considering the last term, by the SLLN,

1/n

n X t=1



2

a.s. ε2t →

Considering the se ond term, sin e implies that it onverges to zero.

Z

W

Z

E

E(ε) = 0

ε2 dµW dµE = σε2 . and

w

and

ε

are independent, the SLLN

206

CHAPTER 14.



ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF EXTREMUM ESTIMATORS

Finally, for the rst term, for a given

1/n

n X

x′t

t=1

= =

0

θ −θ

2

θ,

a.s.



we assume that a SLLN applies so that

Z

W

x′ θ 0 − θ

2   α0 − α + 2 α0 − α β 0 − β

Z

W

2

dµW

wdµW + β 0 − β

(14.1)

2

Z

W

2   2  α − α + 2 α0 − α β 0 − β E(w) + β 0 − β E w2 0

w2 dµW

Finally, the obje tive fun tion is learly ontinuous, and the parameter spa e is assumed to be ompa t, so the onvergen e is also uniform. Thus,

2   2  s∞ (θ) = α0 − α + 2 α0 − α β 0 − β E(w) + β 0 − β E w2 + σε2

A minimizer of this is learly

α = α0 , β = β 0 .

Exer ise 21 Show that in order for the above solution to be unique it is ne essary that E(w2 ) 6= 0.

of regressors.

Dis uss the relationship between this ondition and the problem of olinearity

This example shows that Theorem 19 an be used to prove strong onsisten y of the OLS estimator. There are easier ways to show this, of ourse - this is only an example of appli ation of the theorem.

14.5 Asymptoti Normality A onsistent estimator is oftentimes not very useful unless we know how fast it is likely to be onverging to the true value, and the probability that it is far away from the true value. Establishment of asymptoti normality with a known s aling fa tor solves these two problems. The following theorem is similar to Amemiya's Theorem 4.1.3 (pg. 111).

Theorem 22

[Asymptoti normality of e.e.℄

In addition to the assumptions of Theorem 19,

assume (a) Jn (θ) ≡ Dθ2 sn(θ) exists and is ontinuous in an open, onvex neighborhood of θ 0 . (b) {Jn (θn )} a.s. → J∞ (θ 0 ), a nite negative denite matrix, for any sequen e {θn } that

onverges almost surely to θ 0.   √ √ d ( ) nDθsn (θ 0 ) → N 0, I∞ (θ 0 ) , where I∞ (θ 0 ) = limn→∞ V ar nDθ sn (θ 0 )    √ d Then n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, J∞ (θ 0 )−1 I∞ (θ 0 )J∞ (θ 0 )−1 Proof:

By Taylor expansion:

  Dθ sn (θˆn ) = Dθ sn (θ 0 ) + Dθ2 sn (θ ∗ ) θˆ − θ 0 where

θ ∗ = λθˆ + (1 − λ)θ 0 , 0 ≤ λ ≤ 1.

14.5.

207

ASYMPTOTIC NORMALITY

θˆ will

Dθ2 sn (θ)



Note that



Now the l.h.s. of this equation is zero, at least asymptoti ally, sin e

be in the neighborhood where

n

be omes large, by onsisten y.

θˆn

is a maximizer

and the f.o. . must hold exa tly sin e the limiting obje tive fun tion is stri tly on ave in a neighborhood of



exists with probability one as

Also, sin e

θ∗

θ0.

is between

θˆn

and

θ0,

and sin e

a.s. θˆn → θ 0

, assumption (b) gives

a.s.

Dθ2 sn (θ ∗ ) → J∞ (θ 0 ) So

   0 = Dθ sn (θ 0 ) + J∞ (θ 0 ) + op (1) θˆ − θ 0

And

0= Now

J∞ (θ 0 )

  √  √ nDθ sn (θ 0 ) + J∞ (θ 0 ) + op (1) n θˆ − θ 0

is a nite negative denite matrix, so the

op (1)

term is asymptoti ally irrelevant

0 next to J∞ (θ ), so we an write a

0=

 √ √  nDθ sn (θ 0 ) + J∞ (θ 0 ) n θˆ − θ 0

 √  √ a n θˆ − θ 0 = −J∞ (θ 0 )−1 nDθ sn (θ 0 )

Be ause of assumption ( ), and the formula for the varian e of a linear ombination of r.v.'s,



   √ ˆ d n θ − θ 0 → N 0, J∞ (θ 0 )−1 I∞ (θ 0 )J∞ (θ 0 )−1

Assumption (b) is not implied by the Slutsky theorem. The Slutsky theorem says that

a.s.

g(xn ) → g(x) depend on

if

xn → x and g(·)

n to use this theorem.

applies (Amemiya, Ch. 4) is

is ontinuous at

In our ase

x.

Jn (θn ) is

However, the fun tion a fun tion of

g(·)

an't

n. A theorem whi h

Theorem 23 If gn (θ) onverges uniformly almost surely to a nonsto hasti fun tion g∞ (θ) ˆ a.s. uniformly on an open neighborhood of θ 0, then gn (θ) → g∞ (θ 0 ) if g∞ (θ 0 ) is ontinuous at θ 0 a.s. and θˆ → θ 0 . •

To apply this to the se ond derivatives, su ient onditions would be that the se ond derivatives be strongly sto hasti ally equi ontinuous on a neighborhood of an ordinary LLN applies to the derivatives when evaluated at



θ∈

θ0,

and that

N (θ 0 ).

Stronger onditions that imply this are as above: ontinuous and bounded se ond derivatives in a neighborhood of

• Skip this in le ture.

θ0.

A note on the order of these matri es: Supposing that

representable as an average of

n

sn (θ)

is

terms, whi h is the ase for all estimators we onsider,

208

CHAPTER 14.

Dθ2 sn (θ)

ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF EXTREMUM ESTIMATORS

n

matri es, the elements of whi h are not entered (they

do not have zero expe tation).

Supposing a SLLN applies, the almost sure limit of

is also an average of

Dθ2 sn (θ 0 ), ( ):



J∞

nDθ sn

(θ 0 )

d (θ 0 ) →

= O(1), as we saw in Example   N 0, I∞ (θ 0 ) means that

51. On the other hand, assumption

√ nDθ sn (θ 0 ) = Op ()

where we use the result of Example 49. If we were to omit the

√ n,

we'd have

1

Dθ sn (θ 0 ) = n− 2 Op (1)  1 = Op n− 2

Op (nr )Op (nq ) = Op (nr+q ). The sequen e Dθ sn (θ 0 ) √ n to avoid onvergen e to zero. by

where we use the fa t that tered, so we need to s ale

is

en-

14.6 Examples 14.6.1 Coin ipping, yet again Remember that in se tion 4.4.1 we saw that the asymptoti varian e of the MLE of the parameter of a Bernoulli trial, using i.i.d.

data, was

√ lim V ar n (ˆ p − p) = p (1 − p).

Let's

verify this using the methods of this Chapter. The log-likelihood fun tion is

n

sn (p) = so

1X {yt ln p + (1 − yt ) (1 − ln p)} n t=1

 Esn (p) = p0 ln p + 1 − p0 (1 − ln p)

by the fa t that the observations are i.i.d. Thus, of al ulation shows that

whi h doesn't depend upon And in this ase,

 s∞ (p) = p0 ln p + 1 − p0 (1 − ln p).

Dθ2 sn (p) p=p0 ≡ Jn (θ) =

n.

−1 , − p0 )

p0 (1

By results we've seen on MLE,

−1 (p0 ) = p0 1 − p0 −J∞

we got in se tion 4.4.1.



A bit

 √ −1 (p0 ). lim V ar n pˆ − p0 = −J∞

. It's omforting to see that this is the same result

14.6.2 Binary response models Extending the Bernoulli trial model to binary response models with onditioning variables, su h models arise in a variety of ontexts. We've already seen a logit model. Another simple

14.6.

209

EXAMPLES

example is a probit threshold- rossing model. Assume that

y ∗ = x′ β − ε

y = 1(y ∗ > 0) ε ∼ N (0, 1)

Here,

y∗

is an unobserved (latent) ontinuous variable, and

∗ whether y is negative or positive. Then

Φ(•) =

Z

y is a binary variable that indi ates

P r(y = 1) = P r(ε < xβ) = Φ(xβ), xβ

(2π)−1/2 exp(−

−∞

where

ε2 )dε 2

is the standard normal distribution fun tion. In general, a binary response model will require that the hoi e probability be parameterized in some form. For a ve tor of explanatory variables

x,

the response probability will be

parameterized in some manner

P r(y = 1|x) = p(x, θ) If

p(x, θ) = Λ(x′ θ),

we have a logit model.

If

p(x, θ) = Φ(x′ θ),

where

Φ(·)

is the standard

normal distribution fun tion, then we have a probit model. Regardless of the parameterization, we are dealing with a Bernoulli density,

fYi (yi |xi ) = p(xi , θ)yi (1 − p(x, θ))1−yi so as long as the observations are independent, the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator,

ˆ θ,

is

the maximizer of

n

1X (yi ln p(xi , θ) + (1 − yi ) ln [1 − p(xi , θ)]) n

sn (θ) =

i=1

n 1X s(yi , xi , θ). n



Following the above theoreti al results, uniform almost sure limit of pro esses,

sn (θ)

(14.2)

i=1

θˆ

tends in probability to the

sn (θ). Noting that Eyi =

θ0

that maximizes the

p(xi , θ 0 ), and following a SLLN for i.i.d.

onverges almost surely to the expe tation of a representative term

First one an take the expe tation onditional on

x

s(y, x, θ).

to get

  Ey|x {y ln p(x, θ) + (1 − y) ln [1 − p(x, θ)]} = p(x, θ 0 ) ln p(x, θ) + 1 − p(x, θ 0 ) ln [1 − p(x, θ)] .

Next taking expe tation over

s∞ (θ) = where

µ(x)

Z

X



x

we get the limiting obje tive fun tion

  p(x, θ 0 ) ln p(x, θ) + 1 − p(x, θ 0 ) ln [1 − p(x, θ)] µ(x)dx,

is the (joint - the integral is understood to be multiple, and

X

(14.3)

is the support of

210

x)

CHAPTER 14.

ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF EXTREMUM ESTIMATORS

density fun tion of the explanatory variables

p(x, θ)

x.

This is learly ontinuous in

θ,

as long as

is ontinuous, and if the parameter spa e is ompa t we therefore have uniform almost

sure onvergen e. Note that The maximizing element of

Z  X

p(x, θ)

is ontinous for the logit and probit models, for example.

s∞ (θ), θ ∗ ,

solves the rst order onditions

 p(x, θ 0 ) ∂ 1 − p(x, θ 0 ) ∂ ∗ ∗ p(x, θ ) − p(x, θ ) µ(x)dx = 0 p(x, θ ∗ ) ∂θ 1 − p(x, θ ∗ ) ∂θ

This is learly solved by

θ∗ = θ0.

Provided the solution is unique,

θˆ is

onsistent. Question:

what's needed to ensure that the solution is unique? The asymptoti normality theorem tells us that

   √  d n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, J∞ (θ 0 )−1 I∞ (θ 0 )J∞ (θ 0 )−1 .

In the ase of i.i.d. observations

√ I∞ (θ 0 ) = limn→∞ V ar nDθ sn (θ 0 )

is simply the expe tation

of a typi al element of the outer produ t of the gradient.

• •

There's no need to subtra t the mean, sin e it's zero, following the f.o. . in the onsisten y proof above and the fa t that observations are i.i.d. The terms in

n

also drop out by the same argument:

√ 1X lim V ar nDθ s(θ 0 ) n→∞ n t X 1 s(θ 0 ) = lim V ar √ Dθ n→∞ n t X 1 Dθ s(θ 0 ) = lim V ar n→∞ n t

√ lim V ar nDθ sn (θ 0 ) =

n→∞

=

lim V arDθ s(θ 0 )

n→∞

= V arDθ s(θ 0 ) So we get

0

I∞ (θ ) = E



 ∂ 0 ∂ 0 s(y, x, θ ) ′ s(y, x, θ ) . ∂θ ∂θ

Likewise,

J∞ (θ 0 ) = E Expe tations are jointly over

x.

y

and

x,

∂2 s(y, x, θ 0 ). ∂θ∂θ ′

or equivalently, rst over

y

onditional on

From above, a typi al element of the obje tive fun tion is

  s(y, x, θ 0 ) = y ln p(x, θ 0 ) + (1 − y) ln 1 − p(x, θ 0 ) .

Now suppose that we are dealing with a orre tly spe ied logit model:

−1 p(x, θ) = 1 + exp(−x′ θ) .

x,

then over

14.6.

211

EXAMPLES

We an simplify the above results in this ase. We have that

−2 1 + exp(−x′ θ) exp(−x′ θ)x

∂ p(x, θ) = ∂θ

exp(−x′ θ) x 1 + exp(−x′ θ) = p(x, θ) (1 − p(x, θ)) x  = p(x, θ) − p(x, θ)2 x. −1 1 + exp(−x′ θ)

=

So

  ∂ s(y, x, θ 0 ) = y − p(x, θ 0 ) x ∂θ   ∂2 s(θ 0 ) = − p(x, θ 0 ) − p(x, θ 0 )2 xx′ . ′ ∂θ∂θ

Taking expe tations over

y

0

I∞ (θ ) = = where we use the fa t that

then

Z

Z

x

(14.4)

gives

  EY y 2 − 2p(x, θ 0 )p(x, θ 0 ) + p(x, θ 0 )2 xx′ µ(x)dx 

 p(x, θ 0 ) − p(x, θ 0 )2 xx′ µ(x)dx.

EY (y) = EY (y 2 ) = p(x, θ 0 ).

J∞ (θ 0 ) = −

Z



(14.5)

(14.6)

Likewise,

 p(x, θ 0 ) − p(x, θ 0 )2 xx′ µ(x)dx.

(14.7)

Note that we arrive at the expe ted result: the information matrix equality holds (that is,

J∞ (θ 0 ) = −I∞(θ 0 )).

simplies to

With this,

   √  d n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, J∞ (θ 0 )−1 I∞ (θ 0 )J∞ (θ 0 )−1    √ ˆ d n θ − θ 0 → N 0, −J∞ (θ 0 )−1

whi h an also be expressed as

   √  d n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, I∞ (θ 0 )−1 .

On a nal note, the logit and standard normal CDF's are very similar - the logit distribution is a bit more fat-tailed. While oe ients will vary slightly between the two models, fun tions of interest su h as estimated probabilities

ˆ will be virtually identi al p(x, θ)

for the two models.

212

CHAPTER 14.

ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF EXTREMUM ESTIMATORS

14.6.3 Example: Linearization of a nonlinear model Ref.

Gourieroux and Monfort, se tion 8.3.4.

Intn'l E on. Rev.

White,

1980 is an earlier

referen e. Suppose we have a nonlinear model

yi = h(xi , θ 0 ) + εi where

εi ∼ iid(0, σ 2 ) The

nonlinear least squares

estimator solves

n

1X θˆn = arg min (yi − h(xi , θ))2 n i=1

We'll study this more later, but for now it is lear that the fo for minimization will require solving a set of nonlinear equations. A ommon approa h to the problem seeks to avoid this di ulty by

linearizing

the model. A rst order Taylor's series expansion about the point

with remainder gives

yi = h(x0 , θ 0 ) + (xi − x0 )′ where

νi

en ompasses both

εi

x0

∂h(x0 , θ 0 ) + νi ∂x

and the Taylor's series remainder. Note that

νi

is no longer a

lassi al error - its mean is not zero. We should expe t problems. Dene

α∗ = h(x0 , θ 0 ) − x′0 β∗ =

∂h(x0 , θ 0 ) ∂x

∂h(x0 , θ 0 ) ∂x

Given this, one might try to estimate

α∗

β∗

and

by applying OLS to

yi = α + βxi + νi α ˆ

βˆ

α∗

β∗?



Question, will



The answer is no, as one an see by interpreting

γ=

and

be onsistent for

and

α ˆ

and

βˆ

as extremum estimators. Let

(α, β ′ )′ . n

γˆ = arg min sn (γ) =

1X (yi − α − βxi )2 n i=1

The obje tive fun tion onverges to its expe tation

u.a.s.

sn (γ) → s∞ (γ) = EX EY |X (y − α − βx)2

14.6.

and

γˆ

213

EXAMPLES

onverges

a.s.

to the

γ0

that minimizes

s∞ (γ):

γ 0 = arg min EX EY |X (y − α − βx)2 Noting that

EX EY |X y − α − x′ β

sin e ross produ ts involving

ε

2

2 = EX EY |X h(x, θ 0 ) + ε − α − βx 2 = σ 2 + EX h(x, θ 0 ) − α − βx

drop out.

α0

and

β0

orrespond to the hyperplane that is

0

losest to the true regression fun tion h(x, θ ) a

ording to the mean squared error riterion. This depends on both the shape of

h(·)

and the density fun tion of the onditioning variables.

Inconsistency of the linear approximation, even at the approximation point x h(x,θ) x

Tangent line

x β

α

x

x

x x

x Fitted line

x x

x_0



It is lear that the tangent line does not minimize MSE, sin e, for example, if



Note that the true underlying parameter

h(x, θ 0 )

is on ave, all errors between the tangent line and the true fun tion are negative.

θ0

is not estimated onsistently, either (it may

be of a dierent dimension than the dimension of the parameter of the approximating model, whi h is 2 in this example).



Se ond order and higher-order approximations suer from exa tly the same problem, though to a less severe degree, of ourse. For this reason, translog, Generalized Leontiev and other exible fun tional forms based upon se ond-order approximations in general suer from bias and in onsisten y. The bias may not be too important for analysis of

onditional means, but it an be very important for analyzing rst and se ond derivatives.

e.g.,

In produ tion and onsumer analysis, rst and se ond derivatives (

elasti ities of

214

CHAPTER 14.

ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF EXTREMUM ESTIMATORS

substitution) are often of interest, so in this ase, one should be autious of unthinking appli ation of models that impose stong restri tions on se ond derivatives.



This sort of linearization about a long run equilibrium is a ommon pra ti e in dynami ma roe onomi models. It is justied for the purposes of theoreti al analysis of a model

given the model's parameters, but it is not justiable for the estimation of the parameters of the model using data.

The se tion on simulation-based methods oers a means of

obtaining onsistent estimators of the parameters of dynami ma ro models that are too

omplex for standard methods of analysis.

14.7.

215

EXERCISES

14.7 Exer ises 1. Suppose that

xi ∼

uniform(0,1), and

where

εi

is iid(0,σ

2 ). Suppose we

yi = α + βxi + ηi by OLS. Find the numeri values of 0 β that are the probability limits of α ˆ and βˆ

estimate the misspe ied model

α0 and

yi = 1 − x2i + εi ,

2. Verify your results using O tave by generating data that follows the above model, and

al ulating the OLS estimator. When the sample size is very large the estimator should be very lose to the analyti al results you obtained in question 1. 3. Use the asymptoti normality theorem to nd the asymptoti distribution of the ML

y = xβ 0 + ε, where ε ∼ N (0, 1) and is independent of x. 2 ∂s (β) n ∂ 0 0 This means nding ∂β∂β ′ sn (β), J (β ), ∂β , and I(β ). The expressions may involve the unspe ied density of x. estimator of

β0

for the model

4. Assume a d.g.p. follows the logit model:

(a) Assume that

x∼

−1 Pr(y = 1|x) = 1 + exp(−β 0 x) .

uniform(-a,a). Find the asymptoti distribution of the ML esti-

0 mator of β (this is a s alar parameter). (b) Now assume that

x∼

uniform(-2a,2a). Again nd the asymptoti distribution of

0 the ML estimator of β . ( ) Comment on the results

216

CHAPTER 14.

ASYMPTOTIC PROPERTIES OF EXTREMUM ESTIMATORS

Chapter 15 Generalized method of moments Readings:

Hamilton Ch.



14 ; Davidson and Ma Kinnon, Ch.

17 (see pg.

587 for refs.

to appli ations); Newey and M Fadden (1994), "Large Sample Estimation and Hypothesis Testing", in

Handbook of E onometri s, Vol. 4, Ch.

36.

15.1 Denition We've already seen one example of GMM in the introdu tion, based upon the Consider the following example based upon the t-distribution. t-distributed r.v.

Yt

distribution.

The density fun tion of a

is

0

fYt (yt , θ ) = Given an iid sample of size

Γ



  θ 0 + 1 /2 

(πθ 0 )1/2 Γ (θ 0 /2)

n, one ould

estimate

θ0

θˆ ≡ arg max ln Ln (θ) = Θ



χ2

1 + yt2 /θ 0

−(θ0 +1)/2

by maximizing the log-likelihood fun tion

n X

ln fYt (yt , θ)

t=1

This approa h is attra tive sin e ML estimators are asymptoti ally e ient.

This is

be ause the ML estimator uses all of the available information (e.g., the distribution is fully spe ied up to a parameter). Re alling that a distribution is ompletely hara terized by its moments, the ML estimator is interpretable as a GMM estimator that uses

all

of the moments. The method of moments estimator uses only

estimate a

K−dimensional parameter.

K

moments to

Sin e information is dis arded, in general, by the

MM estimator, e ien y is lost relative to the ML estimator.

fYt (yt , θ 0 )



Continuing with the example, a t-distributed r.v. with density



Using the notation introdu ed previously, dene a moment ondition

and varian e

yt2 and

 V (yt ) = θ 0 / θ 0 − 2

m1 (θ) = 1/n

(for

has mean zero

θ 0 > 2).

Pn

m1t (θ) = θ/ (θ − 2)− 2 t=1 yt . As before, when evaluated   0 and Eθ0 m1 (θ 0 ) = 0.

Pn

t=1 m1t (θ) = θ/ (θ − 2) − 1/n   0 0 at the true parameter value θ , both Eθ 0 m1t (θ ) = 217

218

CHAPTER 15.



Choosing

θˆ to

set

ˆ ≡0 m1 (θ)

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

yields a MM estimator:

θˆ =

2 1−

(15.1)

Pn 2 i yi

This estimator is based on only one moment of the distribution - it uses less information than the ML estimator, so it is intuitively lear that the MM estimator will be ine ient relative to the ML estimator.



An alternative MM estimator ould be based upon the fourth moment of the t-distribution. The fourth moment of a t-distributed r.v. is

µ4 ≡ provided that

θ 0 > 4.

E(yt4 )

2 3 θ0 = 0 , (θ − 2) (θ 0 − 4)

We an dene a se ond moment ondition

n

1X 4 3 (θ)2 yt − m2 (θ) = (θ − 2) (θ − 4) n t=1



A se ond, dierent MM estimator hooses

θˆ to

set

ˆ ≡ 0. m2 (θ)

If you solve this you'll see

that the estimate is dierent from that in equation 15.1.

This estimator isn't e ient either, sin e it uses only one moment. A GMM estimator would use the two moment onditions together to estimate the single parameter. The GMM estimator is overidentied, whi h leads to an estimator whi h is e ient relative to the just identied MM estimators (more on e ien y later).



As before, set

mn (θ) = (m1 (θ), m2 (θ))′ .

0 size. Note that m(θ ) whereas

=

The

n

subs ript is used to indi ate the sample

Op (n−1/2 ), sin e it is an average of entered random variables,

m(θ) = Op (1), θ 6= θ 0 ,

where expe tations are taken using the true distribution

0 with parameter θ . This is the fundamental reason that GMM is onsistent.



A GMM estimator requires dening a measure of distan e, (for reasons noted below) is to set

m(θ)′ W •

n m(θ). We assume that

In general, assume we have

g

Wn

d (m(θ)) =

m′ W

A popular hoi e

n m, and we minimize

sn (θ) =

onverges to a nite positive denite matrix.

moment onditions, so

matrix.

d (m(θ)).

m(θ) is a g

-ve tor and

W

is a

g×g

For the purposes of this ourse, the following denition of the GMM estimator is su iently general:

Denition 24 The GMM estimator of the K -dimensional parameter ve tor θ 0 , θˆ ≡ arg minΘ sn (θ) ≡ P

where mn (θ) = n1 nt=1 mt (θ) is a g-ve tor, g ≥ K, with Eθ m(θ) = 0, and Wn onverges almost surely to a nite g × g symmetri positive denite matrix W∞ .

mn (θ)′ Wn mn (θ),

15.2.

219

CONSISTENCY

What's the reason for using GMM if MLE is asymptoti ally e ient? •

Robustness: GMM is based upon a limited set of moment onditions. For onsisten y, only these moment onditions need to be orre tly spe ied, whereas MLE in ee t

every on eivable moment ondition. GMM is robust with respe t to distributional misspe i ation. The pri e for robustness is loss of e ien y requires orre t spe i ation of

with respe t to the MLE estimator. Keep in mind that the true distribution is not known so if we erroneously spe ify a distribution and estimate by MLE, the estimator will be in onsistent in general (not always).



Feasibility: in some ases the MLE estimator is not available, be ause we are not able to dedu e the likelihood fun tion.

More on this in the se tion on simulation-based

estimation. The GMM estimator may still be feasible even though MLE is not available.

15.2 Consisten y We simply assume that the assumptions of Theorem 19 hold, so the GMM estimator is strongly

onsistent. The only assumption that warrants additional omments is that of identi ation. In Theorem 19, the third assumption reads:

0 maximum at θ , fun tion

i.e., s∞

sn (θ) = mn

(θ 0 )

(θ)′ W

> s∞ (θ), ∀θ 6=

Identi ation:

s∞ (·) has a unique global 0 θ . Taking the ase of a quadrati obje tive

( )

n mn (θ), rst onsider

mn (θ). a.s.



Applying a uniform law of large numbers, we get



Sin e

Eθ′ mn (θ 0 ) = 0



Sin e

s∞ (θ 0 ) = m∞ (θ 0 )′ W∞ m∞ (θ 0 ) = 0, in order for asymptoti identi ation,

that

m∞ (θ) 6= 0

by assumption,

for

θ 6=

m∞ (θ 0 ) = 0.

θ 0 , for at least some element of the ve tor.

a.s.

Wn → W∞ , a nite positive 0 θ is asymptoti ally identied.

assumption that



mn (θ) → m∞ (θ).

g×g

denite

g×g

we need

This and the

matrix guarantee that

Note that asymptoti identi ation does not rule out the possibility of la k of identi ation for a given data set - there may be multiple minimizing solutions in nite samples.

15.3 Asymptoti normality We also simply assume that the onditions of Theorem 22 hold, so we will have asymptoti normality. However, we do need to nd the stru ture of the asymptoti varian e- ovarian e matrix of the estimator. From Theorem 22, we have

   √  d n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, J∞ (θ 0 )−1 I∞ (θ 0 )J∞ (θ 0 )−1

where

J∞ (θ 0 ) is the almost sure limit of

∂2 ∂θ∂θ ′ sn (θ) and

√ ∂ sn (θ 0 ). We I∞ (θ 0 ) = limn→∞ V ar n ∂θ

need to determine the form of these matri es given the obje tive fun tion

sn (θ) = mn (θ)′ Wn mn (θ).

220

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

Now using the produ t rule from the introdu tion,

  ∂ ′ ∂ sn (θ) = 2 mn (θ) Wn mn (θ) ∂θ ∂θ Dene the

K ×g

matrix

Dn (θ) ≡

so:

∂ ′ m (θ) , ∂θ n

∂ s(θ) = 2D(θ)W m (θ) . ∂θ

(Note that

sn (θ), Dn (θ), Wn

and

mn (θ)

(15.2)

all depend on the sample size

n,

but it is omitted to

un lutter the notation). To take se ond derivatives, let

Di

be the

i−

th row of

D(θ).

Using the produ t rule,

∂2 s(θ) = ∂θ ′ ∂θi

∂ 2Di (θ)Wn m (θ) ∂θ ′   ∂ ′ = 2Di W D ′ + 2m′ W D ∂θ ′ i

When evaluating the term



∂ D(θ)′i 2m(θ) W ∂θ ′ ′

at

θ 0 , assume that

∂ ′ ∂θ ′ D(θ)i satises a LLN, so that it onverges almost surely to a nite limit.

In this ase, we have



 ∂ 0 ′ a.s. 2m(θ ) W D(θ )i → 0, ∂θ ′ 0 ′

sin e



a.s.

m(θ 0 ) = op (1), W → W∞ .

Sta king these results over the

lim where we dene

rows of

D,

we get

∂2 ′ sn (θ 0 ) = J∞ (θ 0 ) = 2D∞ W∞ D∞ , a.s., ∂θ∂θ ′

lim D = D∞ , a.s.,

With regard to

0 at θ (sin e

K

and

lim W = W∞ ,

I∞ (θ 0 ), following equation 15.2,

Em(θ 0 )

=0

a.s. (we assume a LLN holds).

and noting that the s ores have mean zero

by assumption), we have

√ ∂ lim V ar n sn (θ 0 ) n→∞ ∂θ = lim E4nDn Wn m(θ 0 )m(θ)′ Wn Dn′ n→∞ √ √ nm(θ 0 ) nm(θ)′ Wn Dn′ = lim E4Dn Wn

I∞ (θ 0 ) =

n→∞

Now, given that

m(θ 0 )

is an average of entered (mean-zero) quantities, it is reasonable to

expe t a CLT to apply, after multipli ation by



d

√ n.

Assuming this,

nm(θ 0 ) → N (0, Ω∞ ),

15.4.

221

CHOOSING THE WEIGHTING MATRIX

where

  Ω∞ = lim E nm(θ 0 )m(θ 0 )′ . n→∞

Using this, and the last equation, we get

′ I∞ (θ 0 ) = 4D∞ W∞ Ω∞ W∞ D∞ Using these results, the asymptoti normality theorem gives us

 h   i √  d ′ −1 ′ ′ −1 n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, D∞ W∞ D∞ D∞ W∞ Ω∞ W∞ D∞ , D∞ W∞ D∞

the asymptoti distribution of the GMM estimator for arbitrary weighting matrix that for

J∞

to be positive denite,

D∞

must have full row rank,

Wn .

Note

ρ(D∞ ) = k.

15.4 Choosing the weighting matrix W

is a

weighting matrix, whi h determines the relative importan e of violations of the individ-

ual moment onditions. For example, if we are mu h more sure of the rst moment ondition, whi h is based upon the varian e, than of the se ond, whi h is based upon the fourth moment,

"

we ould set

W = with

a 0 0 b

#

a mu h larger than b. In this ase, errors in the se ond moment ondition have less weight

in the obje tive fun tion.



Sin e moments are not independent, in general, we should expe t that there be a orrelation between the moment onditions, so it may not be desirable to set the o-diagonal elements to 0.



W

may be a random, data dependent matrix.

We have already seen that the hoi e of the GMM estimator.

will inuen e the asymptoti distribution of

Sin e the GMM estimator is already ine ient w.r.t.

might like to hoose the

of GMM estimators

W

W

matrix to make the GMM estimator e ient

dened by

To provide a little intuition, onsider the linear model



Let



Then the model

y = x′ β + ε,

That is, he have heteros edasti ity and auto orrelation. be the Cholesky fa torization of

P y = P Xβ + P ε

Ω−1 ,

e.g,

where

ε ∼ N (0, Ω).

P ′ P = Ω−1 .

satises the lassi al assumptions of homos edas-

V (P ε) = P V (ε)P ′ = P ΩP ′ = P (P ′ P )−1 P ′ =

ti ity and nonauto orrelation, sin e

P P −1 (P ′ )−1 P ′ = In .

within the lass

mn (θ).



P

MLE, we

(Note: we use

(AB)−1 = B −1 A−1

for

A, B

both nonsingular).

This means that the transformed model is e ient.



The OLS estimator of the model

(y −

Xβ)′ Ω−1 (y

− Xβ).

P y = P Xβ + P ε

Interpreting

(y − Xβ) = ε(β)

minimizes the obje tive fun tion as moment onditions (note that

222

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

they do have zero expe tation when evaluated at

β 0 ),

the optimal weighting matrix

is seen to be the inverse of the ovarian e matrix of the moment onditions.

This

result arries over to GMM estimation. (Note: this presentation of GLS is not a GMM estimator, be ause the number of moment onditions here is equal to the sample size,

n.

Later we'll see that GLS an be put into the GMM framework dened above).

Theorem 25 If θˆ is a GMM estimator that minimizes mn (θ)′ Wn mn (θ), the asymptoti vari-

a.s W∞ = Ω−1 an e of θˆ will be minimized by hoosing Wn so that Wn → ∞ , where Ω∞ =

  limn→∞ E nm(θ 0 )m(θ 0 )′ .

Proof:

For

W∞ = Ω−1 ∞,

the asymptoti varian e

′ D∞ W∞ D∞ simplies to

′ D∞ Ω−1 ∞ D∞

−1

−1

′ ′ D∞ W∞ Ω∞ W∞ D∞ D∞ W∞ D∞

−1

. Now, for any hoi e su h that W∞ 6= Ω−1 ∞ , onsider the dieren e

of the inverses of the varian es when

W = Ω−1

versus when

W

is some arbitrary positive

denite matrix:

    ′ ′ ′ −1 ′ D∞ Ω−1 D∞ W∞ D∞ ∞ D∞ − D∞ W∞ D∞ D∞ W∞ Ω∞ W∞ D∞ i h   −1/2 ′ ′ ′ −1 I − Ω1/2 D∞ W∞ Ω1/2 = D∞ Ω−1/2 ∞ W∞ D∞ D∞ W∞ Ω∞ W∞ D∞ ∞ Ω∞ D∞ ∞

as an be veried by multipli ation. The term in bra kets is idempotent, whi h is also easy to he k by multipli ation, and is therefore positive semidenite.

A quadrati form in a

positive semidenite matrix is also positive semidenite. The dieren e of the inverses of the varian es is positive semidenite, whi h implies that the dieren e of the varian es is negative semidenite, whi h proves the theorem. The result

allows us to treat

 h  i √  d ′ −1 n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, D∞ Ω−1 D ∞ ∞ θˆ ≈ N

where the of

D∞



and

′ D∞ Ω−1 ∞ D∞ θ , n 0

−1 !

(15.3)

,

means approximately distributed as. To operationalize this we need estimators

Ω∞ .

  ∂ ′ d • The obvious estimator of D∞ is simply ∂θ mn θˆ , whi h is onsistent by the onsisten y ˆ assuming that ∂ m′ is ontinuous in θ. Sto hasti equi ontinuity results an give of θ, us this result even if

∂θ n ∂ ′ ∂θ mn is not ontinuous. We now turn to estimation of

15.5 Estimation of the varian e- ovarian e matrix (See Hamilton Ch. 10, pp. 261-2 and 280-84)∗ .

Ω∞ .

15.5.

223

ESTIMATION OF THE VARIANCE-COVARIANCE MATRIX

Ω∞ ,

In the ase that we wish to use the optimal weighting matrix, we need an estimate of the limiting varian e- ovarian e matrix of



nmn (θ 0 ).

While one ould estimate

Ω∞

paramet-

ri ally, we in general have little information upon whi h to base a parametri spe i ation. In general, we expe t that:

• mt

will be auto orrelated (Γts

not depend on

t

= E(mt m′t−s ) 6= 0).

Note that this auto ovarian e will

if the moment onditions are ovarian e stationary.



ontemporaneously orrelated, sin e the individual moment onditions will not in general



and have dierent varian es (E(mit )

be independent of one another (E(mit mjt )

2

2 = σit

6= 0). ).

Sin e we need to estimate so many omponents if we are to take the parametri approa h, it is unlikely that we would arrive at a orre t parametri spe i ation. For this reason, resear h has fo used on onsistent nonparametri estimators of

mt

Hen eforth we assume that

mt−s

does not depend on

Γv = E(mt m′t−s ).

t).

Ω∞ .

is ovarian e stationary (the ovarian e between

v − th

Dene the

E(mt m′t+s ) = Γ′v .

Ωn

and

auto ovarian e of the moment onditions

mt and m are fun tions of 0 ˆ Now now assume that we have some onsistent estimator of θ , so that m ˆ t = mt (θ). Note that

mt

Re all that

θ,

so for

!# ! " n n X X  m′t 1/n mt = E nm(θ 0 )m(θ 0 )′ = E n 1/n 

"

= E 1/n

n X

mt

t=1

!

n X

m′t

t=1

!#

t=1

t=1

 n−2   n−1 1 = Γ0 + Γ1 + Γ′1 + Γ2 + Γ′2 · · · + Γn−1 + Γ′n−1 n n n

A natural, onsistent estimator of

(you might use of

Ω∞

n−v

Γv

is

cv = 1/n Γ

n X

m ˆ tm ˆ ′t−v .

t=v+1

in the denominator instead). So, a natural, but in onsistent, estimator

would be

      ′ c′ + n − 2 Γ c′ + · · · + Γ [ c1 + Γ c2 + Γ ˆ = Γ c0 + n − 1 Γ [ Ω + Γ n−1 1 2 n−1 n n n−1  Xn−v  c′ . c0 + cv + Γ = Γ Γ v n v=1

This estimator is in onsistent in general, sin e the number of parameters to estimate is more than the number of observations, and in reases more rapidly than build up as

n → ∞.

On the other hand, supposing that

Γv

n,

so information does not

tends to zero su iently rapidly as

v

tends to

∞,

a

224

CHAPTER 15.

modied estimator

where

p

q(n) → ∞

as

n→∞

ˆ =Γ c0 + Ω

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

q(n)   X c′ , cv + Γ Γ v v=1

will be onsistent, provided

n−v term n an be dropped be ause

q(n)

must be

op (n).

q(n)

grows su iently slowly. The

This allows information to a

umulate

at a rate that satises a LLN. A disadvantage of this estimator is that it may not be positive denite. This ould ause one to al ulate a negative



Note: the formula for of

θ,

W

Ω!

The solution to this ir ularity is to set

arbitrarily (for example to an identity matrix), obtain a rst

onsistent but ine ient estimate of estimate

statisti , for example!

ˆ requires an estimate of m(θ 0 ), whi h in turn requires an estimate Ω

whi h is based upon an estimate of

the weighting matrix

χ2

θ0,

then use this estimate to form

ˆ Ω,

then re-

ˆ nor θˆ hange appre iably between θ 0 . The pro ess an be iterated until neither Ω

iterations.

15.5.1 Newey-West ovarian e estimator E onometri a,

The Newey-West estimator (

1987) solves the problem of possible nonpositive

deniteness of the above estimator. Their estimator is

ˆ =Γ c0 + Ω

q(n)  X 1− v=1

  v c′ . cv + Γ Γ v q+1

This estimator is p.d. by onstru tion. The ondition for onsisten y is that that this is a very slow rate of growth for no parametri restri tions on the form of

q.

Ω.

This estimator is nonparametri - we've pla ed

kernel estimator. (Review of E onomi Studies, 1994)

It is an example of a

In a more re ent paper, Newey and West

whitening

n−1/4 q → 0. Note

use

pre-

before applying the kernel estimator. The idea is to t a VAR model to the moment

onditions. It is expe ted that the residuals of the VAR model will be more nearly white noise, so that the Newey-West ovarian e estimator might perform better with short lag lengths.. The VAR model is

m ˆ t = Θ1 m ˆ t−1 + · · · + Θp m ˆ t−p + ut This is estimated, giving the residuals

u ˆt . Then the Newey-West ovarian e estimator is applied

to these pre-whitened residuals, and the ovarian e



is estimated ombining the tted VAR

c c1 m cp m m ˆt = Θ ˆ t−1 + · · · + Θ ˆ t−p

with the kernel estimate of the ovarian e of the



ut .

See Newey-West for details.

I have a program that does this if you're interested.

15.6.

225

ESTIMATION USING CONDITIONAL MOMENTS

15.6 Estimation using onditional moments So far, the moment onditions have been presented as un onditional expe tations. One ommon way of dening un onditional moment onditions is based upon onditional moment

onditions. Suppose that a random variable

Y

has zero expe tation onditional on the random variable

X EY |X Y =

Z

Y f (Y |X)dY = 0

Then the un onditional expe tation of the produ t of

Y

and a fun tion

g(X)

of

X

is also zero.

The un onditional expe tation is

EY g(X) =

Z Z X

Y g(X)f (Y, X)dY Y



dX.

This an be fa tored into a onditional expe tation and an expe tation w.r.t. the marginal density of

X: EY g(X) =

Sin e

g(X)

doesn't depend on

Y

EY g(X) =

Z Z X

Y

Y g(X)f (Y |X)dY



f (X)dX.

it an be pulled out of the integral

Z Z X

Y

Y f (Y |X)dY



g(X)f (X)dX.

But the term in parentheses on the rhs is zero by assumption, so

EY g(X) = 0 as laimed. This is important e onometri ally, sin e models often imply restri tions on onditional moments. Suppose a model tells us that the fun tion on the information set

It ,

equal to

K(yt , xt )

has expe tation, onditional

k(xt , θ), Eθ K(yt , xt )|It = k(xt , θ).



For example, in the ontext of the lassi al linear model

K(yt , xt ) = yt

so that

k(xt , θ) =

x′t β .

With this, the error fun tion

ǫt (θ) = K(yt , xt ) − k(xt , θ) has onditional expe tation equal to zero

Eθ ǫt (θ)|It = 0.

yt = x′t β + εt ,

we an set

226

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

This is a s alar moment ondition, whi h isn't su ient to identify a

θ (K > 1).

K

-dimensional parameter

However, the above result allows us to form various un onditional expe tations

mt (θ) = Z(wt )ǫt (θ) where

Z(wt ) is a g × 1-ve tor

information set so as long as

It .

The

g>K

valued fun tion of

Z(wt ) are

wt

and

wt

instrumental variables.

is a set of variables drawn from the We now have

g

moment onditions,

the ne essary ondition for identi ation holds.

One an form the

n×g

matrix



Z1 (w1 ) Z2 (w1 ) · · · Zg (w1 )

 Zg (w2 )  Z1 (w2 ) Z2 (w2 ) Zn =  .  .. . .  . Z1 (wn ) Z2 (wn ) · · · Zg (wn )   Z1′  ′   Z2   =      ′ Zn With this we an form the

g

     

moment onditions

mn (θ) =



ǫ1 (θ)

 ǫ2 (θ) 1 ′ Zn  . n   ..

ǫn (θ)

     

Dene the ve tor of error fun tions



ǫ1 (θ)

  ǫ2 (θ) hn (θ) =   ..  . ǫn (θ)

     

With this, we an write

1 ′ Z hn (θ) n n n 1X = Zt ht (θ) n

mn (θ) =

t=1

n 1X mt (θ) = n t=1

where

Z(t,·)

is the

tth

row of

Zn .

This ts the previous treatment.

An interesting question

15.6.

227

ESTIMATION USING CONDITIONAL MOMENTS

that arises is how one should hoose the instrumental variables

Z(wt )

to a hieve maximum

e ien y. Note that with this hoi e of moment onditions, we have that matrix) is

Dn (θ) = =

Dn (θ) = Hn

is a

K ×n

∂ ′ ∂θ m (θ) (a

K×g

′ ∂ 1 Zn′ hn (θ) ∂θn  1 ∂ ′ hn (θ) Zn n ∂θ

whi h we an dene to be

where

Dn ≡

1 Hn Zn . n

matrix that has the derivatives of the individual moment onditions as

its olumns. Likewise, dene the var- ov. of the moment onditions

where we have dened

  Ωn = E nmn (θ 0 )mn (θ 0 )′   1 ′ 0 0 ′ Z hn (θ )hn (θ ) Zn = E n n   1 ′ 0 0 ′ = Zn E hn (θ )hn (θ ) Zn n Φn Zn ≡ Zn′ n  Φn = V hn (θ 0 ) . Note that the dimension

of this matrix is growing

with the sample size, so it is not onsistently estimable without additional assumptions. The asymptoti normality theorem above says that the GMM estimator using the optimal weighting matrix is distributed as

 √  d n θˆ − θ 0 → N (0, V∞ ) where

V∞ = lim

n→∞



Hn Zn n



Zn′ Φn Zn n

−1 

Using an argument similar to that used to prove that we an show that putting

Ω−1 ∞

Zn′ Hn′ n

!−1

.

(15.4)

is the e ient weighting matrix,

′ Zn = Φ−1 n Hn

auses the above var- ov matrix to simplify to

V∞ = lim

n→∞



′ Hn Φ−1 n Hn n

−1

.

(15.5)

and furthermore, this matrix is smaller that the limiting var- ov for any other hoi e of instrumental variables. (To prove this, examine the dieren e of the inverses of the var- ov matri es with the optimal intruments and with non-optimal instruments. As above, you an show that

228

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

the dieren e is positive semi-denite).



Note that both



Usually, estimation of

θ 0 , and

where



Φ

Hn , whi h

we should write more properly as

Hn (θ 0 ), sin e it

depends on

must be onsistently estimated to apply this.

θ˜ is

Hn

is straightforward - one just uses

  b = ∂ h′ θ˜ , H n ∂θ

some initial onsistent estimator based on non-optimal instruments.

Estimation of

Φn

elements than

n,

may not be possible.

It is an

n×n

matrix, so it has more unique

the sample size, so without restri tions on the parameters it an't be

estimated onsistently. Basi ally, you need to provide a parametri spe i ation of the

ovarian es of the

ht (θ) in

order to be able to use optimal instruments. A solution is to

approximate this matrix parametri ally to dene the instruments. Note that the simplied var- ov matrix in equation 15.5 will not apply if approximately optimal instruments are used - it will be ne essary to use an estimator based upon equation 15.4, where the term

n−1 Zn′ Φn Zn

must be estimated onsistently apart, for example by the Newey-West

pro edure.

15.7 Estimation using dynami moment onditions Note that dynami moment onditions simplify the var- ov matrix, but are often harder to formulate.

The will be added in future editions. For now, the Hansen appli ation below is

enough.

15.8 A spe i ation test The rst order onditions for minimization, using the an estimate of the optimal weighting matrix, are

    ∂ ′  ˆ ˆ −1 ∂ ˆ s(θ) = 2 mn θ Ω mn θˆ ≡ 0 ∂θ ∂θ

or

ˆΩ ˆ ≡0 ˆ −1 mn (θ) D(θ) Consider a Taylor expansion of

Multiplying by

ˆΩ ˆ −1 D(θ)

ˆ: m(θ)

  ˆ = mn (θ 0 ) + D ′ (θ 0 ) θˆ − θ 0 + op (1). m(θ) n we obtain

  ˆΩ ˆ = D(θ) ˆΩ ˆΩ ˆ −1 m(θ) ˆ −1 mn (θ 0 ) + D(θ) ˆ −1 D(θ 0 )′ θˆ − θ 0 + op (1) D(θ)

(15.6)

15.8.

229

A SPECIFICATION TEST

The lhs is zero, and sin e

θˆ tends

to

θ0

and

ˆ Ω

tends to

Ω∞ ,

we an write

  0 a −1 ′ ˆ − θ0 θ D∞ Ω−1 m (θ ) = −D Ω D n ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ or

  √  √ a ′ −1 0 n θˆ − θ 0 = − n D∞ Ω−1 D∞ Ω−1 ∞ D∞ ∞ mn (θ )

With this, and taking into a

ount the original expansion (equation 15.6), we get



a

ˆ = nm(θ)



nmn (θ 0 ) −

This last an be written as

√ Or



a ˆ = nm(θ)

  √  1/2 −1/2 ′ −1 ′ −1 −1/2 Ω∞ mn (θ 0 ) n Ω∞ − D∞ D∞ Ω∞ D∞ D∞ Ω∞

ˆ a nΩ−1/2 ∞ m(θ) =

Now

 √ ′ ′ −1 0 nD∞ D∞ Ω−1 D∞ Ω−1 ∞ D∞ ∞ mn (θ ).

  √  0 ′ −1 ′ −1 −1/2 Ω−1/2 n Ig − Ω−1/2 D D Ω D D Ω ∞ ∞ ∞ mn (θ ) ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ √

d

0 nΩ−1/2 ∞ mn (θ ) → N (0, Ig )

and one an easily verify that

is idempotent of rank tra e) so

   ′ −1 ′ −1 −1/2 P = Ig − Ω−1/2 D∞ Ω∞ ∞ D∞ D∞ Ω∞ D∞ g − K,

(re all that the rank of an idempotent matrix is equal to its

√ ′ √  d −1/2 ˆ ˆ = nm(θ) ˆ ′ Ω−1 m(θ) ˆ → nΩ−1/2 m( θ) nΩ m( θ) χ2 (g − K) ∞ ∞ ∞ Sin e

ˆ Ω

onverges to

Ω∞ ,

we also have

d

ˆ ′Ω ˆ → χ2 (g − K) ˆ −1 m(θ) nm(θ) or

d ˆ → n · sn (θ) χ2 (g − K) supposing the model is orre tly spe ied.

This is a onvenient test sin e we just multiply

the optimized value of the obje tive fun tion by

n,

and ompare with a

χ2 (g − K)

riti al

value. The test is a general test of whether or not the moments used to estimate are orre tly spe ied.



This won't work when the estimator is just identied. The f.o. . are

ˆ ≡ 0. ˆ −1 m(θ) Dθ sn (θ) = D Ω

230

CHAPTER 15.

D

But with exa t identi ation, both

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

and

ˆ Ω

are square and invertible (at least asymp-

toti ally, assuming that asymptoti normality hold), so

ˆ ≡ 0. m(θ) So the moment onditions are zero

regardless

of the weighting matrix used. As su h, we

might as well use an identity matrix and save trouble. Also

ˆ = 0, sn (θ)

so the test breaks

down.



A note: this sort of test often over-reje ts in nite samples. One should be autious in reje ting a model when this test reje ts.

15.9 Other estimators interpreted as GMM estimators 15.9.1 OLS with heteros edasti ity of unknown form Example 26 White's heteros edasti onsistent var ov estimator for OLS. Suppose



y = Xβ 0 + ε,

parameter ve tor, and to estimate

Σ

β

and

a diagonal matrix.

Σ = Σ(σ),

The typi al approa h is to parameterize

the parameterization of



ε ∼ N (0, Σ), Σ

where

σ

where

σ

is a nite dimensional

jointly (feasible GLS). This will work well if

is orre t.

If we're not ondent about parameterizing

Σ,

OLS. However, the typi al ovarian e estimator

β

we an still estimate

ˆ = (X′ X)−1 σ V (β) ˆ2

onsistently by

will be biased and

in onsistent, and will lead to invalid inferen es. By exogeneity of the regressors

xt

(a

the moment ondition

K ×1 olumn ve tor) we have E(xt εt ) = 0,whi h suggests

 mt (β) = xt yt − x′t β .

In this ase, we have exa t identi ation (

m(β) = 1/n

X

K

parameters and

mt = 1/n

t

For any hoi e of

X t

K

xt yt − 1/n

moment onditions). We have

X

xt x′t β.

t

W, m(β) will be identi ally zero at the minimum,

due to exa t identi ation.

That is, sin e the number of moment onditions is identi al to the number of parameters, the fo imply that

ˆ ≡ 0 regardless of W. There is no need to use the optimal m(β)

weighting matrix

in this ase, an identity matrix works just as well for the purpose of estimation. Therefore

βˆ =

X t

whi h is the usual OLS estimator.

xt x′t

!−1

X t

xt yt = (X′ X)−1 X′ y,

15.9.

The GMM estimator of the asymptoti var ov matrix is

d D ∞

231

OTHER ESTIMATORS INTERPRETED AS GMM ESTIMATORS

is simply

∂ ∂θ

  m′ θˆ .

In this ase

d D ∞ = −1/n

Re all that a possible estimator of



X t



d b −1 d ′ D ∞ Ω D∞

−1

.

Re all that

xt x′t = −X′ X/n.

is

ˆ =Γ c0 + Ω

n−1 X v=1

 c′ . cv + Γ Γ v

This is in general in onsistent, but in the present ase of nonauto orrelation, it simplies to

ˆ =Γ c0 Ω

whi h has a onstant number of elements to estimate, so information

will

a

umulate, and

onsisten y obtains. In the present ase

b = Γ c0 = 1/n Ω = 1/n

= 1/n = where

ˆ E

is an

n×n

"

"

n X t=1

n X

n X

m ˆ tm ˆ ′t

t=1

xt x′t



2 yt − x′t βˆ

xt x′t εˆ2t

t=1 ′ ˆ X EX

!

#

#

n

diagonal matrix with

εˆ2t

in the position

t, t.

Therefore, the GMM var ov. estimator, whi h is onsistent, is

! )−1  ˆ −1  X′ X  X′ EX X′ X − − n n n !  ′ −1  ˆ XX X′ X −1 X′ EX = n n n

√   Vˆ n βˆ − β =

(

This is the var ov estimator that White (1980) arrived at in an inuential arti le. This estimator is onsistent under heteros edasti ity of an unknown form. If there is auto orrelation, the Newey-West estimator an be used to estimate



- the rest is the same.

232

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

15.9.2 Weighted Least Squares Consider the previous example of a linear model with heteros edasti ity of unknown form:

y = Xβ 0 + ε ε ∼ N (0, Σ) where

Σ

is a diagonal matrix.

Now, suppose that the form of

Σ

tion (whi h may also depend upon

is known, so that

X).

Σ(θ 0 )

is a orre t parametri spe i a-

In this ase, the GLS estimator is

−1 ′ −1 β˜ = X′ Σ−1 X X Σ y)

This estimator an be interpreted as the solution to the

˜ = 1/n m(β)

K

moment onditions

X xt yt X xt x′ t ˜ − 1/n β ≡ 0. 0) 0) σ (θ σ (θ t t t t

That is, the GLS estimator in this ase has an obvious representation as a GMM estimator. With auto orrelation, the representation exists but it is a little more ompli ated. Nevertheless, the idea is the same. There are a few points:



The (feasible) GLS estimator is known to be asymptoti ally e ient in the lass of linear asymptoti ally unbiased estimators (Gauss-Markov).



This means that it is more e ient than the above example of OLS with White's het-



This means that the hoi e of the moment onditions is important to a hieve e ien y.

eros edasti onsistent ovarian e, whi h is an alternative GMM estimator.

15.9.3 2SLS Consider the linear model

yt = zt′ β + εt , or

y = Zβ + ε using the usual onstru tion, where

β

is

K×1

and

one of a system of simultaneous equations, so that variables. Suppose that un orrelated with



Dene

εt

xt

zt

εt

is i.i.d. Suppose that this equation is

ontains both endogenous and exogenous

is the ve tor of all exogenous and predetermined variables that are

(suppose that

xt

is

r × 1).

ˆ as the ve tor of predi tions of Z when regressed upon X, e.g., Z ˆ = X (X′ X)−1 X′ Z Z ˆ = X X′ X Z

−1

X′ Z

15.9.



ˆ Z

Sin e with

ε.

ˆt x, z

is a linear ombination of the exogenous variables This suggests the

K -dimensional

so

moment ondition

X

m(β) = 1/n

t



233

OTHER ESTIMATORS INTERPRETED AS GMM ESTIMATORS

Sin e we have

K

parameters and

K

βˆ =

ˆzt z′t

t

mt (β) = ˆzt (yt − z′t β)

and

 ˆzt yt − z′t β .

moment onditions, the GMM estimator will set

identi ally equal to zero, regardless of

X

must be un orrelated

W,

!−1

m

so we have

X t

 −1 ˆ ′Z ˆ ′y (ˆ zt yt ) = Z Z

This is the standard formula for 2SLS. We use the exogenous variables and the redu ed form predi tions of the endogenous variables as instruments, and apply IV estimation. See Hamilton pp. 420-21 for the var ov formula (whi h is the standard formula for 2SLS), and for how to deal with

εt

heterogeneous and dependent (basi ally, just use the Newey-West or some other

Ω, and apply the usual formula).

onsistent estimator of

Note that

εt

dependent auses lagged

endogenous variables to loose their status as legitimate instruments.

15.9.4 Nonlinear simultaneous equations GMM provides a onvenient way to estimate nonlinear systems of simultaneous equations. We have a system of equations of the form

y1t = f1 (zt , θ10 ) + ε1t y2t = f2 (zt , θ20 ) + ε2t . . .

0 yGt = fG (zt , θG ) + εGt , or in ompa t notation

yt = f (zt , θ 0 ) + εt , where

f (·)

is a

G

-ve tor valued fun tion, and

We need to nd an with

εit .

0′ )′ . θ 0 = (θ10′ , θ20′ , · · · , θG

Ai ×1 ve tor of instruments xit , for ea h equation, that are un orrelated

Typi al instruments would be low order monomials in the exogenous variables in

with their lagged values. Then we an dene the



P G

i=1 Ai



(y1t − f1 (zt , θ1 )) x1t

×1

  (y2t − f2 (zt , θ2 )) x2t mt (θ) =  .  . .  (yGt − fG (zt , θG )) xGt •

A note on identi ation:

zt ,

orthogonality onditions



  .  

sele tion of instruments that ensure identi ation is a non-

234

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

trivial problem.



A note on e ien y: the sele ted set of instruments has important ee ts on the e ien y of estimation.

Unfortunately there is little theory oering guidan e on what is the

optimal set. More on this later.

15.9.5 Maximum likelihood In the introdu tion we argued that ML will in general be more e ient than GMM sin e ML impli itly uses all of the moments of the distribution while GMM uses a limited number of moments. A tually, a distribution with

P

ment onditions. However, some sets of

P

parameters an be uniquely hara terized by

P

mo-

moment onditions may ontain more information

than others, sin e the moment onditions ould be highly orrelated. A GMM estimator that

hose an optimal set of

P

moment onditions would be fully e ient. Here we'll see that the

optimal moment onditions are simply the s ores of the ML estimator. Let

yt

be a

G

-ve tor of variables, and let

Yt = (y1′ , y2′ , ..., yt′ )′ .

Then at time

t, Yt−1

has

been observed (refer to it as the information set, sin e we assume the onditioning variables have been sele ted to take advantage of all useful information). The likelihood fun tion is the joint density of the sample:

L(θ) = f (y1 , y2 , ..., yn , θ) whi h an be fa tored as

L(θ) = f (yn |Yn−1 , θ) · f (Yn−1 , θ) and we an repeat this to get

L(θ) = f (yn |Yn−1 , θ) · f (yn−1 |Yn−2 , θ) · ... · f (y1 ). The log-likelihood fun tion is therefore

ln L(θ) =

n X t=1

ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ).

Dene

mt (Yt , θ) ≡ Dθ ln f (yt|Yt−1 , θ) as the

s ore

of the

tth

observation.

It an be shown that, under the regularity onditions,

that the s ores have onditional mean zero when evaluated at

θ0

(see notes to Introdu tion to

E onometri s):

E{mt (Yt , θ 0 )|Yt−1 } = 0 so one ould interpret these as moment onditions to use to dene a just-identied GMM estimator ( if there are

K

1/n

parameters there are

n X t=1

ˆ = 1/n mt (Yt , θ)

K

n X t=1

s ore equations). The GMM estimator sets

ˆ = 0, Dθ ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ)

15.9.

235

OTHER ESTIMATORS INTERPRETED AS GMM ESTIMATORS

whi h are pre isely the rst order onditions of MLE. Therefore, MLE an be interpreted as a GMM estimator. The GMM var ov formula is

′ V∞ = D∞ Ω−1 D∞

Consistent estimates of varian e omponents are as follows

• D∞

−1

.

n

X ∂ ˆ ˆ = 1/n d Dθ2 ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ) D m(Y , θ) ∞ = t ∂θ ′ t=1

• Ω

It is important to note that tionally un orrelated. fun tion of

Yt−s ,

mt

mt−s , s > 0

and

are both onditionally and un ondi-

Conditional un orrelation follows from the fa t that

whi h is in the information set at time

t.

mt−s

is a

Un onditional un orrelation

follows from the fa t that onditional un orrelation hold regardless of the realization of

Yt−1 ,

so marginalizing with respe t to

Yt−1

preserves un orrelation (see the se tion on

ML estimation, above). The fa t that the s ores are serially un orrelated implies that



th auto ovarian e of the moment onditions:

an be estimated by the estimator of the 0

b = 1/n Ω

n X

ˆ t (Yt , θ) ˆ ′ = 1/n mt (Yt , θ)m

n h ih i′ X ˆ Dθ ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ) ˆ Dθ ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ) t=1

t=1

Re all from study of ML estimation that the information matrix equality (equation

??) states

that

E

n

  ′ o = −E Dθ2 ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ 0 ) . Dθ ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ 0 ) Dθ ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ 0 )

This result implies the well known (and already seeen) result that we an estimate

V∞

in any

of three ways:



The sandwi h version:

nP o  n 2 ln f (y |Y ˆ ×  D , θ)  t t−1 t=1 θ    P h ih i′ −1 n c ˆ Dθ ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ) ˆ V∞ = n × t=1 Dθ ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ)   n o  Pn   ˆ D2 ln f (yt|Yt−1 , θ) t=1



    

or the inverse of the negative of the Hessian (sin e the middle and last term an el, ex ept for a minus sign):

"



θ

−1     

Vc ∞ = −1/n

n X t=1

#−1

ˆ Dθ2 ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ)

,

or the inverse of the outer produ t of the gradient (sin e the middle and last an el ex ept for a minus sign, and the rst term onverges to minus the inverse of the middle term, whi h is still inside the overall inverse)

236

CHAPTER 15.

Vc ∞ =

(

1/n

n h X t=1

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

ih i′ ˆ Dθ ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ) ˆ Dθ ln f (yt |Yt−1 , θ)

)−1

.

This simpli ation is a spe ial result for the MLE estimator - it doesn't apply to GMM estimators in general. Asymptoti ally, if the model is orre tly spe ied, all of these forms onverge to the same limit. In small samples they will dier. In parti ular, there is eviden e that the outer produ t of the gradient formula does not perform very well in small samples (see Davidson and Ma Kinnon, pg. 477). White's

Information matrix test

(E onometri a, 1982) is based upon

omparing the two ways to estimate the information matrix:

outer produ t of gradient or

negative of the Hessian. If they dier by too mu h, this is eviden e of misspe i ation of the model.

15.10 Example: The MEPS data The MEPS data on health are usage dis ussed in se tion 13.4.2 estimated a Poisson model by maximum likelihood (probably misspe ied). Perhaps the same latent fa tors (e.g., hroni illness) that indu e one to make do tor visits also inuen e the de ision of whether or not to pur hase insuran e.

If this is the ase, the PRIV variable ould well be endogenous, in

whi h ase, the Poisson ML estimator would be in onsistent, even if the onditional mean were orre tly spe ied.

The O tave s ript meps.m estimates the parameters of the model

presented in equation 13.1, using Poisson ML (better thought of as quasi-ML), and IV 1

estimation . Both estimation methods are implemented using a GMM form. Running that s ript gives the output

OBDV

****************************************************** IV GMM Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Obje tive fun tion value: 0.004273 Observations: 4564 No moment ovarian e supplied, assuming effi ient weight matrix

X^2 test 1

Value 19.502

df 3.000

p-value 0.000

The validity of the instruments used may be debatable, but real data sets often don't ontain ideal instru-

ments.

15.10.

EXAMPLE: THE MEPS DATA

237

estimate st. err t-stat p-value

onstant -0.441 0.213 -2.072 0.038 pub. ins. -0.127 0.149 -0.851 0.395 priv. ins. -1.429 0.254 -5.624 0.000 sex 0.537 0.053 10.133 0.000 age 0.031 0.002 13.431 0.000 edu 0.072 0.011 6.535 0.000 in 0.000 0.000 4.500 0.000 ******************************************************

****************************************************** Poisson QML GMM Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Obje tive fun tion value: 0.000000 Observations: 4564 No moment ovarian e supplied, assuming effi ient weight matrix Exa tly identified, no spe . test estimate st. err t-stat p-value

onstant -0.791 0.149 -5.289 0.000 pub. ins. 0.848 0.076 11.092 0.000 priv. ins. 0.294 0.071 4.136 0.000 sex 0.487 0.055 8.796 0.000 age 0.024 0.002 11.469 0.000 edu 0.029 0.010 3.060 0.002 in -0.000 0.000 -0.978 0.328 ******************************************************

Note how the Poisson QML results, estimated here using a GMM routine, are the same as were obtained using the ML estimation routine (see subse tion 13.4.2). This is an example of how (Q)ML may be represented as a GMM estimator. Also note that the IV and QML results are onsiderably dierent.

Treating PRIV as potentially endogenous auses the sign of its

oe ient to hange. Perhaps it is logi al that people who own private insuran e make fewer visits, if they have to make a o-payment. Note that in ome be omes positive and signi ant when PRIV is treated as endogenous.

238

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

Figure 15.1: OLS OLS estimates

0.14

0.12

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0 2.28

2.3

2.32

2.34

2.36

2.38

Perhaps the dieren e in the results depending upon whether or not PRIV is treated as endogenous an suggest a method for testing exogeneity. Onward to the Hausman test!

15.11 Example: The Hausman Test This se tion dis usses the Hausman test, whi h was originally presented in Hausman, J.A. (1978), Spe i ation tests in e onometri s,

E onometri a, 46, 1251-71.

Consider the simple linear regression model

yt = x′t β + ǫt .

We assume that the fun tional

form and the hoi e of regressors is orre t, but that the some of the regressors may be

orrelated with the error term, whi h as you know will produ e in onsisten y of

ˆ For example, β.

this will be a problem if



if some regressors are endogeneous



some regressors are measured with error



lagged values of the dependent variable are used as regressors and

ǫt

is auto orrelated.

To illustrate, the O tave program biased.m performs a Monte Carlo experiment where errors are orrelated with regressors, and estimation is by OLS and IV. The true value of the slope

oe ient used to generate the data is

β = 2.

Figure 15.1 shows that the OLS estimator is

quite biased, while Figure 15.2 shows that the IV estimator is on average mu h loser to the true value. If you play with the program, in reasing the sample size, you an see eviden e that the OLS estimator is asymptoti ally biased, while the IV estimator is onsistent. We have seen that in onsistent and the onsistent estimators onverge to dierent probability limits.

This is the idea behind the Hausman test - a pair of onsistent estimators

15.11.

239

EXAMPLE: THE HAUSMAN TEST

Figure 15.2: IV IV estimates

0.14

0.12

0.1

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0 1.9

1.92

1.94

1.96

1.98

2

2.02

2.04

2.06

2.08

onverge to the same probability limit, while if one is onsistent and the other is not they

e.g.,

onverge to dierent limits. If we a

ept that one is onsistent (

e.g., the OLS

we are doubting if the other is onsistent (

the IV estimator), but

estimator), we might try to he k if

the dieren e between the estimators is signi antly dierent from zero.



If we're doubting about the onsisten y of OLS (or QML,

et .),

why should we be

interested in testing - why not just use the IV estimator? Be ause the OLS estimator is more e ient when the regressors are exogenous and the other lassi al assumptions (in luding normality of the errors) hold. When we have a more e ient estimator that relies on stronger assumptions (su h as exogeneity) than the IV estimator, we might prefer to use it, unless we have eviden e that the assumptions are false.

So, let's onsider the ovarian e between the MLE estimator estimator) and some other CAN estimator, say

θ˜.

θˆ

(or any other fully e ient

Now, let's re all some results from MLE.

Equation 4.2 is:

Equation 4.7 is

 √  √ a.s. n θˆ − θ0 → −H∞ (θ0 )−1 ng(θ0 ). H∞ (θ) = −I∞ (θ).

Combining these two equations, we get

 √  √ a.s. n θˆ − θ0 → I∞ (θ0 )−1 ng(θ0 ). Also, equation 4.9 tells us that the asymptoti ovarian e between any CAN estimator and

240

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

the MLE s ore ve tor is

 # " # " √  ˜ n θ˜ − θ V∞ (θ) IK . = V∞ √ IK I∞ (θ) ng(θ) Now, onsider

"

 √     # #" √  ˜− θ n θ n θ˜ − θ a.s.   . → √ ˆ √ I∞ (θ)−1 n θ−θ ng(θ)

IK

0K

0K

The asymptoti ovarian e of this is

 √    #" " #" ˜ n θ˜ − θ IK I 0 V ( θ) I K K ∞ K   = V∞  √  −1 0K 0K I∞ (θ) IK I∞ (θ) n θˆ − θ # " ˜ V∞ (θ) I∞ (θ)−1 , = I∞ (θ)−1 I∞ (θ)−1

0K I∞ (θ)−1

#

whi h, for larity in what follows, we might write as

  "  √  # −1 ˜ n θ˜ − θ V ( θ) I (θ) ∞ ∞  = V∞  √  . ˆ I∞ (θ)−1 V∞ (θ) n θˆ − θ So, the asymptoti ovarian e between the MLE and any other CAN estimator is equal to the MLE asymptoti varian e (the inverse of the information matrix). Now, suppose we with to test whether the the two estimators are in fa t both onverging

θ0 , versus the alternative hypothesis that the MLE estimator is not in fa t onsistent (the ˜ is a maintained hypothesis). Under the null hypothesis that they are, we have

onsisten y of θ

to

h

IK

−IK

i

 √     n θ˜ − θ0 √   √    = n θ˜ − θˆ , n θˆ − θ0

will be asymptoti ally normally distributed as

So,

where

   √  d ˜ − V∞ (θ) ˆ . n θ˜ − θˆ → N 0, V∞ (θ)  ′  −1   d ˜ − V∞ (θ) ˆ n θ˜ − θˆ V∞ (θ) θ˜ − θˆ → χ2 (ρ),

ρ is the rank of the dieren e of the asymptoti varian es.

A statisti that has the same

asymptoti distribution is

 ′  −1   d ˜ − Vˆ (θ) ˆ θ˜ − θˆ Vˆ (θ) θ˜ − θˆ → χ2 (ρ). This is the Hausman test statisti , in its original form. The reason that this test has power under the alternative hypothesis is that in that ase the MLE estimator will not be onsistent,

15.11.

241

EXAMPLE: THE HAUSMAN TEST

Figure 15.3: In orre t rank and the Hausman test

θA , say, where θA 6= θ0 . Then the mean of the √  ˜ ˆ n θ − θ will be θ0 − θA , a non-zero ve tor, so the test

and will onverge to

asymptoti distribution

of ve tor

statisti will eventually

reje t, regardless of how small a signi an e level is used.



Note: if the test is based on a sub-ve tor of the entire parameter ve tor of the MLE, it is possible that the in onsisten y of the MLE will not show up in the portion of the ve tor that has been used. If this is the ase, the test may not have power to dete t the in onsisten y. This may o

ur, for example, when the onsistent but ine ient estimator is not identied for all the parameters of the model.

Some things to note:



The rank,

ρ, of the dieren e of the asymptoti varian es is often less than the dimension

of the matri es, and it may be di ult to determine what the true rank is. If the true rank is lower than what is taken to be true, the test will be biased against reje tion of the null hypothesis. The ontrary holds if we underestimate the rank.



A solution to this problem is to use a rank 1 test, by omparing only a single oe ient. For example, if a variable is suspe ted of possibly being endogenous, that variable's

oe ients may be ompared.



This simple formula only holds when the estimator that is being tested for onsisten y is

fully

e ient under the null hypothesis. This means that it must be a ML estimator or a

242

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

fully e ient estimator that has the same asymptoti distribution as the ML estimator. This is quite restri tive sin e modern estimators su h as GMM and QML are not in general fully e ient.

Following up on this last point, let's think of two not ne essarily e ient estimators,

θˆ1

and

θˆ2 ,

where one is assumed to be onsistent, but the other may not be. We assume for expositional simpli ity that both

θˆ1

θˆ2

and

belong to the same parameter spa e, and that they an be

expressed as generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators. The estimators are dened (suppressing the dependen e upon data) by

θˆi = arg min mi (θi )′ Wi mi (θi ) θi ∈Θ

where

mi (θi )

is a

weighting matrix,

gi × 1

ve tor of moment onditions, and

i = 1, 2.

Wi

gi × gi

is a

Consider the omnibus GMM estimator

  i h θˆ1 , θˆ2 = arg min m1 (θ1 )′ m2 (θ2 )′ Θ×Θ

"

W1 0(g2 ×g1 )

0(g1 ×g2 ) W2

#"

positive denite

m1 (θ1 ) m2 (θ2 )

#

.

(15.7)

Suppose that the asymptoti ovarian e of the omnibus moment ve tor is

#) ( " √ m1 (θ1 ) Σ = lim V ar n n→∞ m2 (θ2 ) ! Σ1 Σ12 . ≡ · Σ2

(15.8)

The standard Hausman test is equivalent to a Wald test of the equality of

θ1

and

θ2

(or

subve tors of the two) applied to the omnibus GMM estimator, but with the ovarian e of the moment onditions estimated as

b= Σ

c1 Σ

0(g2 ×g1 )

0(g1 ×g2 ) c2 Σ

!

.

While this is learly an in onsistent estimator in general, the omitted

Σ12

term an els out of

the test statisti when one of the estimators is asymptoti ally e ient, as we have seen above, and thus it need not be estimated. The general solution when neither of the estimators is e ient is lear: the entire must be estimated onsistently, sin e the

Σ12 term will not an el out.

Σ matrix

Methods for onsistently

, e.g.,

estimating the asymptoti ovarian e of a ve tor of moment onditions are well-known

the Newey-West estimator dis ussed previously. The Hausman test using a proper estimator of the overall ovarian e matrix will now have an asymptoti

χ2

distribution when neither

estimator is e ient. This is However, the test suers from a loss of power due to the fa t that the omnibus GMM estimator of equation 15.7 is dened using an ine ient weight matrix.

A new test an be

15.12.

243

APPLICATION: NONLINEAR RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS

dened by using an alternative omnibus GMM estimator

 where

e Σ



θˆ1 , θˆ2 = arg min

Θ×Θ

h

m1 (θ1

)′

m2 (θ2

)′

i  −1 e Σ

"

m1 (θ1 ) m2 (θ2 )

is a onsistent estimator of the overall ovarian e matrix

Σ

#

,

(15.9)

of equation 15.8.

By

standard arguments, this is a more e ient estimator than that dened by equation 15.7, so the Wald test using this alternative is more powerful. See my arti le in

Applied E onomi s,

2004, for more details, in luding simulation results. The O tave s ript hausman.m al ulates the Wald test orresponding to the e ient joint GMM estimator (the H2 test in my paper), for a simple linear model.

15.12 Appli ation: Nonlinear rational expe tations Readings:

Hansen and Singleton, 1982

∗ ; Tau hen, 1986

Though GMM estimation has many appli ations, appli ation to rational expe tations models is elegant, sin e theory dire tly suggests the moment onditions. Hansen and Singleton's 1982 paper is also a lassi worth studying in itself. Though I strongly re ommend reading the paper, I'll use a simplied model with similar notation to Hamilton's. We assume a representative onsumer maximizes expe ted dis ounted utility over an innite horizon. Utility is temporally additive, and the expe ted utility hypothesis holds. The future onsumption stream is the sto hasti sequen e

t

is the dis ounted expe ted utility

∞ X s=0



The parameter

• It

is the

indexed

• •

β

The obje tive fun tion at time

β s E (u(ct+s )|It ) .

(15.10)

is between 0 and 1, and ree ts dis ounting.

information set t

{ct }∞ t=0 .

at time

t,

and in ludes the all realizations of random variables

and earlier.

The hoi e variable is

ct

equal to urrent wealth

- urrent onsumption, whi h is onstained to be less than or

wt .

Suppose the onsumer an invest in a risky asset. A dollar invested in the asset yields a gross return

(1 + rt+1 ) = where

pt

is the pri e and

dt

pt+1 + dt+1 pt

is the dividend in period

t.

The pri e of

ct

is normalized to

1. •

Current wealth

wt = (1 + rt )it−1 ,

where

it−1

is investment in period

t − 1.

So the

problem is to allo ate urrent wealth between urrent onsumption and investment to nan e future onsumption:

wt = ct + it .

244

CHAPTER 15.



Future net rates of return

rt+s , s > 0

are

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

not known

in period

t:

the asset is risky.

A partial set of ne essary onditions for utility maximization have the form:

 u′ (ct ) = βE (1 + rt+1 ) u′ (ct+1 )|It .

(15.11)

To see that the ondition is ne essary, suppose that the lhs < rhs.

Then by redu ing ur-

rent onsumption marginally would ause equation 15.10 to drop by

u′ (ct ),

sin e there is no

dis ounting of the urrent period. At the same time, the marginal redu tion in onsumption nan es investment, whi h has gross return period by

t + 1.

(1 + rt+1 ) ,

whi h ould nan e onsumption in

This in rease in onsumption would ause the obje tive fun tion to in rease

βE {(1 + rt+1 ) u′ (ct+1 )|It } .

Therefore, unless the ondition holds, the expe ted dis ounted

utility fun tion is not maximized.



To use this we need to hoose the fun tional form of utility. aversion form is

u(ct ) = where

γ

A onstant relative risk

c1−γ −1 t 1−γ

is the oe ient of relative risk aversion. With this form,

u′ (ct ) = c−γ t so the fo are

o n −γ c−γ t = βE (1 + rt+1 ) ct+1 |It

While it is true that

 n o E ct−γ − β (1 + rt+1 ) c−γ |It = 0 t+1

so that we ould use this to dene moment onditions, it is unlikely that

ct

is stationary, even

though it is in real terms, and our theory requires stationarity. To solve this, divide though by

c−γ t E

(note that

ct

1-β

(

(1 + rt+1 )



ct+1 ct

−γ )!

|It = 0

an be passed though the onditional expe tation sin e

upon information available in time

1-β

ht (θ) dened above:

(

(1 + rt+1 )



ct+1 ct

It .

−γ )

it's a s alar moment ondition. To get a ve tor of moment

onditions we need some instruments. Suppose that information set

is hosen based only

t).

Now

is analogous to

ct

zt

is a ve tor of variables drawn from the

We an use the ne essary onditions to form the expressions



1 − β (1 + rt+1 )



ct+1 ct

−γ 

zt ≡ mt (θ)

15.13.

• θ •

245

EMPIRICAL EXAMPLE: A PORTFOLIO MODEL

represents

β

and

γ.

Therefore, the above expression may be interpreted as a moment ondition whi h an be used for GMM estimation of the parameters

Note that at time

t, mt−s

θ0.

has been observed, and is therefore an element of the information

set. By rational expe tations, the auto ovarian es of the moment onditions other than

Γ0

should be zero. The optimal weighting matrix is therefore the inverse of the varian e of the moment onditions:

  Ω∞ = lim E nm(θ 0 )m(θ 0 )′

whi h an be onsistently estimated by

ˆ = 1/n Ω

n X

ˆ t (θ) ˆ′ mt (θ)m

t=1

As before, this estimate depends on an initial onsistent estimate of by setting the weighting matrix obtaining

ˆ θ,

W

θ,

whi h an be obtained

arbitrarily (to an identity matrix, for example).

After

we then minimize

ˆ −1 m(θ). s(θ) = m(θ)′ Ω This pro ess an be iterated, e.g., use the new estimate to re-estimate

Ω,

use this to estimate

θ 0 , and repeat until the estimates don't hange. •

In prin iple, we ould use a very large number of moment onditions in estimation, sin e

any urrent or lagged variable

ould be used in

xt . Sin e

use of more moment onditions

will lead to a more (asymptoti ally) e ient estimator, one might be tempted to use many instrumental variables. We will do a omputer lab that will show that this may not be a good idea with nite samples. This issue has been studied using Monte Carlos (Tau hen,

JBES, 1986).

is that the estimate of





The reason for poor performan e when using many instruments be omes very impre ise.

Empiri al papers that use this approa h often have serious problems in obtaining pre ise estimates of the parameters. Note that we are basing everything on a single parial rst order ondition. Probably this f.o. . is simply not informative enough. Simulation-based estimation methods (dis ussed below) are one means of trying to use more informative moment onditions to estimate this sort of model.

15.13 Empiri al example: a portfolio model The O tave program portfolio.m performs GMM estimation of a portfolio model, using the data le tau hen.data. The olumns of this data le are 95 observations (sour e: Tau hen,

JBES,

c, p,

and

d

in that order. There are

1986). As instruments we use lags of

well as a onstant. For a single lag the estimation results are

c

and

r,

as

246

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

MPITB extensions found

****************************************************** Example of GMM estimation of rational expe tations model GMM Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Obje tive fun tion value: 0.000014 Observations: 94

X^2 test

Value 0.001

df 1.000

p-value 0.971

estimate st. err t-stat p-value beta 0.915 0.009 97.271 0.000 gamma 0.569 0.319 1.783 0.075 ****************************************************** For two lags the estimation results are

MPITB extensions found

****************************************************** Example of GMM estimation of rational expe tations model GMM Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Obje tive fun tion value: 0.037882 Observations: 93

X^2 test

Value 3.523

df 3.000

p-value 0.318

estimate st. err t-stat p-value beta 0.857 0.024 35.636 0.000 gamma -2.351 0.315 -7.462 0.000 ******************************************************

15.13.

EMPIRICAL EXAMPLE: A PORTFOLIO MODEL

Pretty learly, the results are sensitive to the hoi e of instruments.

247

Maybe there is some

problem here: poor instruments, or possibly a onditional moment that is not very informative. Moment onditions formed from Euler onditions sometimes do not identify the parameter of a model. See Hansen, Heaton and Yarron, (1996) haven't he ked it arefully)?

JBES

V14, N3. Is that a problem here, (I

248

CHAPTER 15.

GENERALIZED METHOD OF MOMENTS

15.14 Exer ises 1. Show how to ast the generalized IV estimator presented in se tion 11.4 as a GMM estimator. Identify what are the moment onditions, matrix

Dn ,

mt (θ),

what is the form of the the

what is the e ient weight matrix, and show that the ovarian e matrix

formula given previously orresponds to the GMM ovarian e matrix formula. 2. The O tave s ript meps.m estimates a model for o e-based do tpr visits (OBDV) using two dierent moment onditions, a Poisson QML approa h and an IV approa h. If all

onditioning variables are exogenous, both approa hes should be onsistent. If the PRIV variable is endogenous, only the IV approa h should be onsistent. Neither of the two estimators is e ient in any ase, sin e we already know that this data exhibits variability that ex eeds what is implied by the Poisson model (e.g., negative binomial and other models t mu h better). Test the exogeneity of the variable PRIV with a GMM-based Hausman-type test, using the O tave s ript hausman.m for hints about how to set up the test. 3. Using O tave, generate data from the logit dgp. prove quite helpful. Re all that

E(yt |xt ) = p(xt , θ) = [1 + exp(−xt ′θ)]−1 .

moment ondtions (exa tly identied)

(a) Estimate by GMM (using (b) Estimate by ML (using

The s ript EstimateLogit.m should Consider the

mt (θ) = [yt − p(xt , θ)]xt

gmm_results),

using these moments.

mle_results).

( ) The two estimators should oin ide. Prove analyti ally that the estimators oi ide.

4. Verify the missing steps needed to show that

ˆ ′Ω ˆ ˆ −1 m(θ) n · m(θ)

has a

χ2 (g − K)

dis-

tribution. That is, show that the monster matrix is idempotent and has tra e equal to

g − K. 5. For the portfolio example, experiment with the program using lags of 3 and 4 periods to dene instruments

(a) Iterate the estimation of

θ = (β, γ)

and



to onvergen e.

(b) Comment on the results. Are the results sensitive to the set of instruments used? Look at

ˆ Ω

as well as

ˆ θ.

Are these good instruments? Are the instruments highly

orrelated with one another? Is there something analogous to ollinearity going on here?

Chapter 16 Quasi-ML Quasi-ML is the estimator one obtains when a misspe ied probability model is used to al ulate an ML estimator. Given a sample of size

n

suppose the joint density of

of a random ve tor

Y=

member of the parametri family the ve tor

ρ0 :



y

and a ve tor of onditioning variables





y1 . . . yn onditional on X = x1 . . . xn pY (Y|X, ρ), ρ ∈ Ξ. The true joint density is asso iated

x,

is a

with

pY (Y|X, ρ0 ). X

As long as the marginal density of

doesn't depend on

ρ0 ,

this onditional density fully

hara terizes the random hara teristi s of samples: i.e., it fully des ribes the probabilisti ally

likelihood fun tion

important features of the d.g.p. The values



ρ

Let

Yt−1 =



L(Y|X, ρ) = pY (Y|X, ρ), ρ ∈ Ξ. y1 . . . yt−1



,

Y0 = 0,

and let

Xt =





The likelihood

pt (ρ).

Mistakenly, we

x1 . . . xt

fun tion, taking into a

ount possible dependen e of observations, an be written as

L(Y|X, ρ) = ≡ •

is just this density evaluated at other

n Y

t=1 n Y

pt (yt |Yt−1 , Xt , ρ) pt (ρ)

t=1

The average log-likelihood fun tion is:

n

1 1X sn (ρ) = ln L(Y|X, ρ) = ln pt (ρ) n n t=1



Suppose that we do not have knowledge of the family of densities may assume that the onditional density of

θ ∈ Θ,

0 where there is no θ su h that

yt is a member of the family ft (yt |Yt−1 , Xt , θ),

ft (yt |Yt−1 , Xt , θ 0 ) = pt (yt |Yt−1 , Xt , ρ0 ), ∀t 249

(this

250

CHAPTER 16.

QUASI-ML

is what we mean by misspe ied).



This setup allows for heterogeneous time series data, with dynami misspe i ation.

The QML estimator is the argument that maximizes the

misspe ied average log likelihood,

whi h we refer to as the quasi-log likelihood fun tion. This obje tive fun tion is

n

1X ln ft (yt |Yt−1 , Xt , θ 0 ) n t=1

sn (θ) =

n

1X ln ft (θ) n



t=1

and the QML is

θˆn = arg max sn (θ) Θ

A SLLN for dependent sequen es applies (we assume), so that

n

1X ln ft (θ) ≡ s∞ (θ) sn (θ) → lim E n→∞ n t=1 a.s.

We assume that this an be strengthened to uniform onvergen e, a.s., following the previous arguments. The pseudo-true value of

θ

is the value that maximizes

s¯(θ):

θ 0 = arg max s∞ (θ) Θ

Given assumptions so that theorem 19 is appli able, we obtain

lim θˆn = θ 0 , a.s.

n→∞



Applying the asymptoti normality theorem,

   √  d n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, J∞ (θ 0 )−1 I∞ (θ 0 )J∞ (θ 0 )−1

where

J∞ (θ 0 ) = lim EDθ2 sn (θ 0 ) n→∞

and

√ I∞ (θ 0 ) = lim V ar nDθ sn (θ 0 ). n→∞



Note that asymptoti normality only requires that the additional assumptions regarding

J

and

I

hold in a neighborhood of

θ0

for

J

and at

sense, asymptoti normality is a lo al property.

θ0,

for

I,

not throughout

Θ.

In this

16.1.

251

CONSISTENT ESTIMATION OF VARIANCE COMPONENTS

16.1 Consistent Estimation of Varian e Components Consistent estimation of that

J∞ (θ 0 )

is straightforward.

n

Assumption (b) of Theorem 22 implies

n

1X 2 1X 2 a.s. Dθ ln ft (θˆn ) → lim E Dθ ln ft (θ 0 ) = J∞ (θ 0 ). Jn (θˆn ) = n→∞ n n t=1 t=1

That is, just al ulate the Hessian using the estimate Consistent estimation of

• Notation:

Let

I∞ (θ 0 )

θˆn

in pla e of

θ0.

is more di ult, and may be impossible.

gt ≡ Dθ ft (θ 0 )

We need to estimate

I∞ (θ 0 ) =

√ lim V ar nDθ sn (θ 0 )

n→∞

n √ 1X Dθ ln ft (θ 0 ) = lim V ar n n→∞ n t=1

n X

1 gt V ar n t=1 ( n ! n !′ ) X X 1 = lim E (gt − Egt ) (gt − Egt ) n→∞ n t=1 t=1 =

lim

n→∞

This is going to ontain a term

n

1X (Egt ) (Egt )′ n→∞ n t=1 lim

whi h will not tend to zero, in general.

This term is not onsistently estimable in general,

sin e it requires al ulating an expe tation using the true density under the d.g.p., whi h is unknown.



There are important ases where

I∞ (θ 0 ) is

that the data ome from a random sample (

onsistently estimable. For example, suppose

i.e., they are iid).

This would be the ase with

ross se tional data, for example. (Note: under i.i.d. sampling, the joint distribution of

(yt , xt ) is identi al. •

This does not imply that the onditional density

f (yt|xt ) is identi al).

With random sampling, the limiting obje tive fun tion is simply

s∞ (θ 0 ) = EX E0 ln f (y|x, θ 0 ) where

E0

density of



means expe tation of

x.

y|x

and

EX

means expe tation respe t to the marginal

By the requirement that the limiting obje tive fun tion be maximized at

Dθ EX E0 ln f (y|x, θ 0 ) = Dθ s∞ (θ 0 ) = 0

θ0

we have

252

CHAPTER 16.



QUASI-ML

The dominated onvergen e theorem allows swit hing the order of expe tation and differentiation, so

Dθ EX E0 ln f (y|x, θ 0 ) = EX E0 Dθ ln f (y|x, θ 0 ) = 0 The CLT implies that

n

1 X d √ Dθ ln f (y|x, θ 0 ) → N (0, I∞ (θ 0 )). n t=1 That is, it's not ne essary to subtra t the individual means, sin e they are zero. Given this, and due to independent observations, a onsistent estimator is

n

1X ˆ ˆ θ′ ln ft (θ) Dθ ln ft (θ)D Ib = n t=1

This is an important ase where onsistent estimation of the ovarian e matrix is possible. Other ases exist, even for dynami ally misspe ied time series models.

16.2 Example: the MEPS Data To he k the plausibility of the Poisson model for the MEPS data, we an ompare the sample un onditional varian e with the estimated un onditional varian e a

ording to the Poisson model:

V[ (y) =

Pn

t=1

n

ˆt λ

. Using the program PoissonVarian e.m, for OBDV and ERV, we get

Table 16.1: Marginal Varian es, Sample and Estimated (Poisson) OBDV

ERV

Sample

38.09

0.151

Estimated

3.28

0.086

We see that even after onditioning, the overdispersion is not aptured in either ase. There is huge problem with OBDV, and a signi ant problem with ERV. In both ases the Poisson model does not appear to be plausible. You an he k this for the other use measures if you like.

16.2.1 Innite mixture models: the negative binomial model Referen e: Cameron and Trivedi (1998)

Regression analysis of ount data, hapter 4.

The two measures seem to exhibit extra-Poisson variation. To apture unobserved heterogeneity, a possibility is the

random parameters

approa h.

Consider the possibility that the

16.2.

253

EXAMPLE: THE MEPS DATA

onstant term in a Poisson model were random:

exp(−θ)θ y y! θ = exp(x′β + ε)

fY (y|x, ε) =

= exp(x′β) exp(ε) = λν where

λ = exp(x′β )

and

ν = exp(ε).

problem is that we don't observe

ν,

Now

an

aptures the randomness in the onstant. The

so we will need to marginalize it to get a usable density

fY (y|x) = This density

ν

Z

∞ −∞

exp[−θ]θ y fv (z)dz y!

be used dire tly, perhaps using numeri al integration to evaluate the likeli-

hood fun tion. In some ases, though, the integral will have an analyti solution. For example, if

ν

follows a ertain one parameter gamma density, then

Γ(y + ψ) fY (y|x, φ) = Γ(y + 1)Γ(ψ) where

φ = (λ, ψ). ψ

For this density,



The varian e depends upon how

If

ψ ψ+λ

ψ 

λ ψ+λ

y

(16.1)

appears sin e it is the parameter of the gamma density.







ψ = λ/α,

E(y|x) = λ,

where

whi h we have parameterized

α > 0,

ψ

λ = exp(x′ β)

is parameterized.

then

V (y|x) = λ + αλ.

Note that

λ

is a fun tion of

x,

so

that the varian e is too. This is referred to as the NB-I model.



If

ψ = 1/α,

where

α > 0,

then

V (y|x) = λ + αλ2 .

This is referred to as the NB-II

model.

So both forms of the NB model allow for overdispersion, with the NB-II model allowing for a more radi al form. Testing redu tion of a NB model to a Poisson model annot be done by testing

α = 0

using standard Wald or LR pro edures. The riti al values need to be adjusted to a

ount for the fa t that

α=0

is on the boundary of the parameter spa e. Without getting into details,

suppose that the data were in fa t Poisson, so there is equidispersion and the true

α = 0.

Then about half the time the sample data will be underdispersed, and about half the time overdispersed. When the data is underdispersed, the MLE of

α

α ˆ = 0. Thus, under p √ n(ˆ α − α) = nα ˆ of

will be

the null, there will be a probability spike in the asymptoti distribution at 0, so standard testing methods will not be valid.

This program will do estimation using the NB model. Note how modelargs is used to sele t a NB-I or NB-II density. Here are NB-I estimation results for OBDV:

254

CHAPTER 16.

MPITB extensions found OBDV ====================================================== BFGSMIN final results Used analyti gradient -----------------------------------------------------STRONG CONVERGENCE Fun tion onv 1 Param onv 1 Gradient onv 1 -----------------------------------------------------Obje tive fun tion value 2.18573 Stepsize 0.0007 17 iterations -----------------------------------------------------param 1.0965 0.2551 0.2024 0.2289 0.1969 0.0769 0.0000 1.7146

gradient 0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0000

hange -0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0000 0.0000 0.0000

****************************************************** Negative Binomial model, MEPS 1996 full data set MLE Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Average Log-L: -2.185730 Observations: 4564

onstant pub. ins. priv. ins. sex age edu in alpha

estimate -0.523 0.765 0.451 0.458 0.016 0.027 0.000 5.555

Information Criteria CAIC : 20026.7513

st. err 0.104 0.054 0.049 0.034 0.001 0.007 0.000 0.296 Avg. CAIC:

t-stat -5.005 14.198 9.196 13.512 11.869 3.979 0.000 18.752 4.3880

p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 1.000 0.000

QUASI-ML

16.2.

255

EXAMPLE: THE MEPS DATA

BIC : 20018.7513 Avg. BIC: 4.3862 AIC : 19967.3437 Avg. AIC: 4.3750 ******************************************************

Note that the parameter values of the last BFGS iteration are dierent that those reported in the nal results.

This ree ts two things - rst, the data were s aled before doing the

BFGS minimization, but the

mle_results

results using the original s aling. enfor e the restri tion that

α>

s ript takes this into a

ount and reports the

But also, the parameterization

0. The unrestri ted parameter α∗

α = exp(α∗ ) = log α

is used to

is used to dene

the log-likelihood fun tion, sin e the BFGS minimization algorithm does not do ontrained minimization. To get the standard error and t-statisti of the estimate of delta method. This is done inside

mle_results,

making use of the fun tion parameterize.m .

Likewise, here are NB-II results:

MPITB extensions found OBDV ====================================================== BFGSMIN final results Used analyti gradient -----------------------------------------------------STRONG CONVERGENCE Fun tion onv 1 Param onv 1 Gradient onv 1 -----------------------------------------------------Obje tive fun tion value 2.18496 Stepsize 0.0104394 13 iterations -----------------------------------------------------param 1.0375 0.3673 0.2136 0.2816 0.3027 0.0843 -0.0048 0.4780

gradient 0.0000 -0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 -0.0000 0.0000 -0.0000

α, we need to use the

hange -0.0000 0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 -0.0000 0.0000

****************************************************** Negative Binomial model, MEPS 1996 full data set

256

CHAPTER 16.

QUASI-ML

MLE Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Average Log-L: -2.184962 Observations: 4564 estimate -1.068 1.101 0.476 0.564 0.025 0.029 -0.000 1.613

onstant pub. ins. priv. ins. sex age edu in alpha

st. err 0.161 0.095 0.081 0.050 0.002 0.009 0.000 0.055

t-stat -6.622 11.611 5.880 11.166 12.240 3.106 -0.176 29.099

p-value 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.002 0.861 0.000

Information Criteria CAIC : 20019.7439 Avg. CAIC: 4.3864 BIC : 20011.7439 Avg. BIC: 4.3847 AIC : 19960.3362 Avg. AIC: 4.3734 ******************************************************



For the OBDV usage measurel, the NB-II model does a slightly better job than the NB-I model, in terms of the average log-likelihood and the information riteria (more on this last in a moment).





Note that both versions of the NB model t mu h better than does the Poisson model (see 13.4.2).

The estimated

α

is highly signi ant.

To he k the plausibility of the NB-II model, we an ompare the sample un onditional varian e with the estimated un onditional varian e a

ording to the NB-II model:

Pn

V[ (y) =

ˆ t )2 ˆ ˆ (λ t=1 λt +α . For OBDV and ERV (estimation results not reported), we get For OBDV, the n

Table 16.2: Marginal Varian es, Sample and Estimated (NB-II) OBDV

ERV

Sample

38.09

0.151

Estimated

30.58

0.182

overdispersion problem is signi antly better than in the Poisson ase, but there is still some that is not aptured. For ERV, the negative binomial model seems to apture the overdispersion adequately.

16.2.

257

EXAMPLE: THE MEPS DATA

16.2.2 Finite mixture models: the mixed negative binomial model The nite mixture approa h to tting health are demand was introdu ed by Deb and Trivedi (1997). The mixture approa h has the intuitive appeal of allowing for subgroups of the population with dierent health status. If individuals are lassied as healthy or unhealthy then two subgroups are dened. A ner lassi ation s heme would lead to more subgroups. Many studies have in orporated obje tive and/or subje tive indi ators of health status in an eort to apture this heterogeneity. The available obje tive measures, su h as limitations on a tivity, are not ne essarily very informative about a person's overall health status.

Subje tive,

self-reported measures may suer from the same problem, and may also not be exogenous Finite mixture models are on eptually simple. The density is

fY (y, φ1 , ..., φp , π1 , ..., πp−1 ) =

p−1 X

(i)

πi fY (y, φi ) + πp fYp (y, φp ),

i=1

where the

πi

πi > 0, i = 1, 2, ..., p, πp = 1 −

Pp−1 i=1

πi ,

are ordered in some way, for example,

and

Pp

i=1 πi

= 1.

π1 ≥ π2 ≥ · · · ≥ πp

Identi ation requires that and

φi 6= φj , i 6= j .

This is

simple to a

omplish post-estimation by rearrangement and possible elimination of redundant

omponent densities.



The properties of the mixture density follow in a straightforward way from those of the

omponents. In parti ular, the moment generating fun tion is the same mixture of the moment generating fun tions of the omponent densities, so, for example,

Pp

i=1 πi µi (x), where



µi (x)

is the mean of the

ith

omponent density.

E(Y |x) =

Mixture densities may suer from overparameterization, sin e the total number of parameters grows rapidly with the number of omponent densities. It is possible to onstrained parameters a ross the mixtures.



Testing for the number of omponent densities is a tri ky issue. For example, testing for

p=1

(a single omponent, whi h is to say, no mixture) versus

omponents) involves the restri tion spa e.

π1 = 1,

Not that when

π1 = 1,

p=2

(a mixture of two

whi h is on the boundary of the parameter

the parameters of the se ond omponent an take on

any value without ae ting the density. Usual methods su h as the likelihood ratio test are not appli able when parameters are on the boundary under the null hypothesis. Information riteria means of hoosing the model (see below) are valid. The following results are for a mixture of 2 NB-II models, for the OBDV data, whi h you an repli ate using this program .

OBDV ******************************************************

258

CHAPTER 16.

QUASI-ML

Mixed Negative Binomial model, MEPS 1996 full data set MLE Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Average Log-L: -2.164783 Observations: 4564

onstant pub. ins. priv. ins. sex age edu in alpha

onstant pub. ins. priv. ins. sex age edu in alpha Mix

estimate 0.127 0.861 0.146 0.346 0.024 0.025 -0.000 1.351 0.525 0.422 0.377 0.400 0.296 0.111 0.014 1.034 0.257

st. err 0.512 0.174 0.193 0.115 0.004 0.016 0.000 0.168 0.196 0.048 0.087 0.059 0.036 0.042 0.051 0.187 0.162

t-stat 0.247 4.962 0.755 3.017 6.117 1.590 -0.214 8.061 2.678 8.752 4.349 6.773 8.178 2.634 0.274 5.518 1.582

p-value 0.805 0.000 0.450 0.003 0.000 0.112 0.831 0.000 0.007 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.008 0.784 0.000 0.114

Information Criteria CAIC : 19920.3807 Avg. CAIC: 4.3647 BIC : 19903.3807 Avg. BIC: 4.3610 AIC : 19794.1395 Avg. AIC: 4.3370 ******************************************************

It is worth noting that the mixture parameter is not signi antly dierent from zero, but also not that the oe ients of publi insuran e and age, for example, dier quite a bit between the two latent lasses.

16.2.3 Information riteria As seen above, a Poisson model an't be tested (using standard methods) as a restri tion of a negative binomial model. But it seems, based upon the values of the likelihood fun tions and the fa t that the NB model ts the varian e mu h better, that the NB model is more appropriate. How an we determine whi h of a set of ompeting models is the best? The information riteria approa h is one possibility. Information riteria are fun tions of the log-likelihood, with a penalty for the number of parameters used. Three popular information riteria are the Akaike (AIC), Bayes (BIC) and onsistent Akaike (CAIC). The formulae

16.2.

259

EXAMPLE: THE MEPS DATA

are

ˆ + k(ln n + 1) CAIC = −2 ln L(θ) ˆ + k ln n BIC = −2 ln L(θ) ˆ + 2k AIC = −2 ln L(θ)

It an be shown that the CAIC and BIC will sele t the orre tly spe ied model from a group of models, asymptoti ally. This doesn't mean, of ourse, that the orre t model is ne esarily in the group. The AIC is not onsistent, and will asymptoti ally favor an over-parameterized model over the orre tly spe ied model. Here are information riteria values for the models we've seen, for OBDV. Pretty learly, the NB models are better than the Poisson. The one

Table 16.3: Information Criteria, OBDV Model

AIC

BIC

CAIC

Poisson

7.345

7.355

7.357

NB-I

4.375

4.386

4.388

NB-II

4.373

4.385

4.386

MNB-II

4.337

4.361

4.365

additional parameter gives a very signi ant improvement in the likelihood fun tion value. Between the NB-I and NB-II models, the NB-II is slightly favored. But one should remember that information riteria values are statisti s, with varian es. With another sample, it may well be that the NB-I model would be favored, sin e the dieren es are so small. The MNB-II model is favored over the others, by all 3 information riteria. Why is all of this in the hapter on QML? Let's suppose that the orre t model for OBDV is in fa t the NB-II model. It turns out in this ase that the Poisson model will give onsistent estimates of the slope parameters (if a model is a member of the linear-exponential family and the onditional mean is orre tly spe ied, then the parameters of the onditional mean will be onsistently estimated).

So the Poisson estimator would be a QML estimator that

is onsistent for some parameters of the true model. The ordinary OPG or inverse Hessian ML ovarian e estimators are however biased and in onsistent, sin e the information matrix equality does not hold for QML estimators. But for i.i.d. data (whi h is the ase for the MEPS data) the QML asymptoti ovarian e an be onsistently estimated, as dis ussed above, using the sandwi h form for the ML estimator.

mle_results in fa t reports sandwi h results, so the

Poisson estimation results would be reliable for inferen e even if the true model is the NB-I or NB-II. Not that they are in fa t similar to the results for the NB models. However, if we assume that the orre t model is the MNB-II model, as is favored by the information riteria, then both the Poisson and NB-x models will have misspe ied mean fun tions, so the parameters that inuen e the means would be estimated with bias and in onsistently.

260

CHAPTER 16.

QUASI-ML

16.3 Exer ises 1. Considering the MEPS data (the des ription is in Se tion 13.4.2), for the OBDV (y ) measure, let

η

be a latent index of health status that has expe tation equal to unity.

We suspe t that

η

and

P RIV

may be orrelated, but we assume that

η

1

is un orrelated

with the other regressors. We assume that

E(y|P U B, P RIV, AGE, EDU C, IN C, η) = exp(β1 + β2 P U B + β3 P RIV + β4 AGE + β5 EDU C + β6 IN C)η. We use the Poisson QML estimator of the model

y ∼

Poisson(λ)

λ = exp(β1 + β2 P U B + β3 P RIV +

(16.2)

β4 AGE + β5 EDU C + β6 IN C). 2

Sin e mu h previous eviden e indi ates that health are servi es usage is overdispersed , this is almost ertainly not an ML estimator, and thus is not e ient. However, when and

P RIV

are un orrelated, this estimator is onsistent for the

onditional mean is orre tly spe ied in that ase. When

η

βi

and

η

parameters, sin e the

P RIV

are orrelated,

Mullahy's (1997) NLIV estimator that uses the residual fun tion

ε= where

λ

y − 1, λ

is dened in equation 16.2, with appropriate instruments, is onsistent.

instruments we use all the exogenous regressors, as well as the ross produ ts of with the variables in

Z = {AGE, EDU C, IN C}.

As

PUB

That is, the full set of instruments is

W = {1 P U B Z P U B × Z }. (a) Cal ulate the Poisson QML estimates. (b) Cal ulate the generalized IV estimates (do it using a GMM formulation - see the portfolio example for hints how to do this). ( ) Cal ulate the Hausman test statisti to test the exogeneity of PRIV. (d) omment on the results

1 2

A restri tion of this sort is ne essary for identi ation. Overdispersion exists when the onditional varian e is greater than the onditional mean. If this is the

ase, the Poisson spe i ation is not orre t.

Chapter 17 Nonlinear least squares (NLS) Readings:

∗ and 5∗ ; Gallant, Ch. 1

Davidson and Ma Kinnon, Ch. 2

17.1 Introdu tion and denition Nonlinear least squares (NLS) is a means of estimating the parameter of the model

yt = f (xt , θ 0 ) + εt . •

In general,

εt

will be heteros edasti and auto orrelated, and possibly nonnormally dis-

tributed. However, dealing with this is exa tly as in the ase of linear models, so we'll just treat the iid ase here,

εt ∼ iid(0, σ 2 ) If we sta k the observations verti ally, dening

y = (y1 , y2 , ..., yn )′ f = (f (x1 , θ), f (x1 , θ), ..., f (x1 , θ))′ and

ε = (ε1 , ε2 , ..., εn )′ we an write the

n

observations as

y = f (θ) + ε Using this notation, the NLS estimator an be dened as

1 1 θˆ ≡ arg min sn (θ) = [y − f (θ)]′ [y − f (θ)] = k y − f (θ) k2 Θ n n •

The estimator minimizes the weighted sum of squared errors, whi h is the same as minimizing the Eu lidean distan e between

The obje tive fun tion an be written as

261

y

and

f (θ).

262

CHAPTER 17.

sn (θ) =

NONLINEAR LEAST SQUARES (NLS)

 1 ′ y y − 2y′ f (θ) + f (θ)′ f (θ) , n

whi h gives the rst order onditions

− Dene the

n×K

In shorthand, use



   ∂ ˆ′ ∂ ˆ′ ˆ ≡ 0. f (θ) y + f (θ) f (θ) ∂θ ∂θ

matrix

ˆ ˆ ≡ Dθ′ f (θ). F(θ) ˆ F

in pla e of

ˆ F(θ).

(17.1)

Using this, the rst order onditions an be written as

ˆ ≡ 0, ˆ ′y + F ˆ ′ f (θ) −F or

h i ˆ ≡ 0. ˆ ′ y − f (θ) F

(17.2)

This bears a good deal of similarity to the f.o. . for the linear model - the derivative of the predi tion is orthogonal to the predi tion error. If

ˆ is simply X, so the f.o. . f (θ) = Xθ, then F

(with spheri al errors) simplify to

X′ y − X′ Xβ = 0, the usual 0LS f.o. .

INSERT drawings of geometri al depi tion of OLS and NLS (see Davidson and Ma Kinnon, pgs. 8,13 and 46). We an interpret this geometri ally:



Note that the nonlinearity of the manifold leads to potential multiple lo al maxima, minima and saddlepoints: the obje tive fun tion

sn (θ)

is not ne essarily well-behaved

and may be di ult to minimize.

17.2 Identi ation As before, identi ation an be onsidered onditional on the sample, and asymptoti ally. The

sn (θ) tend to a limiting fun tion s∞ (θ) su h 0 θ . This will be the ase if s∞ (θ 0 ) is stri tly onvex at θ 0 , whi h

ondition for asymptoti identi ation is that that

s∞

(θ 0 )

< s∞ (θ), ∀θ 6=

17.2.

263

IDENTIFICATION

requires that

Dθ2 s∞ (θ 0 )

be positive denite. Consider the obje tive fun tion:

n

sn (θ) =

1X [yt − f (xt , θ)]2 n t=1

= =

n 2 1 X f (xt , θ 0 ) + εt − ft (xt , θ) n t=1

n n 2 1 X 1 X (εt )2 ft (θ 0 ) − ft (θ) + n n t=1

− •

t=1

n  2 X ft (θ 0 ) − ft (θ) εt n t=1

As in example 14.4, whi h illustrated the onsisten y of extremum estimators using OLS, we on lude that the se ond term will onverge to a onstant whi h does not depend upon

θ.



A LLN an be applied to the third term to on lude that it onverges pointwise to 0, as



Next, pointwise onvergen e needs to be stregnthened to uniform almost sure onver-

long as

f (θ) and ε

gen e.

are un orrelated.

There are a number of possible assumptions one ould use.

Here, we'll just

assume it holds.



Turning to the rst term, we'll assume a pointwise law of large numbers applies, so

n 2 a.s. 1 X ft (θ 0 ) − ft (θ) → n t=1 where

µ(x)

is the distribution fun tion of

and ontinuous, for all immediate.

Z

θ ∈ Θ,

For example if



2 f (z, θ 0 ) − f (z, θ) dµ(z),

x.

In many ases,

f (x, θ)

will

(17.3)

be bounded

so strengthening to uniform almost sure onvergen e is

f (x, θ) = [1 + exp(−xθ)]−1 , f : ℜK → (0, 1) ,

range, and the fun tion is ontinuous in

a bounded

θ.

Given these results, it is lear that a minimizer is

θ0.

When onsidering identi ation (asymp-

toti ), the question is whether or not there may be some other minimizer. A lo al ondition for identi ation is that

∂2 ∂2 s (θ) = ∞ ∂θ∂θ ′ ∂θ∂θ ′ be positive denite at

∂2 ∂θ∂θ ′

Z



θ0.

Z



2 f (x, θ 0 ) − f (x, θ) dµ(x)

Evaluating this derivative, we obtain (after a little work)

2 f (x, θ ) − f (x, θ) dµ(x) 0

=2 θ0

Z



Dθ f (z, θ 0 )′



′ Dθ′ f (z, θ 0 ) dµ(z)

264

CHAPTER 17.

NONLINEAR LEAST SQUARES (NLS)

the expe tation of the outer produ t of the gradient of the regression fun tion evaluated at

θ0.

(Note: the uniform boundedness we have already assumed allows passing the derivative

through the integral, by the dominated onvergen e theorem.)

This matrix will be positive

denite (wp1) as long as the gradient ve tor is of full rank (wp1). The tangent spa e to the regression manifold must span a

K

-dimensional spa e if we are to onsistently estimate a

K

-dimensional parameter ve tor. This is analogous to the requirement that there be no perfe t

olinearity in a linear model. This is a ne essary ondition for identi ation. Note that the LLN implies that the above expe tation is equal to

J∞ (θ 0 ) = 2 lim E

F′ F n

17.3 Consisten y We simply assume that the onditions of Theorem 19 hold, so the estimator is onsistent. Given that the strong sto hasti equi ontinuity onditions hold, as dis ussed above, and given the above identi ation onditions an a ompa t estimation spa e (the losure of the parameter spa e

Θ),

the onsisten y proof 's assumptions are satised.

17.4 Asymptoti normality As in the ase of GMM, we also simply assume that the onditions for asymptoti normality as in Theorem 22 hold. The only remaining problem is to determine the form of the asymptoti varian e- ovarian e matrix. Re all that the result of the asymptoti normality theorem is

where

J∞ (θ 0 )

   √  d n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, J∞ (θ 0 )−1 I∞ (θ 0 )J∞ (θ 0 )−1 , is the almost sure limit of

∂2 ∂θ∂θ ′ sn (θ) evaluated at

θ0,

and

√ I∞ (θ 0 ) = lim V ar nDθ sn (θ 0 ) The obje tive fun tion is

n

sn (θ) = So

n

Dθ sn (θ) = − Evaluating at

1X [yt − f (xt , θ)]2 n t=1

θ0,

2X [yt − f (xt , θ)] Dθ f (xt , θ). n t=1 n

2X Dθ sn (θ ) = − εt Dθ f (xt , θ 0 ). n t=1 0

Note that the expe tation of this is zero, sin e

ǫt

and

xt

are assumed to be un orrelated. So

to al ulate the varian e, we an simply al ulate the se ond moment about zero. Also note

17.5.

265

EXAMPLE: THE POISSON MODEL FOR COUNT DATA

that

n X

εt Dθ f (xt , θ 0 ) =

t=1

∂  0 ′ f (θ ) ε ∂θ

= F′ ε

With this we obtain

√ I∞ (θ 0 ) = lim V ar nDθ sn (θ 0 ) 4 = lim nE 2 F′ εε' F n F′ F = 4σ 2 lim E n We've already seen that

J∞ (θ 0 ) = 2 lim E

F′ F , n

where the expe tation is with respe t to the joint density of

J∞ (θ 0 )

pressions for get

and

I∞ (θ 0 ),

x

and

ε.

Combining these ex-

and the result of the asymptoti normality theorem, we

 √  d n θˆ − θ 0 → N



F′ F 0, lim E n

−1

σ

2

!

.

We an onsistently estimate the varian e ovarian e matrix using

ˆ ′F ˆ F n where

ˆ F

!−1

σ ˆ2,

(17.4)

is dened as in equation 17.1 and

σ ˆ2 =

h

i′ h i ˆ ˆ y − f (θ) y − f (θ) n

,

the obvious estimator. Note the lose orresponden e to the results for the linear model.

17.5 Example: The Poisson model for ount data Suppose that variable is a

yt

onditional on

ount data

xt

is independently distributed Poisson.

A Poisson random

variable, whi h means it an take the values {0,1,2,...}.

This sort

of model has been used to study visits to do tors per year, number of patents registered by businesses per year,

et .

The Poisson density is

f (yt ) = The mean of

yt

is

λt ,

exp(−λt )λyt t , yt ∈ {0, 1, 2, ...}. yt !

as is the varian e. Note that

λt

must be positive. Suppose that the true

266

CHAPTER 17.

NONLINEAR LEAST SQUARES (NLS)

mean is

λ0t = exp(x′t β 0 ), whi h enfor es the positivity of

λt .

Suppose we estimate

β0

by nonlinear least squares:

n 2 1X yt − exp(x′t β) βˆ = arg min sn (β) = T t=1 We an write

sn (β) = =

n 2 1X exp(x′t β 0 + εt − exp(x′t β) T t=1

n n n  2 1 X 1X 1X 2 ′ 0 ′ εt + 2 εt exp(x′t β 0 − exp(x′t β) exp(xt β − exp(xt β) + T T T t=1

t=1

t=1

The last term has expe tation zero sin e the assumption that that

E (εt |xt ) = 0, whi h in turn implies that fun tions of xt

E(yt |xt ) = exp(x′t β 0 )

are un orrelated with

implies

εt . Applying

a strong LLN, and noting that the obje tive fun tion is ontinuous on a ompa t parameter spa e, we get

2 s∞ (β) = Ex exp(x′ β 0 − exp(x′ β) + Ex exp(x′ β 0 )

where the last term omes from the fa t that the onditional varian e of varian e of

y. This fun tion

is learly minimized at

β=

ε

is the same as the

β 0 , so the NLS estimator is onsistent

as long as identi ation holds.

Exer ise 27 Determine the limiting distribution of n (β) of ∂β∂β ′ sn (β), J (β 0 ), ∂s∂β ,

spe i forms to verify that it an be applied. ∂2

 √ ˆ n β − β0 .

This means nding the the

and I(β 0 ). Again, use a CLT as needed, no need

17.6 The Gauss-Newton algorithm Readings: Davidson and Ma Kinnon,



Chapter 6, pgs. 201-207 .

The Gauss-Newton optimization te hnique is spe i ally designed for nonlinear least squares. The idea is to linearize the nonlinear model, rather than the obje tive fun tion. The model is

y = f (θ 0 ) + ε. At some

θ

in the parameter spa e, not equal to

θ0,

we have

y = f (θ) + ν where

ν

is a ombination of the fundamental error term

the regression fun tion at

θ

ε

and the error due to evaluating

0 rather than the true value θ . Take a rst order Taylor's series

17.6.

267

THE GAUSS-NEWTON ALGORITHM

approximation around a point

Dene

θ1 :

   θ − θ 1 + ν + approximation y = f (θ 1 ) + Dθ′ f θ 1

z ≡ y − f (θ 1 )

and

b ≡ (θ − θ 1 ).

error.

Then the last equation an be written as

z = F(θ 1 )b + ω , where, as above,

F(θ 1 ) ≡ Dθ′ f (θ 1 ) is the n×K

1 evaluated at θ , and

ω

is

ν

plus approximation error from the trun ated Taylor's series.

θ1.



Note that



Note that one ould estimate



Given

ˆb,

F

matrix of derivatives of the regression fun tion,

is known, given

b

simply by performing OLS on the above equation.

we al ulate a new round estimate of

θ0

as

θ 2 = ˆb + θ 1 .

With this, take a new

2 Taylor's series expansion around θ and repeat the pro ess. Stop when

ˆb = 0

(to within

a spe ied toleran e).

To see why this might work, onsider the above approximation, but evaluated at the NLS estimator:

The OLS estimate of

  ˆ + F(θ) ˆ θ − θˆ + ω y = f (θ)

b ≡ θ − θˆ is

 −1 h i ′ ˆb = F ˆ ˆ ′F ˆ ˆ F y − f (θ) .

This must be zero, sin e

 h i ˆ ≡0 ˆ ′ θˆ y − f (θ) F

by denition of the NLS estimator (these are the normal equations as in equation 17.2, Sin e

ˆb ≡ 0

when we evaluate at

ˆ θ,

updating would stop.



The Gauss-Newton method doesn't require se ond derivatives, as does the Newton-



The var ov estimator, as in equation 17.4 is simple to al ulate, sin e we have

Raphson method, so it's faster.

by-produ t of the estimation pro ess (

ˆ F

as a

i.e., it's just the last round regressor matrix).

In

fa t, a normal OLS program will give the NLS var ov estimator dire tly, sin e it's just the OLS var ov estimator from the last iteration.



The method an suer from onvergen e problems sin e

F(θ)′ F(θ),

singular, even with an asymptoti ally identied model, espe ially if Consider the example

y = β1 + β2 xt β 3 + εt

may be very nearly

θ

is very far from

θˆ.

268

CHAPTER 17.

When evaluated at

F

β2 ≈ 0, β3

NONLINEAR LEAST SQUARES (NLS)

has virtually no ee t on the NLS obje tive fun tion, so

will have rank that is essentially 2, rather than 3. In this ase,

F′ F

will be nearly

′ −1 will be subje t to large roundo errors. singular, so (F F)

17.7 Appli ation: Limited dependent variables and sample sele tion Readings:

Davidson and Ma Kinnon, Ch. 15

∗ (a qui k reading is su ient), J. He kman,

Sample Sele tion Bias as a Spe i ation Error,

E onometri a, 1979 (This is a lassi arti le,

not required for reading, and whi h is a bit out-dated. Nevertheless it's a good pla e to start if you en ounter sample sele tion problems in your resear h). Sample sele tion is a ommon problem in applied resear h.

The problem o

urs when

observations used in estimation are sampled non-randomly, a

ording to some sele tion s heme.

17.7.1 Example: Labor Supply Labor supply of a person is a positive number of hours per unit time supposing the oer wage is higher than the reservation wage, whi h is the wage at whi h the person prefers not to work. The model (very simple, with

t

subs ripts suppressed):



Chara teristi s of individual:



Latent labor supply:



Oer wage:



Reservation wage:

x

s∗ = x′ β + ω

wo = z′ γ + ν wr = q′ δ + η

Write the wage dierential as

  z′ γ + ν − q′ δ + η

w∗ =

≡ r′ θ + ε We have the set of equations

s∗ = x′ β + ω w∗ = r′ θ + ε. Assume that

"

ω ε

#

∼N

"

0 0

# " ,

σ 2 ρσ ρσ

1

#!

.

APPLICATION: LIMITED DEPENDENT VARIABLES AND SAMPLE SELECTION269

17.7.

We assume that the oer wage and the reservation wage, as well as the latent variable

s∗

are

unobservable. What is observed is

w = 1 [w∗ > 0] s = ws∗ . In other words, we observe whether or not a person is working. If the person is working, we observe labor supply, whi h is equal to latent labor supply,

s∗ .

Otherwise,

s = 0 6= s∗ .

Note

that we are using a simplifying assumption that individuals an freely hoose their weekly hours of work. Suppose we estimated the model

s∗ = x′ β + residual using only observations for whi h

∗ whi h w

or equivalently,

−ε <

The problem is that these observations are those for

r′ θ and   E ω| − ε < r′ θ 6= 0,

and

ω

are dependent. Furthermore, this expe tation will in general depend on

elements of

x

an enter in

sin e

ε

> 0,

s > 0.

r.

x

sin e

Be ause of these two fa ts, least squares estimation is biased and

in onsistent. Consider more arefully

E [ω| − ε < r′ θ] .

write (see for example Spanos

Given the joint normality of

ω

and

ε,

Statisti al Foundations of E onometri Modelling, pg.

we an 122)

ω = ρσε + η, where

η

has mean zero and is independent of

ε.

With this we an write

s∗ = x′ β + ρσε + η. If we ondition this equation on

−ε < r′ θ

we get

s = x′ β + ρσE(ε| − ε < r′ θ) + η whi h may be written as

s = x′ β + ρσE(ε|ε > −r′ θ) + η •

A useful result is that for

z ∼ N (0, 1) E(z|z > z ∗ ) = where

φ (·)

and

Φ (·)

φ(z ∗ ) , Φ(−z ∗ )

are the standard normal density and distribution fun tion, respe -

270

CHAPTER 17.

NONLINEAR LEAST SQUARES (NLS)

tively. The quantity on the RHS above is known as the

IM R(z∗ ) =

inverse Mill's ratio:

φ(z ∗ ) Φ(−z ∗ )

With this we an write (making use of the fa t that the standard normal density is symmetri about zero, so that

φ(−a) = φ(a)): φ (r′ θ) +η Φ (r′ θ) # " i β φ(r′ θ)

s = x′ β + ρσ ≡ where

ζ = ρσ .

regressors





x

The error term

φ(r′ θ) Φ(r′ θ)

.

η

h

x′

Φ(r′ θ)

ζ

(17.5)

+ η.

(17.6)

has onditional mean zero, and is un orrelated with the

At this point, we an estimate the equation by NLS.

He kman showed how one an estimate this in a two step pro edure where rst

θ

is

estimated, then equation 17.6 is estimated by least squares using the estimated value of

θ

to form the regressors. This is ine ient and estimation of the ovarian e is a tri ky

issue. It is probably easier (and more e ient) just to do MLE.



The model presented above depends strongly on joint normality. There exist many alternative models whi h weaken the maintained assumptions. It is possible to estimate

onsistently without distributional assumptions. See Ahn and Powell,

metri s, 1994.

Journal of E ono-

Chapter 18 Nonparametri inferen e 18.1 Possible pitfalls of parametri inferen e: estimation Readings: tions,

H. White (1980) Using Least Squares to Approximate Unknown Regression Fun -

International E onomi Review, pp.

149-70.

In this se tion we onsider a simple example, whi h illustrates both why nonparametri methods may in some ases be preferred to parametri methods. We suppose that data is generated by random sampling of uniformly distributed on

(0, 2π),

and

ε

where

y = f (x) +ε, x

is

is a lassi al error. Suppose that

f (x) = 1 +

3x  x 2 − 2π 2π

The problem of interest is to estimate the elasti ity of range of

(y, x),

f (x)

with respe t to

x,

throughout the

x.

In general, the fun tional form of proximation to

f (x) is unknown.

One idea is to take a Taylor's series ap-

f (x) about some point x0 . Flexible fun tional forms su h as the trans endental

logarithmi (usually know as the translog) an be interpreted as se ond order Taylor's series approximations. We'll work with a rst order approximation, for simpli ity. Approximating about

x0 : h(x) = f (x0 ) + Dx f (x0 ) (x − x0 )

If the approximation point is

x0 = 0,

we an write

h(x) = a + bx The oe ient derivative at

a

is the value of the fun tion at

x = 0.

x = 0,

and the slope is the value of the

These are of ourse not known. One might try estimation by ordinary

least squares. The obje tive fun tion is

s(a, b) = 1/n

n X t=1

(yt − h(xt ))2 .

271

272

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

Figure 18.1: True and simple approximating fun tions

3.5

approx true 3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

x

The limiting obje tive fun tion, following the argument we used to get equations 14.1 and 17.3 is

s∞ (a, b) =

Z



0

(f (x) − h(x))2 dx.

The theorem regarding the onsisten y of extremum estimators (Theorem 19) tells us that and ˆ b will

a ˆ

onverge almost surely to the values that minimize the limiting obje tive fun tion.

Solving the rst order onditions

1

reveals that

The estimated approximating fun tion

ˆh(x)

 s∞ (a, b) obtains its minimum at a0 = 76 , b0 = π1 .

therefore tends almost surely to

h∞ (x) = 7/6 + x/π In Figure 18.1 we see the true fun tion and the limit of the approximation to see the asymptoti bias as a fun tion of

x.

(The approximating model is the straight line, the true model has urvature.) Note that the approximating model is in general in onsistent, even at the approximation point.

This

shows that exible fun tional forms based upon Taylor's series approximations do not in general lead to onsistent estimation of fun tions. The approximating model seems to t the true model fairly well, asymptoti ally. However, we are interested in the elasti ity of the fun tion.

Re all that an elasti ity is the marginal

fun tion divided by the average fun tion:

ε(x) = xφ′ (x)/φ(x) Good approximation of the elasti ity over the range of 1

x

will require a good approximation of

The following results were obtained using the free omputer algebra system (CAS) Maxima. Unfortunately,

I have lost the sour e ode to get the results :-(

18.1.

POSSIBLE PITFALLS OF PARAMETRIC INFERENCE: ESTIMATION

273

Figure 18.2: True and approximating elasti ities

0.7

approx true 0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

x

both

f (x)

and

f ′ (x)

over the range of

x.

The approximating elasti ity is

η(x) = xh′ (x)/h(x) In Figure 18.2 we see the true elasti ity and the elasti ity obtained from the limiting approximating model. The true elasti ity is the line that has negative slope for large

x.

Visually we see that the

elasti ity is not approximated so well. Root mean squared error in the approximation of the elasti ity is

Z

2π 0

(ε(x) − η(x))2 dx

1/2

= . 31546

Now suppose we use the leading terms of a trigonometri series as the approximating model. The reason for using a trigonometri series as an approximating model is motivated by the asymptoti properties of the Fourier exible fun tional form (Gallant, 1981, 1982), whi h we will study in more detail below. Normally with this type of model the number of basis fun tions is an in reasing fun tion of the sample size.

Here we hold the set of basis

fun tion xed. We will onsider the asymptoti behavior of a xed model, whi h we interpret as an approximation to the estimator's behavior in nite samples. Consider the set of basis fun tions:

Z(x) =

h

1 x cos(x) sin(x) cos(2x) sin(2x)

The approximating model is

i

.

gK (x) = Z(x)α. Maintaining these basis fun tions as the sample size in reases, we nd that the limiting ob-

274

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

Figure 18.3: True fun tion and more exible approximation

3.5

approx true 3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

x

je tive fun tion is minimized at

  1 1 1 7 a1 = , a2 = , a3 = − 2 , a4 = 0, a5 = − 2 , a6 = 0 . 6 π π 4π Substituting these values into

gK (x) 

we obtain the almost sure limit of the approximation

1 g∞ (x) = 7/6 + x/π + (cos x) − 2 π



  1 + (sin x) 0 + (cos 2x) − 2 + (sin 2x) 0 4π

(18.1)

In Figure 18.3 we have the approximation and the true fun tion: Clearly the trun ated trigonometri series model oers a better approximation, asymptoti ally, than does the linear model. In Figure 18.4 we have the more exible approximation's elasti ity and that of the true fun tion: On average, the t is better, though there is some implausible wavyness in the estimate. Root mean squared error in the approximation of the elasti ity is

Z

2π 0



g′ (x)x ε(x) − ∞ g∞ (x)

2

dx

!1/2

= . 16213,

about half that of the RMSE when the rst order approximation is used. If the trigonometri series ontained innite terms, this error measure would be driven to zero, as we shall see.

18.2 Possible pitfalls of parametri inferen e: hypothesis testing What do we mean by the term nonparametri inferen e? Simply, this means inferen es that are possible without restri ting the fun tions of interest to belong to a parametri family.

18.2.

POSSIBLE PITFALLS OF PARAMETRIC INFERENCE: HYPOTHESIS TESTING275

Figure 18.4: True elasti ity and more exible approximation

0.7

approx true 0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

x



Consider means of testing for the hypothesis that onsumers maximize utility. A onsequen e of utility maximization is that the Slutsky matrix

Dp2 h(p, U ),

where

h(p, U )

the a set of ompensated demand fun tions, must be negative semi-denite.

are

One ap-

proa h to testing for utility maximization would estimate a set of normal demand fun tions



x(p, m).

Estimation of these fun tions by normal parametri methods requires spe i ation of the fun tional form of demand, for example

x(p, m) = x(p, m, θ 0 ) + ε, θ 0 ∈ Θ0 , where



x(p, m, θ 0 )

is a fun tion of known form and

Θ0

is a nite dimensional parameter.

ˆ to al ulate (by solving the integrability x ˆ = x(p, m, θ) b p2 h(p, U ). If we an statisti ally reje t that the matrix is D

After estimation, we ould use problem, whi h is non-trivial)

negative semi-denite, we might on lude that onsumers don't maximize utility.



The problem with this is that the reason for reje tion of the theoreti al proposition may be that our hoi e of fun tional form is in orre t. In the introdu tory se tion we saw that fun tional form misspe i ation leads to in onsistent estimation of the fun tion and its derivatives.



Testing using parametri models always means we are testing a ompound hypothesis. The hypothesis that is tested is 1) the e onomi proposition we wish to test, and 2) the model is orre tly spe ied.

Failure of either 1) or 2) an lead to reje tion (as an a

Type-I error, even when 2) holds). hypothesis.

This is known as the model-indu ed augmenting

276

CHAPTER 18.



NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

Varian's WARP allows one to test for utility maximization without spe ifying the form of the demand fun tions. The only assumptions used in the test are those dire tly implied by theory, so reje tion of the hypothesis alls into question the theory.



Nonparametri inferen e also allows dire t testing of e onomi propositions, avoiding the model-indu ed augmenting hypothesis.

The ost of nonparametri methods is

usually an in rease in omplexity, and a loss of power, ompared to what one would get using a well-spe ied parametri model. The benet is robustness against possible misspe i ation.

18.3 Estimation of regression fun tions 18.3.1 The Fourier fun tional form Readings: in

Gallant, 1987, Identi ation and onsisten y in semi-nonparametri regression,

Advan es in E onometri s, Fifth World Congress, V. 1, Truman Bewley, ed., Cambridge. Suppose we have a multivariate model

y = f (x) + ε, where

f (x) is of unknown form and x is a P −dimensional ve tor.

For simpli ity, assume that

ε

is a lassi al error. Let us take the estimation of the ve tor of elasti ities with typi al element

ξx i = at an arbitrary point

xi ∂f (x) , f (x) ∂xi f (x)

xi .

The Fourier form, following Gallant (1982), but with a somewhat dierent parameterization, may be written as





gK (x | θK ) = α + x β + 1/2x Cx + where the

K -dimensional

A X J X

α=1 j=1

 ujα cos(jk′α x) − vjα sin(jk′α x) .

parameter ve tor

θK = {α, β ′ , vec∗ (C)′ , u11 , v11 , . . . , uJA , vJA }′ . •

(18.2)

We assume that the onditioning variables interval that is shorter than

2π.

x

(18.3)

have ea h been transformed to lie in an

This is required to avoid periodi behavior of the ap-

proximation, whi h is desirable sin e e onomi fun tions aren't periodi . For example, subtra t sample means, divide by the maxima of the onditioning variables, and multiply by



2π − eps,

The



where

eps

is some positive number less than

are elementary multi-indi es whi h are simply



P−

in value. ve tors formed of integers

18.3.

277

ESTIMATION OF REGRESSION FUNCTIONS

(negative, positive and zero). The

kα , α = 1, 2, ..., A

are required to be linearly inde-

pendent, and we follow the onvention that the rst non-zero element be positive. For example

h

0 1 −1 0 1

is a potential multi-index to be used, but

h

i′ i′

0 −1 −1 0 1

is not sin e its rst nonzero element is negative. Nor is

h

0 2 −2 0 2

i′

a multi-index we would use, sin e it is a s alar multiple of the original multi-index.



We parameterize the matrix

C

dierently than does Gallant be ause it simplies things

in pra ti e. The ost of this is that we are no longer able to test a quadrati spe i ation using nested testing.

The ve tor of rst partial derivatives is

Dx gK (x | θK ) = β + Cx +

A X J X 

α=1 j=1

  −ujα sin(jk′α x) − vjα cos(jk′α x) jkα

(18.4)

and the matrix of se ond partial derivatives is

Dx2 gK (x|θK ) = C +

A X J X 

α=1 j=1

  −ujα cos(jk′α x) + vjα sin(jk′α x) j 2 kα k′α

To dene a ompa t notation for partial derivatives, let index with no negative elements. Dene

N

arguments

x

| λ |∗

D λ h(x) ≡ λ

be an

N -dimensional

as the sum of the elements of

is the zero ve tor,

∂ |λ|

D λ h(x) ≡ h(x).

h(x)

Taking this denition and the last few equations

(1 × K)

ve tor

Z λ (x)

so that

D λ gK (x|θK ) = zλ (x)′ θK .



If we have



∂xλ1 1 ∂xλ2 2 · · · ∂xλNN

into a

ount, we see that it is possible to dene



λ.

multi-

λ of the (arbitrary) fun tion h(x), use D h(x) to indi ate a ertain partial

derivative:

When

λ

(18.5)

(18.6)

Both the approximating model and the derivatives of the approximating model are linear in the parameters. For the approximating model to the fun tion (not derivatives), write

gK (x|θK ) = z′ θK

278

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

for simpli ity.

The following theorem an be used to prove the onsisten y of the Fourier form.

Theorem 28 [Gallant and Ny hka, 1987℄ Suppose that hˆ n is obtained by maximizing a sample

obje tive fun tion sn (h) over HKn where HK is a subset of some fun tion spa e H on whi h is dened a norm k h k. Consider the following onditions: (a) Compa tness: The losure of H with respe t to k h k is ompa t in the relative topology dened by k h k. (b) Denseness: ∪K HK , K = 1, 2, 3, ... is a dense subset of the losure of H with respe t to k h k and HK ⊂ HK+1 . ( ) Uniform onvergen e: There is a point h∗ in H and there is a fun tion s∞ (h, h∗ ) that is ontinuous in h with respe t to k h k su h that lim sup | sn (h) − s∞ (h, h∗ ) |= 0

n→∞

H

almost surely. (d) Identi ation: Any point h in the losure of H with s∞ (h, h∗ ) ≥ s∞ (h∗ , h∗ ) must have k h − h∗ k= 0. Under these onditions limn→∞ k h∗ − hˆ n k= 0 almost surely, provided that limn→∞ Kn = ∞ almost surely. The modi ation of the original statement of the theorem that has been made is to set the parameter spa e

Θ

in Gallant and Ny hka's (1987) Theorem 0 to a single point and to state

the theorem in terms of maximization rather than minimization. This theorem is very similar in form to Theorem 19. The main dieren es are:

1. A generi norm

k h k is used in pla e of the Eu lidean norm.

This norm may be stronger

than the Eu lidean norm, so that onvergen e with respe t to

khk

implies onvergen e

w.r.t the Eu lidean norm. Typi ally we will want to make sure that the norm is strong enough to imply onvergen e of all fun tions of interest.

2. The estimation spa e

Θ

H

is a fun tion spa e. It plays the role of the parameter spa e

in our dis ussion of parametri estimators.

There is no restri tion to a parametri

family, only a restri tion to a spa e of fun tions that satisfy ertain onditions.

This

formulation is mu h less restri tive than the restri tion to a parametri family.

3. There is a denseness assumption that was not present in the other theorem.

We will not prove this theorem (the proof is quite similar to the proof of theorem [19℄, see Gallant, 1987) but we will dis uss its assumptions, in relation to the Fourier form as the approximating model.

18.3.

279

ESTIMATION OF REGRESSION FUNCTIONS

Sobolev norm

Sin e all of the assumptions involve the norm

k h k , we need to make expli it

what norm we wish to use. We need a norm that guarantees that the errors in approximation

of the fun tions we are interested in are a

ounted for. Sin e we are interested in rst-order elasti ities in the present ase, we need lose approximation of both the fun tion

′ rst derivative f (x), throughout the range of of

x

that we're interested in.

x. Let X

f (x)

and its

be an open set that ontains all values

The Sobolev norm is appropriate in this ase.

It is dened,

making use of our notation for partial derivatives, as:

k h km,X = max sup Dλ h(x) ∗ |λ |≤m X

To see whether or not the fun tion

gK (x | θK ),

f (x)

is well approximated by an approximating model

we would evaluate

k f (x) − gK (x | θK ) km,X . We see that this norm takes into a

ount errors in approximating the fun tion and partial derivatives up to order

m.

this example, the relevant

X,

If we want to estimate rst order elasti ities, as is the ase in

m

would be

m = 1.

onvergen e w.r.t. the Sobolev means

estimates for all values of

Compa tness enlightening.

Furthermore, sin e we examine the

uniform

sup

over

onvergen e, so that we obtain onsistent

x.

Verifying ompa tness with respe t to this norm is quite te hni al and un-

It is proven by Elbadawi, Gallant and Souza,

requirement is that if we need onsisten y w.r.t.

k h km,X ,

E onometri a,

1983.

The basi

then the fun tions of interest must

belong to a Sobolev spa e whi h takes into a

ount derivatives of order

m + 1.

A Sobolev

spa e is the set of fun tions

Wm,X (D) = {h(x) :k h(x) km,X < D}, where

D

is a nite onstant. In plain words, the fun tions must have bounded partial deriva-

tives of one order higher than the derivatives we seek to estimate.

The estimation spa e and the estimation subspa e

Sin e in our ase we're interested

in onsistent estimation of rst-order elasti ities, we'll dene the estimation spa e as follows:

Denition 29 [Estimation spa e℄ The estimation spa e H = W2,X (D). The estimation spa e

is an open set, and we presume that h∗ ∈ H.

So we are assuming that the fun tion to be estimated has bounded se ond derivatives throughout

X.

With seminonparametri estimators, we don't a tually optimize over the estimation spa e. Rather, we optimize over a subspa e,

HK n ,

dened as:

280

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

Denition 30 [Estimation subspa e℄ The estimation subspa e HK is dened as HK = {gK (x|θK ) : gK (x|θK ) ∈ W2,Z (D), θK ∈ ℜK },

where gK (x, θK ) is the Fourier form approximation as dened in Equation 18.2. Denseness

The important point here is that

nite dimensional parameter (θK has

n > K,

this parameter is estimable.

HK ,

element of

so optimization over

for optimization over need that:

HK

K

that

K

A

and

J

HK

H.

dim θKn → ∞

A set of subsets

Aa

be dense subsets of

HK , dened above,

of a set

is equal to the losure of

A:

A is dense

n.

H,

as

in equation 18.2 in reasing fun tions of

The estimation subspa e

observations,

may not lead to a onsistent estimator.

to be equivalent to optimization over

HK

n

∗ Note that the true fun tion h is not ne essarily an

will have to grow more slowly than

2. We need that the

is a spa e of fun tions that is indexed by a

elements, as in equation 18.3). With

1. The dimension of the parameter ve tor, making

HK

at least asymptoti ally, we

n → ∞.

n,

In order

This is a hieved by

the sample size. It is lear

The se ond requirement is:

H.

is a subset of the losure of the estimation spa e,

if the losure of the ountable union of the subsets

∪∞ a=1 Aa = A

Use a pi ture here. The rest of the dis ussion of denseness is provided just for ompleteness: there's no need to study it in detail. To show that HK is a dense subset of H with respe t to k h k1,X ,

it is useful to apply Theorem 1 of Gallant (1982), who in turn ites Edmunds and

Mos atelli (1977). We reprodu e the theorem as presented by Gallant, with minor notational

hanges, for onvenien e of referen e:

Theorem 31 [Edmunds and Mos atelli, 1977℄ Let the real-valued fun tion h∗ (x) be ontin-

uously dierentiable up to order m on an open set ontaining the losure of X . Then it is possible to hoose a triangular array of oe ients θ1 , θ2 , . . . θK , . . . , su h that for every q with 0 ≤ q < m, and every ε > 0, k h∗ (x) − hK (x|θK ) kq,X = o(K −m+q+ε ) as K → ∞. In the present appli ation, elements of of

X,

q = 1,

and

m = 2.

By denition of the estimation spa e, the

H are on e ontinuously dierentiable on X , whi h is open and ontains the losure

so the theorem is appli able. Closely following Gallant and Ny hka (1987),

the ountable union of the {hK } from

∪ ∞ HK

HK .

h∗ ∈ H.

is

The impli ation of Theorem 31 is that there is a sequen e of

su h that

lim k h∗ − hK k1,X = 0,

K→∞ for all

∪ ∞ HK

Therefore,

H ⊂ ∪ ∞ HK .

18.3.

281

ESTIMATION OF REGRESSION FUNCTIONS

However,

∪∞ HK ⊂ H, so

∪∞ HK ⊂ H. Therefore

H = ∪ ∞ HK , so

∪ ∞ HK

is a dense subset of

Uniform onvergen e

H,

with respe t to the norm

k h k1,X .

We now turn to the limiting obje tive fun tion.

We estimate by

OLS. The sample obje tive fun tion stated in terms of maximization is

n

1X (yt − gK (xt | θK ))2 sn (θK ) = − n t=1

With random sampling, as in the ase of Equations 14.1 and 17.3, the limiting obje tive fun tion is

s∞ (g, f ) = − where the true fun tion the theorem. Both

g(x)

f (x) and

Z

X

(f (x) − g(x))2 dµx − σε2 .

takes the pla e of the generi fun tion

f (x)

are elements of

(18.7)

h∗

in the presentation of

∪ ∞ HK .

The pointwise onvergen e of the obje tive fun tion needs to be strengthened to uniform

onvergen e. We will simply assume that this holds, sin e the way to verify this depends upon the spe i appli ation. We also have ontinuity of the obje tive fun tion in to the norm

k h k1,X

g,

with respe t

sin e

   s∞ g 1 , f ) − s∞ g 0 , f ) kg 1 −g 0 k1,X →0 Z h 2 2 i dµx. g1 (x) − f (x) − g0 (x) − f (x) = lim lim

kg 1 −g 0 k1,X →0 X

By the dominated onvergen e theorem (whi h applies sin e the nite bound

W2,Z (D)

D

used to dene

is dominated by an integrable fun tion), the limit and the integral an be inter-

hanged, so by inspe tion, the limit is zero.

Identi ation

The identi ation ondition requires that for any point

s∞ (g, f ) ≥ s∞ (f, f ) ⇒ k g − f k1,X = 0.

(g, f )

in

This ondition is learly satised given that

H × H, g

and

f

are on e ontinuously dierentiable (by the assumption that denes the estimation spa e).

Review of on epts

on epts are:

For the example of estimation of rst-order elasti ities, the relevant

282

CHAPTER 18.



H = W2,X (D):

Estimation spa e fun tion must lie.



Consisten y norm

k h k1,X .



Estimation subspa e



Sample obje tive fun tion



Limiting obje tive fun tion

HK .

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

the fun tion spa e in the losure of whi h the true

The losure of

H

is ompa t with respe t to this norm.

H

that is repre-

the negative of the sum of squares.

By standard

The estimation subspa e is the subset of

sentable by a Fourier form with parameter

sn (θK ),

θK .

These are dense subsets of

H.

arguments this onverges uniformly to the

s∞ ( g, f ), whi h is ontinuous in g and has a global maximum

in its rst argument, over the losure of the innite union of the estimation subpa es, at

g = f. •

As a result of this, rst order elasti ities

xi ∂f (x) f (x) ∂xi f (x) are onsistently estimated for all

Dis ussion

x ∈ X.

Consisten y requires that the number of parameters used in the expansion in-

rease with the sample size, tending to innity. If parameters are added at a high rate, the bias tends relatively rapidly to zero. A basi problem is that a high rate of in lusion of additional parameters auses the varian e to tend more slowly to zero. The issue of how to hose the rate at whi h parameters are added and whi h to add rst is fairly omplex. A problem is that the allowable rates for asymptoti normality to obtain (Andrews 1991; Gallant and Souza, 1991) are very stri t. Supposing we sti k to these rates, our approximating model is:

gK (x|θK ) = z′ θK . •

Dene

ZK

as the

estimator is

n×K

matrix of regressors obtained by sta king observations. The LS

θˆK = Z′K ZK where



(·)+

+

Z′K y,

is the Moore-Penrose generalized inverse.

This is used sin e

Z′K ZK

may be singular, as would be the ase for

K(n)

large

enough when some dummy variables are in luded.



. The predi tion, tributed:

where

z′ θˆK ,

of the unknown fun tion

f (x)

is asymptoti ally normally dis-

 √  ′ d n z θˆK − f (x) → N (0, AV ),

# "  + ′ 2 ′ ZK ZK zˆ σ . AV = lim E z n→∞ n

18.3.

283

ESTIMATION OF REGRESSION FUNCTIONS

Formally, this is exa tly the same as if we were dealing with a parametri linear model. I emphasize, though, that this is only valid if

K

grows very slowly as

n

grows. If we an't

sti k to a

eptable rates, we should probably use some other method of approximating the small sample distribution. Bootstrapping is a possibility. We'll dis uss this in the se tion on simulation.

18.3.2 Kernel regression estimators Readings:

Bierens, 1987, Kernel estimators of regression fun tions, in

metri s, Fifth World Congress, V. 1, Truman Bewley, ed., Cambridge.

Advan es in E ono-

An alternative method to the semi-nonparametri method is a fully nonparametri method of estimation. Kernel regression estimation is an example (others are splines, nearest neighbor, et .). We'll onsider the Nadaraya-Watson kernel regression estimator in a simple ase.



Suppose we have an iid sample from the joint density

f (x, y), where x is k

-dimensional.

The model is

yt = g(xt ) + εt , where

E(εt |xt ) = 0. •

The onditional expe tation of

y

given

x

is

Z

y

By denition of the onditional expe -

tation, we have

f (x, y) dy h(x) Z 1 yf (x, y)dy, h(x)

g(x) = = where

h(x)

x:

is the marginal density of

h(x) = •

g(x).

Z

g(x)

This suggests that we ould estimate

f (x, y)dy. by estimating

Estimation of the denominator A kernel estimator for

h(x)

has the form

n

1 X K [(x − xt ) /γn ] ˆ h(x) = , n t=1 γnk where



n

is the sample size and

The fun tion

K(·)

k

is the dimension of

x.

(the kernel) is absolutely integrable:

Z

|K(x)|dx < ∞,

h(x)

and

R

yf (x, y)dy.

284

CHAPTER 18.

and

K(·)

integrates to

In this respe t,

K(·)

1:

Z

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

K(x)dx = 1.

is like a density fun tion, but we do not ne essarily restri t

K(·)

to

be nonnegative.



The

window width

parameter,

γn

is a sequen e of positive numbers that satises

lim γn = 0

n→∞

lim nγnk = ∞

n→∞

So, the window width must tend to zero, but not too qui kly.



To show pointwise onsisten y of

ˆ h(x)

h(x),

for

rst onsider the expe tation of the

estimator (sin e the estimator is an average of iid terms we only need to onsider the expe tation of a representative term):

i Z ˆ E h(x) = γn−k K [(x − z) /γn ] h(z)dz. h

Change variables as

z ∗ = (x − z)/γn ,

so

z = x − γn z ∗

and

| dzdz∗′ | = γnk ,

we obtain

Z h i ˆ E h(x) = γn−k K (z ∗ ) h(x − γn z ∗ )γnk dz ∗ Z = K (z ∗ ) h(x − γn z ∗ )dz ∗ .

Now, asymptoti ally,

h

i ˆ lim E h(x) =

n→∞

Z

K (z ∗ ) h(x − γn z ∗ )dz ∗ lim Z = lim K (z ∗ ) h(x − γn z ∗ )dz ∗ n→∞ Z = K (z ∗ ) h(x)dz ∗ Z = h(x) K (z ∗ ) dz ∗ n→∞

= h(x), sin e

γn → 0

and

R

K (z ∗ ) dz ∗ = 1

by assumption. (Note: that we an pass the limit

through the integral is a result of the dominated onvergen e theorem.. For this to hold we need that

h(·)

be dominated by an absolutely integrable fun tion.

18.3.



Next, onsidering the varian e of

nγnk V

h

ˆ h(x),

we have, due to the iid assumption

  n i X K [(x − xt ) /γn ] k 1 ˆ V h(x) = nγn 2 n γnk = γn−k



285

ESTIMATION OF REGRESSION FUNCTIONS

1 n

t=1 n X t=1

V {K [(x − xt ) /γn ]}

By the representative term argument, this is

h i ˆ nγnk V h(x) = γn−k V {K [(x − z) /γn ]} •

Also, sin e

V (x) = E(x2 ) − E(x)2

we have

o h i n ˆ nγnk V h(x) = γn−k E (K [(x − z) /γn ])2 − γn−k {E (K [(x − z) /γn ])}2 Z 2 Z 2 −k k −k = γn K [(x − z) /γn ] h(z)dz − γn γn K [(x − z) /γn ] h(z)dz Z h i2 = γn−k K [(x − z) /γn ]2 h(z)dz − γnk E b h(x)

The se ond term onverges to zero:

h i2 γnk E b h(x) → 0,

by the previous result regarding the expe tation and the fa t that

lim nγnk V n→∞

h

γn → 0.

Therefore,

Z i ˆ γn−k K [(x − z) /γn ]2 h(z)dz. h(x) = lim n→∞

Using exa tly the same hange of variables as before, this an be shown to be

Z h i ˆ lim nγnk V h(x) = h(x) [K(z ∗ )]2 dz ∗ .

n→∞ Sin e both

R

[K(z ∗ )]2 dz ∗

and

by assumption, we have that



h(x)

are bounded, this is bounded, and sin e

nγnk → ∞

h i ˆ V h(x) → 0.

Sin e the bias and the varian e both go to zero, we have pointwise onsisten y ( onvergen e in quadrati mean implies onvergen e in probability).

286

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

Estimation of the numerator To estimate

R

yf (x, y)dy,

as the estimator for

h(x),

we need an estimator of

f (x, y).

The estimator has the same form

only with one dimension more:

n

1 X K∗ [(y − yt ) /γn , (x − xt ) /γn ] fˆ(x, y) = n γnk+1 t=1

The kernel

K∗ (·)

is required to have mean zero:

Z

yK∗ (y, x) dy = 0 h(x) :

and to marginalize to the previous kernel for

Z

K∗ (y, x) dy = K(x).

With this kernel, we have

Z

n

1 X K [(x − xt ) /γn ] y fˆ(y, x)dy = yt n γnk t=1

by marginalization of the kernel, so we obtain

gˆ(x) = = =

1

Z

ˆ h(x) 1 Pn

y fˆ(y, x)dy

K[(x−xt )/γn ] k γn P K[(x−x n t )/γn ] 1 k t=1 n γn Pn yt K [(x − xt ) /γn ] Pt=1 . n t=1 K [(x − xt ) /γn ] n

t=1 yt

This is the Nadaraya-Watson kernel regression estimator.

Dis ussion •

The kernel regression estimator for

g(xt )

is a weighted average of the

yj , j = 1, 2, ..., n,

xt .

The weights sum

where higher weights are asso iated with points that are loser to to 1.



The window width parameter



A large window width redu es the varian e (strong imposition of atness), but in reases



A small window width redu es the bias, but makes very little use of information ex ept

as

γn → ∞,

γn

imposes smoothness. The estimator is in reasingly at

sin e in this ase ea h weight tends to

1/n.

the bias.

points that are in a small neighborhood of

xt .

Sin e relatively little information is used,

18.4.

287

DENSITY FUNCTION ESTIMATION

the varian e is large when the window width is small.



The standard normal density is a popular hoi e for

K(.)

and

K∗ (y, x),

though there

are possibly better alternatives.

Choi e of the window width: Cross-validation The sele tion of an appropriate window width is important.

One popular method is ross

validation. This onsists of splitting the sample into two parts (e.g., 50%-50%). The rst part is the in sample data, whi h is used for estimation, and the se ond part is the out of sample data, used for evaluation of the t though RMSE or some other riterion. The steps are: 1. Split the data. The out of sample data is 2. Choose a window width

y out

and

xout .

γ.

3. With the in sample data, t

yˆtout orresponding to ea h xout t . This tted value is a fun tion

of the in sample data, as well as the evaluation point

xout t ,

but it does not involve

ytout .

4. Repeat for all out of sample points. 5. Cal ulate RMSE(γ) 6. Go to step

2,

or to the next step if enough window widths have been tried.

7. Sele t the

γ

that minimizes RMSE(γ) (Verify that a minimum has been found, for

example by plotting RMSE as a fun tion of 8. Re-estimate using the best

γ

γ).

and all of the data.

This same prin iple an be used to hoose

A

and

J

in a Fourier form model.

18.4 Density fun tion estimation 18.4.1 Kernel density estimation The previous dis ussion suggests that a kernel density estimator may easily be onstru ted. We have already seen how joint densities may be estimated. If were interested in a onditional density, for example of

y

onditional on

x,

then the kernel estimate of the onditional density

is simply

fby|x = = =

fˆ(x, y) ˆ h(x) 1 Pn

K∗ [(y−yt )/γn ,(x−xt )/γn ] k+1 γn K[(x−xt )/γn ] 1 Pn k t=1 n γn Pn 1 ∗ [(y − yt ) /γn , (x − xt ) /γn ] t=1 K P n γn t=1 K [(x − xt ) /γn ] n

t=1

288

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

where we obtain the expressions for the joint and marginal densities from the se tion on kernel regression.

18.4.2 Semi-nonparametri maximum likelihood Readings:

Gallant and Ny hka,

E onometri a, 1987.

For a Fortran program to do this and a

useful dis ussion in the user's guide, see this link. See also Cameron and Johansson,

of Applied E onometri s, V. 12, 1997.

Journal

MLE is the estimation method of hoi e when we are ondent about spe ifying the density. Is is possible to obtain the benets of MLE when we're not so ondent about the spe i ation? In part, yes.

y

Suppose we're interested in the density of Suppose that the density

f (y|x, φ)

onditional on

x

(both may be ve tors).

is a reasonable starting approximation to the true density.

This density an be reshaped by multiplying it by a squared polynomial. The new density is

gp (y|x, φ, γ) =

h2p (y|γ)f (y|x, φ) ηp (x, φ, γ)

where

hp (y|γ) =

p X

γk y k

k=0

ηp (x, φ, γ) is a normalizing fa tor to make the density integrate (sum) to one. Be ause 2 hp (y|γ)/ηp (x, φ, γ) is a homogenous fun tion of θ it is ne essary to impose a normalization: γ0 and

is set to 1. The normalization fa tor

ηp (φ, γ) is al ulated

(following Cameron and Johansson)

using

E(Y r ) = =

=

∞ X

y=0 ∞ X

y r fY (y|φ, γ) y

(y|γ)]2 fY (y|φ) ηp (φ, γ)

r [hp

y=0 p X p ∞ X X

y r fY (y|φ)γk γl y k y l /ηp (φ, γ)

y=0 k=0 l=0

=

p X p X

γk γl

k=0 l=0

=

p p X X

 ∞ X 

y=0

  r+k+l y fY (y|φ) /ηp (φ, γ) 

γk γl mk+l+r /ηp (φ, γ).

k=0 l=0

By setting

r=0

we get that the normalizing fa tor is

18.8

ηp (φ, γ) =

p X p X

γk γl mk+l

(18.8)

k=0 l=0

Re all that

γ0

is set to 1 to a hieve identi ation.

The

mr

in equation 18.8 are the raw

18.4.

289

DENSITY FUNCTION ESTIMATION

moments of the baseline density. Gallant and Ny hka (1987) give onditions under whi h su h a density may be treated as orre tly spe ied, asymptoti ally.

Basi ally, the order of the

polynomial must in rease as the sample size in reases. However, there are te hni alities. Similarly to Cameron and Johannson (1997), we may develop a negative binomial polynomial (NBP) density for ount data. The negative binomial baseline density may be written (see equation as

Γ(y + ψ) fY (y|φ) = Γ(y + 1)Γ(ψ) where

x

φ = {λ, ψ}, λ > 0

and

is the parameterization

(NB-I). When

ψ > 0.

λ=



ψ ψ+λ

ψ 

λ ψ+λ

y

The usual means of in orporating onditioning variables

′ ex β . When

ψ = λ/α

we have the negative binomial-I model

ψ = 1/α we have the negative binomial-II (NP-II) model.

V (Y ) = λ + αλ.

In the ase of the NB-II model, we have

For the NB-I density,

V (Y ) = λ + αλ2 .

For both forms,

E(Y ) = λ. The reshaped density, with normalization to sum to one, is

[hp (y|γ)]2 Γ(y + ψ) fY (y|φ, γ) = ηp (φ, γ) Γ(y + 1)Γ(ψ)



ψ ψ+λ

ψ 

λ ψ+λ

y

.

(18.9)

To get the normalization fa tor, we need the moment generating fun tion:

MY (t) = ψ ψ λ − et λ + ψ

−ψ

.

(18.10)

To illustrate, Figure 18.5 shows al ulation of the rst four raw moments of the NB density,

al ulated using MuPAD, whi h is a Computer Algebra System that (used to be?) free for personal use. These are the moments you would need to use a se ond order polynomial

(p = 2).

MuPAD will output these results in the form of C ode, whi h is relatively easy to edit to write the likelihood fun tion for the model. This has been done in NegBinSNP.

, whi h is a C++ version of this model that an be ompiled to use with o tave using the

mko tfile

ommand. Note the impressive length of the expressions when the degree of the expansion is 4 or 5! This is an example of a model that would be di ult to formulate without the help of a program like

MuPAD.

It is possible that there is onditional heterogeneity su h that the appropriate reshaping should be more lo al.

This an be a

omodated by allowing the

γk

parameters to depend

upon the onditioning variables, for example using polynomials. Gallant and Ny hka,

E onometri a,

1987 prove that this sort of density an approximate

a wide variety of densities arbitrarily well as the degree of the polynomial in reases with the sample size. This approa h is not without its drawba ks: the sample obje tive fun tion an have an

extremely

large number of lo al maxima that an lead to numeri di ulties.

If

someone ould gure out how to do in a way su h that the sample obje tive fun tion was ni e and smooth, they would probably get the paper published in a good journal. Any ideas? Here's a plot of true and the limiting SNP approximations (with the order of the polynomial xed) to four dierent ount data densities, whi h variously exhibit over and underdispersion,

290

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

Figure 18.5: Negative binomial raw moments

as well as ex ess zeros. The baseline model is a negative binomial density.

Case 1

Case 2

.5 .4

.1

.3 .2

.05

.1 0

5

Case 3

10

15

20

0

.25

.2

.2

.15

.15

Case 4

5

10

15

20

25

.1

.1 .05 .05 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

2.5

5

7.5

10

12.5

15

18.5.

291

EXAMPLES

Figure 18.6: Kernel tted OBDV usage versus AGE Kernel fit, OBDV visits versus AGE

3.29

3.285

3.28

3.275

3.27

3.265

3.26

3.255

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

Age

18.5 Examples 18.5.1 MEPS health are usage data We'll use the MEPS OBDV data to illustrate kernel regression and semi-nonparametri maximum likelihood.

Kernel regression estimation Let's try a kernel regression t for the OBDV data. The program OBDVkernel.m loads the MEPS OBDV data, s ans over a range of window widths and al ulates leave-one-out CV s ores, and plots the tted OBDV usage versus AGE, using the best window width. The plot is in Figure 18.6. Note that usage in reases with age, just as we've seen with the parametri models. On e ould use bootstrapping to generate a onden e interval to the t.

Seminonparametri ML estimation and the MEPS data Now let's estimate a seminonparametri density for the OBDV data. We'll reshape a negative binomial density, as dis ussed above. The program EstimateNBSNP.m loads the MEPS OBDV data and estimates the model, using a NB-I baseline density and a 2nd order polynomial expansion. The output is:

OBDV

292

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

====================================================== BFGSMIN final results Used numeri gradient -----------------------------------------------------STRONG CONVERGENCE Fun tion onv 1 Param onv 1 Gradient onv 1 -----------------------------------------------------Obje tive fun tion value 2.17061 Stepsize 0.0065 24 iterations -----------------------------------------------------param gradient hange 1.3826 0.0000 -0.0000 0.2317 -0.0000 0.0000 0.1839 0.0000 0.0000 0.2214 0.0000 -0.0000 0.1898 0.0000 -0.0000 0.0722 0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0002 0.0000 -0.0000 1.7853 -0.0000 -0.0000 -0.4358 0.0000 -0.0000 0.1129 0.0000 0.0000 ****************************************************** NegBin SNP model, MEPS full data set MLE Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Average Log-L: -2.170614 Observations: 4564

onstant pub. ins. priv. ins. sex age edu in gam1 gam2 lnalpha

estimate -0.147 0.695 0.409 0.443 0.016 0.025 -0.000 1.785 -0.436 0.113

Information Criteria CAIC : 19907.6244

st. err 0.126 0.050 0.046 0.034 0.001 0.006 0.000 0.141 0.029 0.027 Avg. CAIC:

t-stat -1.173 13.936 8.833 13.148 11.880 3.903 -0.011 12.629 -14.786 4.166 4.3619

p-value 0.241 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.991 0.000 0.000 0.000

18.5.

293

EXAMPLES

Figure 18.7: Dollar-Euro

Figure 18.8: Dollar-Yen

BIC : 19897.6244 Avg. BIC: 4.3597 AIC : 19833.3649 Avg. AIC: 4.3456 ******************************************************

Note that the CAIC and BIC are lower for this model than for the models presented in Table 16.3. This model ts well, still being parsimonious. You an play around trying other use measures, using a NP-II baseline density, and using other orders of expansions. Density fun tions formed in this way may have

MANY

before a

epting the results of a asual run.

lo al maxima, so you need to be areful

To guard against having onverged to a lo al

maximum, one an try using multiple starting values, or one ould try simulated annealing as an optimization method.

If you un omment the relevant lines in the program, you an

use SA to do the minimization. This will take a

lot

of time, ompared to the default BFGS

minimization. The hapter on parallel omputations might be interesting to read before trying this.

18.5.2 Finan ial data and volatility The data set rates ontains the growth rate (100×log dieren e) of the daily spot $/euro and

$/yen ex hange rates at New York, noon, from January 04, 1999 to February 12, 2008. There

are 2291 observations. See the README le for details. Figures 18.5.2 and 18.5.2 show the data and their histograms.

294

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

Figure 18.9: Kernel regression tted onditional se ond moments, Yen/Dollar and Euro/Dollar

(a) Yen/Dollar



at the enter of the histograms, the bars extend above the normal density that best ts the data, and the tails are fatter than those of the best t normal density. This feature of the data is known as



(b) Euro/Dollar

leptokurtosis.

in the series plots, we an see that the varian e of the growth rates is not onstant over time. Volatility lusters are apparent, alternating between periods of stability and periods of more wild swings. This is known as

onditional heteros edasti ity.

ARCH and

GARCH well-known models that are often applied to this sort of data.



Many stru tural e onomi models often annot generate data that exhibits onditional heteros edasti ity without dire tly assuming sho ks that are onditionally heteros edasti . It would be ni e to have an e onomi explanation for how onditional heteros edasti ity, leptokurtosis, and other (leverage, et .) features of nan ial data result from the behavior of e onomi agents, rather than from a bla k box that provides sho ks.

The O tave s ript kernelt.m performs kernel regression to t the plots in Figure 18.9.

• •

2 2 ), yt−2 E(yt2 |yt−1,

and generates

From the point of view of learning the pra ti al aspe ts of kernel regression, note how the data is ompa tied in the example s ript. In the Figure, note how urrent volatility depends on lags of the squared return rate it is high when both of the lags are high, but drops o qui kly when either of the lags is low.



The fa t that the plots are not at suggests that this onditional moment ontain information about the pro ess that generates the data. Perhaps attempting to mat h this moment might be a means of estimating the parameters of the dgp. We'll ome ba k to this later.

18.6.

295

EXERCISES

18.6 Exer ises 1. In O tave, type  edit

kernel_example.

(a) Look this s ript over, and des ribe in words what it does. (b) Run the s ript and interpret the output. ( ) Experiment with dierent bandwidths, and omment on the ee ts of hoosing small and large values. 2. In O tave, type  help

kernel_regression.

(a) How an a kernel t be done without supplying a bandwidth? (b) How is the bandwidth hosen if a value is not provided? ( ) What is the default kernel used?

3. Using the O tave s ript OBDVkernel.m as a model, plot kernel regression ts for OBDV visits as a fun tion of in ome and edu ation.

296

CHAPTER 18.

NONPARAMETRIC INFERENCE

Chapter 19 Simulation-based estimation Readings:

Gourieroux and Monfort (1996)

University Press).

Simulation-Based E onometri Methods

There are many arti les.

(Oxford

Some of the seminal papers are Gallant and

Tau hen (1996), Whi h Moments to Mat h?, ECONOMETRIC THEORY, Vol.

12, 1996,

J. Apl. E onometri s; Pakes and Pollard (1989) E onometri a ; M Fadden (1989) E onometri a.

pages 657-681; Gourieroux, Monfort and Renault (1993), Indire t Inferen e,

19.1 Motivation Simulation methods are of interest when the DGP is fully hara terized by a parameter ve tor, so that simulated data an be generated, but the likelihood fun tion and moments of the observable varables are not al ulable, so that MLE or GMM estimation is not possible. Many moderately omplex models result in intra tible likelihoods or moments, as we will see. Simulation-based estimation methods open up the possibility to estimate truly omplex 1

models. The desirability introdu ing a great deal of omplexity may be an issue , but it least it be omes a possibility.

19.1.1 Example: Multinomial and/or dynami dis rete response models Let

yi∗

be a latent random ve tor of dimension

m.

Suppose that

yi∗ = Xi β + εi where

Xi

is

m × K.

Hen eforth drop the

• y∗

Suppose that

εi ∼ N (0, Ω) i

(19.1)

subs ript when it is not needed for larity.

is not observed. Rather, we observe a many-to-one mapping

y = τ (y ∗ ) 1

Remember that a model is an abstra tion from reality, and abstra tion helps us to isolate the important

features of a phenomenon.

297

298

CHAPTER 19.

This mapping is su h that ea h element of

y

SIMULATION-BASED ESTIMATION

is either zero or one (in some ases only

one element will be one).



Dene

Ai = A(yi ) = {y ∗ |yi = τ (y ∗ )} Suppose random sampling of

(yi , Xi ).

In this ase the elements of

dent of one another (and learly are not if of



Ω is not diagonal).

yi may not be indepen-

However,

yi

is independent

yj , i 6= j.

Let

θ = (β ′ , (vec∗ Ω)′ )′

be the ve tor of parameters of the model. The ontribution of

th observation to the likelihood fun tion is the i

pi (θ) =

Z

Ai

n(yi∗ − Xi β, Ω)dyi∗

where

−M/2

n(ε, Ω) = (2π)

|Ω|

is the multivariate normal density of an likelihood fun tion is

−1/2

M



−ε′ Ω−1 ε exp 2



-dimensional random ve tor.

The log-

n

1X ln pi (θ) ln L(θ) = n i=1

and the MLE

θˆ solves

the s ore equations

n n ˆ 1 X Dθ pi (θ) 1X ˆ gi (θ) = ≡ 0. ˆ n n pi (θ) i=1



The problem is that evaluation of

Li (θ)

and its derivative w.r.t.

θ

by standard methods

of numeri integration su h as quadrature is omputationally infeasible when dimension of



i=1

The mapping

y)

is higher than 3 or 4 (as long as there are no restri tions on

τ (y ∗ )

dierent hoi es of

m

(the

Ω).

has not been made spe i so far. This setup is quite general: for

τ (y ∗ )

it nests the ase of dynami binary dis rete hoi e models as

well as the ase of multinomial dis rete hoi e (the hoi e of one out of a nite set of alternatives).



Multinomial dis rete hoi e is illustrated by a (very simple) job sear h model. We have ross se tional data on individuals' mat hing to a set of

m

available (one of whi h is unemployment). The utility of alternative

jobs that are

j

is

uj = Xj β + εj Utilities of jobs, sta ked in the ve tor

ui

are not observed. Rather, we observe the

19.1.

299

MOTIVATION

ve tor formed of elements

yj = 1 [uj > uk , ∀k ∈ m, k 6= j] Only one of these elements is dierent than zero.



Dynami dis rete hoi e is illustrated by repeated hoi es over time between two alternatives. Let alternative

j

have utility

ujt = Wjt β − εjt , j

∈ {1, 2}

t ∈ {1, 2, ..., m} Then

y ∗ = u2 − u1 = (W2 − W1 )β + ε2 − ε1 ≡ Xβ + ε Now the mapping is (element-by-element)

y = 1 [y ∗ > 0] , that is

yit = 1

if individual

i

hooses the se ond alternative in period

t,

zero other-

wise.

19.1.2 Example: Marginalization of latent variables E onomi data often presents substantial heterogeneity that may be di ult to model.

A

possibility is to introdu e latent random variables. This an ause the problem that there may be no known losed form for the distribution of observable variables after marginalizing out the unobservable latent variables. For example, ount data (that takes values often modeled using the Poisson distribution

Pr(y = i) =

exp(−λ)λi i!

The mean and varian e of the Poisson distribution are both equal to

E(y) = V (y) = λ. Often, one parameterizes the onditional mean as

λi = exp(Xi β).

λ:

0, 1, 2, 3, ...)

is

300

CHAPTER 19.

SIMULATION-BASED ESTIMATION

This ensures that the mean is positive (as it must be). Estimation by ML is straightforward. Often, ount data exhibits overdispersion whi h simply means that

V (y) > E(y). If this is the ase, a solution is to use the negative binomial distribution rather than the Poisson. An alternative is to introdu e a latent variable that ree ts heterogeneity into the spe i ation:

λi = exp(Xi β + ηi ) where

ηi

has some spe ied density with support

parameters). Let

dµ(ηi )

ηi .

be the density of

Pr(y = yi ) =

Z

S

S

(this density may depend on additional

In some ases, the marginal density of

y

exp [− exp(Xi β + ηi )] [exp(Xi β + ηi )]yi dµ(ηi ) yi !

will have a losed-form solution (one an derive the negative binomial distribution in the way if

η has an exponential distribution - see equation 16.1), but often this will not be possible.

ase, simulation is a means of al ulating

Pr(y = i),

In this

whi h is then used to do ML estimation.

This would be an example of the Simulated Maximum Likelihood (SML) estimation.



In this ase, sin e there is only one latent variable, quadrature is probably a better

hoi e. However, a more exible model with heterogeneity would allow all parameters (not just the onstant) to vary. For example

Pr(y = yi ) = entails a when

K

Z

S

exp [− exp(Xi βi )] [exp(Xi βi )]yi dµ(βi ) yi !

K = dim βi -dimensional

integral, whi h will not be evaluable by quadrature

gets large.

19.1.3 Estimation of models spe ied in terms of sto hasti dierential equations It is often onvenient to formulate models in terms of ontinuous time using dierential equations.

A realisti model should a

ount for exogenous sho ks to the system, whi h an be

done by assuming a random omponent. This leads to a model that is expressed as a system of sto hasti dierential equations. Consider the pro ess

dyt = g(θ, yt )dt + h(θ, yt )dWt whi h is assumed to be stationary. su h that

{Wt }

W (T ) =

is a standard Brownian motion (Weiner pro ess),

Z

0

T

dWt ∼ N (0, T )

Brownian motion is a ontinuous-time sto hasti pro ess su h that

19.2.

301

SIMULATED MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD (SML)

• W (0) = 0 • [W (s) − W (t)] ∼ N (0, s − t) • [W (s) − W (t)]

and

[W (j) − W (k)]

are independent for

s > t > j > k.

That is, non-

overlapping segments are independent.

One an think of Brownian motion the a

umulation of independent normally distributed sho ks with innitesimal varian e.



The fun tion

• h(θ, yt )

g(θ, yt )

is the deterministi part.

determines the varian e of the sho ks.

To estimate a model of this sort, we typi ally have data that are assumed to be observations of

yt

in dis rete points

y1 , y2 , ...yT .

That is, though

yt

is a ontinuous pro ess it is observed in

dis rete time. To perform inferen e on

θ,

dire t ML or GMM estimation is not usually feasible, be ause

one annot, in general, dedu e the transition density

f (yt |yt−1 , θ).

This density is ne essary

to evaluate the likelihood fun tion or to evaluate moment onditions (whi h are based upon expe tations with respe t to this density).



A typi al solution is to dis retize the model, by whi h we mean to nd a dis rete time approximation to the model. The dis retized version of the model is

yt − yt−1 = g(φ, yt−1 ) + h(φ, yt−1 )εt εt ∼ N (0, 1) The dis retization indu es a new parameter,

φ

(that is, the

φ0

whi h denes the best

approximation of the dis retization to the a tual (unknown) dis rete time version of the model is not equal to

θ0

whi h is the true parameter value). This is an approximation,

and as su h ML estimation of

φ

(whi h is a tually quasi-maximum likelihood, QML)

based upon this equation is in general biased and in onsistent for the original parameter,

θ.

Nevertheless, the approximation shouldn't be too bad, whi h will be useful, as we will

see.



The important point about these three examples is that omputational di ulties prevent dire t appli ation of ML, GMM, et . Nevertheless the model is fully spe ied in probabilisti terms up to a parameter ve tor. This means that the model is simulable,

onditional on the parameter ve tor.

19.2 Simulated maximum likelihood (SML) For simpli ity, onsider ross-se tional data. An ML estimator solves

n

1X θˆM L = arg max sn (θ) = ln p(yt |Xt , θ) n t=1

302

CHAPTER 19.

SIMULATION-BASED ESTIMATION

p(yt |Xt , θ) is the density fun tion of the tth observation. When p(yt |Xt , θ) does not have ˆM L is an infeasible estimator. However, it may be possible to dene a known losed form, θ

where a

random fun tion su h that

Eν f (ν, yt , Xt , θ) = p(yt |Xt , θ) where the density of

ν

is known. If this is the ase, the simulator

p˜ (yt , Xt , θ) =

H 1 X f (νts , yt , Xt , θ) H s=1

is unbiased for



p(yt |Xt , θ).

The SML simply substitutes tion, that is

p˜ (yt , Xt , θ) in pla e of p(yt |Xt , θ) in the log-likelihood fun n

1X θˆSM L = arg max sn (θ) = ln p˜ (yt , Xt , θ) n i=1

19.2.1 Example: multinomial probit Re all that the utility of alternative

j

is

uj = Xj β + εj and the ve tor

y

is formed of elements

yj = 1 [uj > uk , k ∈ m, k 6= j] The problem is that

Pr(yj = 1|θ)

an't be al ulated when

m

is larger than 4 or 5. However,

it is easy to simulate this probability.



Draw

ε˜i



Cal ulate



Dene



Repeat this

from the distribution

u ˜i = Xi β + ε˜i

N (0, Ω)

(where

Xi

is the matrix formed by sta king the

Xij )

y˜ij = 1 [uij > uik , ∀k ∈ m, k 6= j]

π ei

H

times and dene

m-ve tor

π eij =

PH

˜ijh h=1 y

π eij .

H



Dene



Now



The SML multinomial probit log-likelihood fun tion is

as the

formed of the

the elements sum to one.

p˜ (yi , Xi , θ) = yi′ π ei

Ea h element of

n

ln L(β, Ω) =

1X ′ yi ln p˜ (yi , Xi , θ) n i=1

π ei

is between 0 and 1, and

19.2.

303

SIMULATED MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD (SML)

This is to be maximized w.r.t.

β

and

Ω.

Notes: •

The

H

ε˜i

draws of

used to nd

βˆ

and

are draw

ˆ Ω.

only on e

and are used repeatedly during the iterations

The draws are dierent for ea h

i.

If the

ε˜i

are re-drawn at every

iteration the estimator will not onverge.



The log-likelihood fun tion with this simulator is a dis ontinuous fun tion of

β

Ω.

and

This does not ause problems from a theoreti al point of view sin e it an be shown that

ln L(β, Ω)

is sto hasti ally equi ontinuous. However, it does ause problems if one

attempts to use a gradient-based optimization method su h as Newton-Raphson.



It may be the ase, parti ularly if few simulations,



Solutions to dis ontinuity:

are zero. If the orresponding element of



yi

H , are used, that some elements

is equal to 1, there will be a

log(0)

of

π ei

problem.

1) use an estimation method that doesn't require a ontinuous and dierentiable obje tive fun tion, for example, simulated annealing. This is omputationally ostly.



2) Smooth the simulated probabilities so that they are ontinuous fun tions of the parameters. For example, apply a kernel transformation su h as





m

y˜ij = Φ A × uij − max uik where

y˜ij

A

k=1

uij

is the maximum. This makes

p



m

+ .5 × 1 uij = max uik k=1



is a large positive number. This approximates a step fun tion su h that

is very lose to zero if

therefore



is not the maximum, and

y˜ij

a ontinuous fun tion of

ln L(β, Ω) will be ontinuous and dierentiable.

A(n) → ∞,

y˜ij β

is very lose to 1 if and

Ω,

so that

p˜ij

uij

and

Consisten y requires that

so that the approximation to a step fun tion be omes arbitrarily lose

as the sample size in reases. There are alternative methods (e.g., Gibbs sampling) that may work better, but this is too te hni al to dis uss here.



To solve to log(0) problem, one possibility is to sear h the web for the slog fun tion. Also, in rease

H

if this is a serious problem.

19.2.2 Properties The properties of the SML estimator depend on how

H

is set. The following is taken from

Lee (1995) Asymptoti Bias in Simulated Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Dis rete Choi e Models,

E onometri Theory, 11, pp.

437-83.

Theorem 32 [Lee℄ 1) if limn→∞ n1/2 /H = 0, then  √  d n θˆSM L − θ 0 → N (0, I −1 (θ 0 ))

304

CHAPTER 19.

SIMULATION-BASED ESTIMATION

2) if limn→∞ n1/2 /H = λ, λ a nite onstant, then  √  d n θˆSM L − θ 0 → N (B, I −1 (θ 0 ))

where B is a nite ve tor of onstants. •



This means that the SML estimator is asymptoti ally biased if

H

doesn't grow faster

1/2 . than n

The var ov is the typi al inverse of the information matrix, so that as long as

H

grows

fast enough the estimator is onsistent and fully asymptoti ally e ient.

19.3 Method of simulated moments (MSM) Suppose we have a DGP(y|x, θ) whi h is simulable given

θ,

but is su h that the density of

y

is not al ulable. On e ould, in prin iple, base a GMM estimator upon the moment onditions

mt (θ) = [K(yt , xt ) − k(xt , θ)] zt where

k(xt , θ) = zt on

Z

K(yt , xt )p(y|xt , θ)dy,

is a ve tor of instruments in the information set and

xt . •

p(y|xt , θ) is the density of y

onditional

The problem is that this density is not available.

However

k(xt , θ)

is readily simulated using

H 1 X e k (xt , θ) = K(e yth , xt ) H h=1



By the law of large numbers,

a.s. e k (xt , θ) → k (xt , θ) ,

as

H → ∞,

whi h provides a lear

intuitive basis for the estimator, though in fa t we obtain onsisten y even for sin e a law of large numbers is also operating a ross the

n

H

nite,

observations of real data, so

errors introdu ed by simulation an el themselves out.



This allows us to form the moment onditions

h i m ft (θ) = K(yt , xt ) − e k (xt , θ) zt

(19.2)

19.3.

305

METHOD OF SIMULATED MOMENTS (MSM)

where

zt

is drawn from the information set. As before, form

n

m(θ) e = =

1X m ft (θ) n i=1 " # n H 1X 1 X K(yt , xt ) − k(e yth , xt ) zt n H i=1

(19.3)

h=1

with whi h we form the GMM riterion and estimate as usual. Note that the unbiased simulator

k(e yth , xt )

appears linearly within the sums.

19.3.1 Properties Suppose that the optimal weighting matrix is used. M Fadden (ref. above) and Pakes and Pollard (refs.

above) show that the asymptoti distribution of the MSM estimator is very

similar to that of the infeasible GMM estimator. weighting matrix is used, and for

H

In parti ular, assuming that the optimal

nite,

      √  1 d ′ −1 n θˆM SM − θ 0 → N 0, 1 + D∞ Ω−1 D∞ H where



′ D∞ Ω−1 D∞

−1

(19.4)

is the asymptoti varian e of the infeasible GMM estimator.

That is, the asymptoti varian e is inated by a fa tor

1+1/H. For this reason the MSM

estimator is not fully asymptoti ally e ient relative to the infeasible GMM estimator, for

H

nite, but the e ien y loss is small and ontrollable, by setting

H

reasonably

large.



The estimator is asymptoti ally unbiased even for



If one doesn't use the optimal weighting matrix, the asymptoti var ov is just the ordi-



H = 1.

This is an advantage relative

to SML.

nary GMM var ov, inated by

1 + 1/H.

The above presentation is in terms of a spe i moment ondition based upon the onditional mean. Simulated GMM an be applied to moment onditions of any form.

19.3.2 Comments Why is SML in onsistent if an average of

H

is nite, while MSM is? The reason is that SML is based upon

logarithms of an unbiased simulator (the densities of the observations).

the multinomial probit model as an example, the log-likelihood fun tion is

n

ln L(β, Ω) =

1X ′ yi ln pi (β, Ω) n i=1

To use

306

CHAPTER 19.

The SML version is

SIMULATION-BASED ESTIMATION

n

ln L(β, Ω) =

1X ′ yi ln p˜i (β, Ω) n i=1

The problem is that

E ln(˜ pi (β, Ω)) 6= ln(E p˜i (β, Ω)) in spite of the fa t that

E p˜i (β, Ω) = pi (β, Ω) due to the fa t that (in the limit) is if

H

ln(·)

is a nonlinear transformation. The only way for the two to be equal

tends to innite so that

p˜ (·)

tends to

p (·).

The reason that MSM does not suer from this problem is that in this ase the unbiased simulator appears

linearly

within every sum of terms, and it appears within a sum over

n

(see

equation [19.3℄). Therefore the SLLN applies to an el out simulation errors, from whi h we get onsisten y.

That is, using simple notation for the random sampling ase, the moment

onditions

m(θ) ˜ =

=

" # n H 1X 1 X h K(yt , xt ) − k(e yt , xt ) zt n H i=1 h=1 " # n H X 1 1X k(xt , θ 0 ) + εt − [k(xt , θ) + ε˜ht ] zt n H i=1

(19.5)

(19.6)

h=1

onverge almost surely to

m ˜ ∞ (θ) = (note:

zt

Z



 k(x, θ 0 ) − k(x, θ) z(x)dµ(x).

is assume to be made up of fun tions of

xt ).

The obje tive fun tion onverges to

s∞ (θ) = m ˜ ∞ (θ)′ Ω−1 ˜ ∞ (θ) ∞m whi h obviously has a minimum at



θ0,

hen eforth onsisten y.

If you look at equation 19.6 a bit, you will see why the varian e ination fa tor is

(1+ H1 ).

19.4 E ient method of moments (EMM) The hoi e of whi h moments upon whi h to base a GMM estimator an have very pronoun ed ee ts upon the e ien y of the estimator.

• •

A poor hoi e of moment onditions may lead to very ine ient estimators, and an even ause identi ation problems (as we've seen with the GMM problem set). The drawba k of the above approa h MSM is that the moment onditions used in estimation are sele ted arbitrarily. low.

The asymptoti e ien y of the estimator may be

19.4.



307

EFFICIENT METHOD OF MOMENTS (EMM)

The asymptoti ally optimal hoi e of moments would be the s ore ve tor of the likelihood fun tion,

mt (θ) = Dθ ln pt (θ | It ) As before, this hoi e is unavailable. The e ient method of moments (EMM) (see Gallant and Tau hen (1996), Whi h Moments to Mat h?, ECONOMETRIC THEORY, Vol.

12, 1996, pages 657-681) seeks to provide

moment onditions that losely mimi the s ore ve tor. If the approximation is very good, the resulting estimator will be very nearly fully e ient. The DGP is hara terized by random sampling from the density

p(yt |xt , θ 0 ) ≡ pt (θ 0 ) We an dene an auxiliary model, alled the s ore generator, whi h simply provides a (misspe ied) parametri density

f (y|xt , λ) ≡ ft (λ) •

λ.

This density is known up to a parameter

is

We assume that this density fun tion

al ulable. Therefore quasi-ML estimation is possible. Spe i ally,

n

X ˆ = arg max sn (λ) = 1 ln ft (λ). λ Λ n t=1

ˆ λ

ˆ . Dλ ln f (yt |xt , λ)



After determining



The important point is that even if the density is misspe ied, there is a pseudo-true

and then marginalized over

0

∃λ : EX EY |X



 Dλ ln f (y|x, λ ) = 0

x

X

n

X ˆ = 1 mn (θ, λ) n

Dλ ln f (y|x, λ0 )p(y|x, θ 0 )dydµ(x) = 0

Y |X

We have seen in the se tion on QML that

onditions

is zero:

Z Z

t=1



λ0

for whi h the true expe tation, taken with respe t to the true but unknown density of

y, p(y|xt , θ 0 ),



we an al ulate the s ore fun tions

Z

p ˆ → λ λ0 ;

this suggests using the moment

ˆ t (θ)dy Dλ ln ft (λ)p

These moment onditions are not al ulable, sin e

pt (θ)

(19.7)

is not available, but they are

simulable using

n H 1X 1 X ˆ ˆ Dλ ln f (e yth |xt , λ) m fn (θ, λ) = n t=1 H h=1

where

y˜th

is a draw from

onverges to

DGP (θ),

holding

xt

xed.

λ0 , m e ∞ (θ 0 , λ0 ) = 0.

By the LLN and the fa t that

ˆ λ

308

CHAPTER 19.

θ,

This is not the ase for other values of



assuming that

λ0

is identied.

f (yt |xt , λ) losely approximates p(y|xt , θ), then

The advantage of this pro edure is that if

ˆ m e n (θ, λ)

SIMULATION-BASED ESTIMATION

will losely approximate the optimal moment onditions whi h hara terize

maximum likelihood estimation, whi h is fully e ient.

• •

If one has prior information that a ertain density approximates the data well, it would be a good hoi e for

f (·).

If one has no density in mind, there exist good ways of approximating unknown distri-

E onometri a, 1983) and Gallant and Ny hka's

butions parametri ally: Philips' ERA's (

E onometri a, 1987)

(

SNP density estimator whi h we saw before. Sin e the SNP den-

sity is onsistent, the e ien y of the indire t estimator is the same as the infeasible ML estimator.

19.4.1 Optimal weighting matrix I will present the theory for impra ti al to estimate with

H

H

nite, and possibly small. This is done be ause it is sometimes

H

very large. Gallant and Tau hen give the theory for the ase of

so large that it may be treated as innite (the dieren e being irrelevant given the numeri al

pre ision of a omputer). The theory for the ase of

H

innite follows dire tly from the results

presented here. The moment ondition

ˆ m(θ, e λ)

depends on the pseudo-ML estimate

ˆ λ.

We an apply

Theorem 22 to on lude that

   √  d ˆ − λ0 → n λ N 0, J (λ0 )−1 I(λ0 )J (λ0 )−1

If the density

ˆ were in fa t the true density p(y|xt , θ), then λ ˆ would be the maximum f (yt|xt , λ)

likelihood estimator, and

J (λ0 )−1 I(λ0 )

would be an identity matrix, due to the information

matrix equality. However, in the present ase we assume that mation to

(19.8)

p(y|xt , θ),

Re all that

so there is no an ellation.

J (λ0 ) ≡ p lim





∂2 0 ∂λ∂λ′ sn (λ )

.

ˆ f (yt |xt , λ)

is only an approxi-

Comparing the denition of

sn (λ)

with the

denition of the moment ondition in Equation 19.7, we see that

J (λ0 ) = Dλ′ m(θ 0 , λ0 ). As in Theorem 22,

  ∂sn (λ) ∂sn (λ) . I(λ ) = lim E n n→∞ ∂λ λ0 ∂λ′ λ0 0

In this ase, this is simply the asymptoti varian e ovarian e matrix of the moment onditions,

Ω.

Now take a rst order Taylor's series approximation to



ˆ = nm ˜ n (θ 0 , λ)



nm ˜ n (θ 0 , λ0 ) +





ˆ nmn (θ 0 , λ)

about

λ0

  ˆ − λ0 + op (1) ˜ 0 , λ0 ) λ nDλ′ m(θ

:

19.4.

309

EFFICIENT METHOD OF MOMENTS (EMM)

First onsider



nm ˜ n (θ 0 , λ0 ).

It is straightforward but somewhat tedious to show that the

asymptoti varian e of this term is Next onsider the se ond term

J (λ0 ),

1 0 H I∞ (λ ).



so we have



  ˆ − λ0 . ˜ 0 , λ0 ) λ nDλ′ m(θ

Note that

a.s.

˜ n (θ 0 , λ0 ) → Dλ′ m

 √    ˆ − λ0 = nJ (λ0 ) λ ˆ − λ0 , a.s. ˜ 0 , λ0 ) λ nDλ′ m(θ

But noting equation 19.8

    √ a ˆ − λ0 ∼ nJ (λ0 ) λ N 0, I(λ0 )

Now, ombining the results for the rst and se ond terms,

    √ 1 0 0 ˆ a I(λ ) nm ˜ n (θ , λ) ∼ N 0, 1 + H Suppose that

\ 0) I(λ

is a onsistent estimator of the asymptoti varian e- ovarian e matrix of

the moment onditions. This may be ompli ated if the s ore generator is a poor approximator, sin e the individual s ore ontributions may not have mean zero in this ase (see the se tion on QML) . Even if this is the ase, the individuals means an be al ulated by simulation, so it is always possible to onsistently estimate

I(λ0 )

when the model is simulable. On the

other hand, if the s ore generator is taken to be orre tly spe ied, the ordinary estimator of the information matrix is onsistent.

Combining this with the result on the e ient GMM

weighting matrix in Theorem 25, we see that dening

ˆ ′ θˆ = arg min mn (θ, λ) Θ

θˆ as

 −1  1 \ 0 ˆ mn (θ, λ) 1+ I(λ ) H

is the GMM estimator with the e ient hoi e of weighting matrix.



If one has used the Gallant-Ny hka ML estimator as the auxiliary model, the appropriate weighting matrix is simply the information matrix of the auxiliary model, sin e the s ores are un orrelated. (e.g., it really is ML estimation asymptoti ally, sin e the s ore generator an approximate the unknown density arbitrarily well).

19.4.2 Asymptoti distribution Sin e we use the optimal weighting matrix, the asymptoti distribution is as in Equation 15.3, so we have (using the result in Equation 19.8):

 !−1    −1  √  1 d ′ , n θˆ − θ 0 → N 0, D∞ 1 + D∞ I(λ0 ) H where

  D∞ = lim E Dθ m′n (θ 0 , λ0 ) . n→∞

310

CHAPTER 19.

SIMULATION-BASED ESTIMATION

This an be onsistently estimated using

ˆ λ) ˆ ˆ = Dθ m′n (θ, D

19.4.3 Diagnoti testing     √ 1 0 ˆ a 0 nmn (θ , λ) ∼ N 0, 1 + I(λ ) H

The fa t that

implies that

ˆ λ) ˆ ′ nmn (θ, where

  −1 1 a 2 ˆ λ) ˆ ∼ ˆ 1+ mn (θ, χ (q) I(λ) H

q is dim(λ)−dim(θ), sin e without dim(θ) moment onditions the model is not identied,

so testing is impossible. One test of the model is simply based on this statisti : if it ex eeds the

χ2 (q)

riti al point, something may be wrong (the small sample performan e of this sort

of test would be a topi worth investigating).



Information about what is wrong an be gotten from the pseudo-t-statisti s:

diag



1 1+ H



1/2 !−1 √ ˆ λ) ˆ ˆ nmn (θ, I(λ)

an be used to test whi h moments are not well modeled.

Sin e these moments are

related to parameters of the s ore generator, whi h are usually related to ertain features of the model, this information an be used to revise the model. These aren't a tually

√ ˆ and √nmn (θ, ˆ λ) ˆ have dierent distributions N (0, 1), sin e nmn (θ 0 , λ) √ ˆ λ) ˆ is somewhat more ompli ated). It an be shown that the pseudo-t nmn (θ, of

distributed as (that

statisti s are biased toward nonreje tion. See Gourieroux

et. al.

or Gallant and Long,

1995, for more details.

19.5 Examples 19.5.1 SML of a Poisson model with latent heterogeneity We have seen (see equation 16.1) that a Poisson model with latent heterogeneity that follows an exponential distribution leads to the negative binomial model. To illustrate SML, we an integrate out the latent heterogeneity using Monte Carlo, rather than the analyti al approa h whi h leads to the negative binomial model. In a tual pra ti e, one would not want to use SML in this ase, but it is a ni e example sin e it allows us to ompare SML to the a tual ML estimator. The O tave fun tion dened by PoissonLatentHet.m al ulates the simulated log likelihood for a Poisson model where

λ = exp x′t β + ση),

where

η ∼ N (0, 1).

This model is

similar to the negative binomial model, ex ept that the latent variable is normally distributed rather than gamma distributed.

The O tave s ript EstimatePoissonLatentHet.m estimates

this model using the MEPS OBDV data that has already been dis ussed. Note that simulated

19.5.

311

EXAMPLES

annealing is used to maximize the log likelihood fun tion. Attempting to use BFGS leads to trouble. I suspe t that the log likelihood is approximately non-dierentiable in pla es, around whi h it is very at, though I have not he ked if this is true. If you run this s ript, you will see that it takes a long time to get the estimation results, whi h are:

****************************************************** Poisson Latent Heterogeneity model, SML estimation, MEPS 1996 full data set MLE Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Max. iters. ex eeded Average Log-L: -2.171826 Observations: 4564 estimate

onstant pub. ins. priv. ins. sex age edu in lnalpha

st. err -1.592 1.189 0.655 0.615 0.018 0.024 -0.000 0.203

t-stat 0.146 0.068 0.065 0.044 0.002 0.010 0.000 0.014

p-value -10.892 17.425 10.124 13.888 10.865 2.523 -0.531 14.036

0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.012 0.596 0.000

Information Criteria CAIC : 19899.8396 Avg. CAIC: 4.3602 BIC : 19891.8396 Avg. BIC: 4.3584 AIC : 19840.4320 Avg. AIC: 4.3472 ****************************************************** o tave:3>

If you ompare these results to the results for the negative binomial model, given in subse tion (16.2.1), you an see that the present model ts better a

ording to the CAIC riterion. The present model is onsiderably less onvenient to work with, however, due to the omputational requirements. The hapter on parallel omputing is relevant if you wish to use models of this sort.

19.5.2 SMM To be added in future:

do SMM using un onditional moments for SV model ( ompare to

Andersen et al and others)

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CHAPTER 19.

SIMULATION-BASED ESTIMATION

19.5.3 SNM To be added.

19.5.4 EMM estimation of a dis rete hoi e model In this se tion onsider EMM estimation.

There is a sophisti ated pa kage by Gallant and

Tau hen for this, but here we'll look at some simple, but hopefully dida ti ode.

The le

probitdgp.m generates data that follows the probit model. The le emm_moments.m denes EMM moment onditions, where the DGP and s ore generator an be passed as arguments. Thus, it is a general purpose moment ondition for EMM estimation. This le is interesting enough to warrant some dis ussion. A listing appears in Listing 19.1. Line 3 denes the DGP, and the arguments needed to evaluate it are dened in line 4. The s ore generator is dened in line 5, and its arguments are dened in line 6. The QML estimate of the parameter of the s ore generator is read in line 7. Note in line 10 how the random draws needed to simulate data are passed with the data, and are thus xed during estimation, to avoid  hattering. The simulated data is generated in line 16, and the derivative of the s ore generator using the simulated data is al ulated in line 18. In line 20 we average the s ores of the s ore generator, whi h are the moment onditions that the fun tion returns. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

fun tion s ores = emm_moments(theta, data, momentargs) k = momentargs{1}; dgp = momentargs{2}; # the data generating pro ess (DGP) dgpargs = momentargs{3}; # its arguments ( ell array) sg = momentargs{4}; # the s ore generator (SG) sgargs = momentargs{5}; # SG arguments ( ell array) phi = momentargs{6}; # QML estimate of SG parameter y = data(:,1); x = data(:,2:k+1); rand_draws = data(:,k+2: olumns(data)); # passed with data to ensure fixed a ross iterations n = rows(y); s ores = zeros(n,rows(phi)); # ontainer for moment ontributions reps = olumns(rand_draws); # how many simulations? for i = 1:reps e = rand_draws(:,i); y = feval(dgp, theta, x, e, dgpargs); # simulated data sgdata = [y x℄; # simulated data for SG s ores = s ores + numgradient(sg, {phi, sgdata, sgargs}); # gradient of SG endfor s ores = s ores / reps; # average over number of simulations endfun tion Listing 19.1: emm_moments.m The le emm_example.m performs EMM estimation of the probit model, using a logit model as the s ore generator. The results we obtain are

19.5.

313

EXAMPLES

S ore generator results: ===================================================== BFGSMIN final results Used analyti gradient -----------------------------------------------------STRONG CONVERGENCE Fun tion onv 1 Param onv 1 Gradient onv 1 -----------------------------------------------------Obje tive fun tion value 0.281571 Stepsize 0.0279 15 iterations -----------------------------------------------------param 1.8979 1.6648 1.9125 1.8875 1.7433

gradient 0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0000 -0.0000

hange 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000

====================================================== Model results: ****************************************************** EMM example GMM Estimation Results BFGS onvergen e: Normal onvergen e Obje tive fun tion value: 0.000000 Observations: 1000 Exa tly identified, no spe . test estimate st. err t-stat p-value p1 1.069 0.022 47.618 0.000 p2 0.935 0.022 42.240 0.000 p3 1.085 0.022 49.630 0.000 p4 1.080 0.022 49.047 0.000 p5 0.978 0.023 41.643 0.000 ******************************************************

It might be interesting to ompare the standard errors with those obtained from ML estimation, to he k e ien y of the EMM estimator. study.

One ould even do a Monte Carlo

314

CHAPTER 19.

SIMULATION-BASED ESTIMATION

19.6 Exer ises 1. (basi ) Examine the O tave s ript and fun tion dis ussed in subse tion 19.5.1 and des ribe what they do. 2. (basi ) Examine the O tave s ripts and fun tions dis ussed in subse tion 19.5.4 and des ribe what they do. 3. (advan ed, but even if you don't do this you should be able to des ribe what needs to be done) Write O tave ode to do SML estimation of the probit model. Do an estimation using data generated by a probit model ( probitdgp.m might be helpful). Compare the SML estimates to ML estimates. 4. (more advan ed) Do a little Monte Carlo study to ompare ML, SML and EMM estimation of the probit model. Investigate how the number of simulations ae t the two simulation-based estimators.

Chapter 20 Parallel programming for e onometri s The following borrows heavily from Creel (2005). Parallel omputing an oer an important redu tion in the time to omplete omputations. This is well-known, but it bears emphasis sin e it is the main reason that parallel omputing may be attra tive to users. To illustrate, the Intel Pentium IV (Willamette) pro essor, running at 1.5GHz, was introdu ed in November of 2000. The Pentium IV (Northwood-HT) pro essor, running at 3.06GHz, was introdu ed in November of 2002. An approximate doubling of the performan e of a ommodity CPU took pla e in two years.

Extrapolating this admittedly

rough snapshot of the evolution of the performan e of ommodity pro essors, one would need to wait more than 6.6 years and then pur hase a new omputer to obtain a 10-fold improvement in omputational performan e. The examples in this hapter show that a 10-fold improvement in performan e an be a hieved immediately, using distributed parallel omputing on available

omputers. Re ent (this is written in 2005) developments that may make parallel omputing attra tive to a broader spe trum of resear hers who do omputations. The rst is the fa t that setting up a luster of omputers for distributed parallel omputing is not di ult. If you are using the ParallelKnoppix bootable CD that a

ompanies these notes, you are less than 10 minutes away from reating a luster, supposing you have a se ond omputer at hand and a rossover ethernet able. See the ParallelKnoppix tutorial. A se ond development is the existen e of extensions to some of the high-level matrix programming (HLMP) languages

1

that allow the

in orporation of parallelism into programs written in these languages. A third is the spread of dual and quad- ore CPUs, so that an ordinary desktop or laptop omputer an be made into a mini- luster. Those ores won't work together on a single problem unless they are told how to. Following are examples of parallel implementations of several mainstream problems in e onometri s. A fo us of the examples is on the possibility of hiding parallelization from end users of programs. If programs that run in parallel have an interfa e that is nearly identi al to the interfa e of equivalent serial versions, end users will nd it easy to take advantage of parallel omputing's performan e. 1

We ontinue to use O tave, taking advantage of the

By high-level matrix programming language I mean languages su h as MATLAB (TM the Mathworks,

In .), Ox (TM OxMetri s Te hnologies, Ltd.), and GNU O tave (www.o tave.org), for example.

315

316

CHAPTER 20.

PARALLEL PROGRAMMING FOR ECONOMETRICS

MPI Toolbox (MPITB) for O tave, by by Fernández Baldomero

et al.

(2004).

There are

also parallel pa kages for Ox, R, and Python whi h may be of interest to e onometri ians, but as of this writing, the following examples are the most a

essible introdu tion to parallel programming for e onometri ians.

20.1 Example problems This se tion introdu es example problems from e onometri s, and shows how they an be parallelized in a natural way.

20.1.1 Monte Carlo A Monte Carlo study involves repeating a random experiment many times under identi al

onditions. Several authors have noted that Monte Carlo studies are obvious andidates for parallelization (Doornik

et al.

2002; Bru he, 2003) sin e blo ks of repli ations an be done

independently on dierent omputers. To illustrate the parallelization of a Monte Carlo study, we use same tra e test example as do Doornik,

et. al.

(2002). tra etest.m is a fun tion that

al ulates the tra e test statisti for the la k of ointegration of integrated time series. This fun tion is illustrative of the format that we adopt for Monte Carlo simulation of a fun tion: it re eives a single argument of ell type, and it returns a row ve tor that holds the results of one random simulation. The single argument in this ase is a ell array that holds the length of the series in its rst position, and the number of series in the se ond position. It generates a random result though a pro ess that is internal to the fun tion, and it reports some output in a row ve tor (in this ase the result is a s alar). m _example1.m is an O tave s ript that exe utes a Monte Carlo study of the tra e test by repeatedly evaluating the

tra etest.m

is that lines 7 and 10 all the fun tion in line 7,

monte arlo.m

fun tion. The main thing to noti e about this s ript

monte arlo.m.

When alled with 3 arguments, as

exe utes serially on the omputer it is alled from. In line 10, there

is a fourth argument. When alled with four arguments, the last argument is the number of slave hosts to use. We see that running the Monte Carlo study on one or more pro essors is transparent to the user - he or she must only indi ate the number of slave omputers to be used.

20.1.2 ML For a sample

{(yt , xt )}n

of

n observations of a set of dependent

maximum likelihood estimator of the parameter

θ

an be dened as

θˆ = arg max sn (θ) where

n

sn (θ) =

and explanatory variables, the

1X ln f (yt |xt , θ) n t=1

20.1.

EXAMPLE PROBLEMS

Here,

yt

317

may be a ve tor of random variables, and the model may be dynami sin e

ontain lags of

yt .

xt

may

As Swann (2002) points out, this an be broken into sums over blo ks of

observations, for example two blo ks:

1 sn (θ) = n

(

n1 X t=1

Analogously, we an dene up to

!

ln f (yt |xt , θ)

n blo ks.

+

n X

t=n1 +1

!)

ln f (yt |xt , θ)

Again following Swann, parallelization an be done

by al ulating ea h blo k on separate omputers. mle_example1.m is an O tave s ript that al ulates the maximum likelihood estimator of the parameter ve tor of a model that assumes that the dependent variable is distributed as a Poisson random variable, onditional on some explanatory variables. In lines 1-3 the data is

model, and the initial value mle_estimate performs ordinary serial

read, the name of the density fun tion is provided in the variable of the parameter ve tor is set. In line 5, the fun tion

al ulation of the ML estimator, while in line 7 the same fun tion is alled with 6 arguments. The fourth and fth arguments are empty pla eholders where options to

mle_estimate may be

set, while the sixth argument is the number of slave omputers to use for parallel exe ution, 1 in this ase.

A person who runs the program sees no parallel programming ode - the

parallelization is transparent to the end user, beyond having to sele t the number of slave

theta_p,

whi h

It is worth noting that a dierent likelihood fun tion may be used by making the

model

omputers. When exe uted, this s ript prints out the estimates

theta_s

and

are identi al.

variable point to a dierent fun tion. fun tion that is not parallelized. The

The likelihood fun tion itself is an ordinary O tave

mle_estimate

fun tion is a generi fun tion that an

all any likelihood fun tion that has the appropriate input/output syntax for evaluation either serially or in parallel.

Users need only learn how to write the likelihood fun tion using the

O tave language.

20.1.3 GMM For a sample as above, the GMM estimator of the parameter

θˆ ≡ arg min sn (θ) Θ

where

sn (θ) = mn (θ)′ Wn mn (θ) and

n

mn (θ) =

1X mt (yt |xt , θ) n t=1

θ

an be dened as

318

CHAPTER 20.

Sin e

PARALLEL PROGRAMMING FOR ECONOMETRICS

mn (θ) is an average, it an obviously be omputed blo kwise, using for example 2 blo ks: 1 mn (θ) = n

(

n1 X t=1

n

Likewise, we may dene up to

!

mt (yt |xt , θ)

n X

+

t=n1 +1

!)

mt (yt |xt , θ)

(20.1)

blo ks, ea h of whi h ould potentially be omputed on a

dierent ma hine. gmm_example1.m is a s ript that illustrates how GMM estimation may be done serially or in parallel. When this is run,

theta_s

onvergen e of the minimization routine.

and

theta_p

are identi al up to the toleran e for

The point to noti e here is that an end user an

perform the estimation in parallel in virtually the same way as it is done serially.

Again,

gmm_estimate,

used in lines 8 and 10, is a generi fun tion that will estimate any model

spe ied by the

moments

of the

moments

variable - a dierent model an be estimated by hanging the value

variable. The fun tion that

moments

points to is an ordinary O tave fun tion

that uses no parallel programming, so users an write their models using the simple and intuitive HLMP syntax of O tave. Whether estimation is done in parallel or serially depends only the seventh argument to

gmm_estimate

- when it is missing or zero, estimation is by

default done serially with one pro essor. When it is positive, it spe ies the number of slave nodes to use.

20.1.4 Kernel regression The Nadaraya-Watson kernel regression estimator of a fun tion

g(x)

at a point

x

is

Pn yt K [(x − xt ) /γn ] Pt=1 n t=1 K [(x − xt ) /γn ] n X wt yy ≡

gˆ(x) =

t=1

We see that the weight depends upon every data point in the sample. at every point in a sample of size

n,

To al ulate the t

2 on the order of n k al ulations must be done, where

is the dimension of the ve tor of explanatory variables,

x.

k

Ra ine (2002) demonstrates that

MPI parallelization an be used to speed up al ulation of the kernel regression estimator by al ulating the ts for portions of the sample on dierent omputers.

We follow this

implementation here. kernel_example1.m is a s ript for serial and parallel kernel regression. Serial exe ution is obtained by setting the number of slaves equal to zero, in line 15. In line 17, a single slave is spe ied, so exe ution is in parallel on the master and slave nodes. The example programs show that parallelization may be mostly hidden from end users. Users an benet from parallelization without having to write or understand parallel ode. The speedups one an obtain are highly dependent upon the spe i problem at hand, as well as the size of the luster, the e ien y of the network,

et .

Some examples of speedups are

presented in Creel (2005). Figure 20.1 reprodu es speedups for some e onometri problems on a luster of 12 desktop omputers. The speedup for

k

nodes is the time to nish the problem

20.1.

319

EXAMPLE PROBLEMS

Figure 20.1: Speedups from parallelization 11 10

MONTECARLO BOOTSTRAP MLE GMM KERNEL

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2

4

6

8

10

12

nodes

on a single node divided by the time to nish the problem on

k

nodes. Note that you an get

10X speedups, as laimed in the introdu tion. It's pretty obvious that mu h greater speedups

ould be obtained using a larger luster, for the embarrassingly parallel problems.

320

CHAPTER 20.

PARALLEL PROGRAMMING FOR ECONOMETRICS

Bibliography [1℄ Bru he, M. (2003) A note on embarassingly parallel omputation using OpenMosix and Ox, working paper, Finan ial Markets Group, London S hool of E onomi s. [2℄ Creel, M. (2005) User-friendly parallel omputations with e onometri examples,

putational E onomi s, V. 26, pp. 107-128.

Com-

[3℄ Doornik, J.A., D.F. Hendry and N. Shephard (2002) Computationally-intensive e onometri s using a distributed matrix-programming language,

the Royal So iety of London, Series A, 360, 1245-1266.

Philosophi al Transa tions of

[4℄ Fernández Baldomero, J. (2004) LAM/MPI parallel omputing under GNU O tave,

at .ugr.es/javier-bin/mpitb. [5℄ Ra ine, Je (2002) Parallel distributed kernel estimation,

Data Analysis, 40, 293-302.

Computational Statisti s &

[6℄ Swann, C.A. (2002) Maximum likelihood estimation using parallel omputing: an introdu tion to MPI,

Computational E onomi s, 19, 145-178.

321

322

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chapter 21 Final proje t: e onometri estimation of a RBC model THIS IS NOT FINISHED - IGNORE IT FOR NOW In this last hapter we'll go through a worked example that ombines a number of the topi s we've seen. We'll do simulated method of moments estimation of a real business y le model, similar to what Valderrama (2002) does.

21.1 Data We'll develop a model for private onsumption and real gross private investment. The data are obtained from the US Bureau of E onomi Analysis (BEA) National In ome and Produ t A

ounts (NIPA), Table 11.1.5, Lines 2 and 6 (you an download quarterly data from 1947-I to the present). The data we use are in the le rb _data.m. This data is real ( onstant dollars). The program plots.m will make a few plots, in luding Figures 21.1 though 21.3.

First

looking at the plot for levels, we an see that real onsumption and investment are learly nonstationary (surprise, surprise). There appears to be somewhat of a stru tural hange in the mid-1970's. Looking at growth rates, the series for onsumption has an extended period of high growth in the 1970's, be oming more moderate in the 90's. The volatility of growth of onsumption has de lined somewhat, over time. Looking at investment, there are some notable periods of high volatility in the mid-1970's and early 1980's, for example. Sin e 1990 or so, volatility seems to have de lined. E onomi models for growth often imply that there is no long term growth (!) - the data that the models generate is stationary and ergodi .

Or, the data that the models generate

needs to be passed through the inverse of a lter. We'll follow this, and generate stationary business y le data by applying the bandpass lter of Christiano and Fitzgerald (1999). The ltered data is in Figure 21.3. We'll try to spe ify an e onomi model that an generate similar

Figure 21.1: Consumption and Investment, Levels

323

324CHAPTER 21. FINAL PROJECT: ECONOMETRIC ESTIMATION OF A RBC MODEL

Figure 21.2: Consumption and Investment, Growth Rates

Figure 21.3: Consumption and Investment, Bandpass Filtered

data. To get data that look like the levels for onsumption and investment, we'd need to apply the inverse of the bandpass lter.

21.2 An RBC Model Consider a very simple sto hasti growth model (the same used by Maliar and Maliar (2003), with minor notational dieren e):

max{ct ,kt }∞ E0 t=0

P∞

t=0 β

t U (c ) t α (1 − δ) kt−1 + φt kt−1

ct + kt

=

log φt

=

ρ log φt−1 + ǫt

ǫt



IIN (0, σǫ2 )

Assume that the utility fun tion is

U (ct ) =

c1−γ −1 t 1−γ

• β

is the dis ount rate

• δ

is the depre iation rate of apital

• α

is the elasti ity of output with respe t to apital

• φ

is a te hnology sho k that is positive.

• γ

is the oe ient of relative risk aversion. When

φt

is observed in period

γ = 1,

t.

the utility fun tion is logarith-

mi .



gross investment,

it ,

is the hange in the apital sto k:

it = kt − (1 − δ) kt−1 •

we assume that the initial ondition

We would like to estimate the parameters

(k0 , θ0 )

is given.

θ = β, γ, δ, α, ρ, σǫ2

′

using the data that we have

on onsumption and investment. This problem is very similar to the GMM estimation of the portfolio model dis ussed in Se tions 15.12 and 15.13. On e an derive the Euler ondition in the same way we did there, and use it to dene a GMM estimator. That approa h was not very su

essful, re all. Now we'll try to use some more informative moment onditions to see if we get better results.

21.3.

325

A REDUCED FORM MODEL

21.3 A redu ed form model Ma roe onomi time series data are often modeled using ve tor autoregressions. autogression is just the ve tor version of an autoregressive model.

Let

yt

be a

A ve tor

G-ve tor

of

jointly dependent variables. A VAR(p) model is

yt = c + A1 yt−1 + A2 yt−2 + ... + Ap yt−p + vt where

c is a G-ve tor of parameters, and Aj ,

vt = Rt ηt ,

where

ηt ∼ IIN (0, I2 ),

and

Rt

j=1,2,...,p, are

G×G matri es of parameters.

is upper triangular. So

Let ′

V (vt |yt−1 , ...yt−p ) = Rt Rt .

You an think of a VAR model as the redu ed form of a dynami linear simultaneous equations model where all of the variables are treated as endogenous. Clearly, if all of the variables are endogenous, one would need some form of additional information to identify a stru tural model.

But we already have a stru tural model, and we're only going to use the VAR to

help us estimate the parameters. A well-tting redu ed form model will be adequate for the purpose. We're seen that our data seems to have episodes where the varian e of growth rates and ltered data is non- onstant. This brings us to the general area of sto hasti volatility. Without going into details, we'll just onsider the exponential GARCH model of Nelson (1991) as presented in Hamilton (1994, pg. 668-669). Dene is a

3×1

ht = vec∗ (Rt ),

the ve tor of elements in the upper triangle of

Rt

(in our ase this

ve tor). We assume that the elements follow

n o p log hjt = κj + P(j,.) |vt−1 | − 2/π + ℵ(j,.) vt−1 + G(j,.) log ht−1

The varian e of the VAR error depends upon its own past, as well as upon the past realizations of the sho ks.



This is an EGARCH(1,1) spe i ation. The obvious generalization is the EGARCH(r, m)



The advantage of the EGARCH formulation is that the varian e is assuredly positive



The matrix

P

has dimension

3 × 2.



The matrix

G

has dimension

3 × 3.



The matrix





The parameter matrix



spe i ation, with longer lags (r for lags of

v, m

for lags of

h).

without parameter restri tions

(reminder to self: this is an aleph) has dimension



allows for

leverage,

2 × 2.

so that positive and negative sho ks an

have asymmetri ee ts upon volatility.

We will probably want to restri t these parameter matri es in some way. For instan e,

G

ould plausibly be diagonal.

326CHAPTER 21. FINAL PROJECT: ECONOMETRIC ESTIMATION OF A RBC MODEL

With the above spe i ation, we have

ηt ∼ IIN (0, I2 )

ηt = R−1 t vt and we know how to al ulate

Rt

and

vt ,

given the data and the parameters.

Thus, it is

straighforward to do estimation by maximum likelihood. This will be the s ore generator.

21.4 Results (I): The s ore generator 21.5 Solving the stru tural model The rst order ondition for the stru tural model is

  −γ α−1 c 1 − δ + αφ k c−γ = βE t+1 t t t t+1

or

h n io −1 γ α−1 1 − δ + αφ k ct = βEt c−γ t+1 t t+1

The problem is that we annot solve for

ct sin e we do not know the solution for the expe tation

in the previous equation. The parameterized expe tations algorithm (PEA: den Haan and Mar et, 1990), is a means of solving the problem. The expe tations term is repla ed by a parametri fun tion. As long as the parametri fun tion is a exible enough fun tion of variables that have been realized in period

t,

there exist parameter values that make the approximation as lose to the true

expe tation as is desired. We will write the approximation

h i α−1 1 − δ + αφ k ≃ exp (ρ0 + ρ1 log φt + ρ2 log kt−1 ) Et c−γ t+1 t t+1

For given values of the parameters of this approximating fun tion, we an solve for then for

kt

ct ,

and

using the restri tion that

α ct + kt = (1 − δ) kt−1 + φt kt−1 This allows us to generate a series by tting

{(ct , kt )}.

Then the expe tations approximation is updated

 α−1 c−γ = exp (ρ0 + ρ1 log φt + ρ2 log kt−1 ) + ηt t+1 1 − δ + αφt+1 kt

by nonlinear least squares. The 2 step pro edure of generating data and updating the parameters of the approximation to expe tations is iterated until the parameters no longer hange. When this is the ase, the expe tations fun tion is the best t to the generated data. As long it is a ri h enough parametri model to en ompass the true expe tations fun tion, it an be made to be equal to the true expe tations fun tion by using a long enough simulation. Thus, given the parameters of the stru tural model,

θ = β, γ, δ, α, ρ, σǫ2

′

, we an generate

21.5.

data

327

SOLVING THE STRUCTURAL MODEL

{(ct , kt )}

(1 − δ) kt−1 .

using the PEA. From this we an get the series

{(ct , it )}

using

it = kt −

This an be used to do EMM estimation using the s ores of the redu ed form

model to dene moments, using the simulated data from the stru tural model.

328CHAPTER 21. FINAL PROJECT: ECONOMETRIC ESTIMATION OF A RBC MODEL

Bibliography [1℄ Creel. M (2005) A Note on Parallelizing the Parameterized Expe tations Algorithm. [2℄ den Haan, W. and Mar et, A. (1990) Solving the sto hasti growth model by parameterized expe tations,

Journal of Business and E onomi s Statisti s, 8, 31-34.

[3℄ Hamilton, J. (1994)

Time Series Analysis, Prin eton Univ. Press

[4℄ Maliar, L. and Maliar, S. (2003) Matlab ode for Solving a Neo lassi al Growh Model with a Parametrized Expe tations Algorithm and Moving Bounds [5℄ Nelson, D. (1991) Conditional heteros edasti ity is asset returns: a new approa h,

metri a, 59, 347-70. [6℄ Valderrama, D. (2002) Statisti al nonlinearities in the business y le:

E ono-

a hallenge for

the anoni al RBC model, E onomi Resear h, Federal Reserve Bank of San Fran is o.

http://ideas.repe .org/p/fip/fedfap/2002-13.html

329

330

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chapter 22 Introdu tion to O tave Why is O tave being used here, sin e it's not that well-known by e onometri ians?

Well,

be ause it is a high quality environment that is easily extensible, uses well-tested and high performan e numeri al libraries, it is li ensed under the GNU GPL, so you an get it for free and modify it if you like, and it runs on both GNU/Linux, Ma OSX and Windows systems. It's also quite easy to learn.

22.1 Getting started Get the ParallelKnoppix CD, as was des ribed in Se tion 1.3. Then burn the image, and boot your omputer with it.

This will give you this same PDF le, but with all of the example

programs ready to run. The editor is ongure with a ma ro to exe ute the programs using O tave, whi h is of ourse installed. From this point, I assume you are running the CD (or sitting in the omputer room a ross the hall from my o e), or that you have ongured your

omputer to be able to run the

*.m

les mentioned below.

22.2 A short introdu tion The obje tive of this introdu tion is to learn just the basi s of O tave. There are other ways to use O tave, whi h I en ourage you to explore. These are just some rudiments. After this, you an look at the example programs s attered throughout the do ument (and edit them, and run them) to learn more about how O tave an be used to do e onometri s.

Students

of mine: your problem sets will in lude exer ises that an be done by modifying the example programs in relatively minor ways. So study the examples! O tave an be used intera tively, or it an be used to run programs that are written using a text editor. We'll use this se ond method, preparing programs with NEdit, and alling O tave from within the editor.

The program rst.m gets us started.

NEdit (by nding the orre t le inside the

To run this, open it up with

/home/knoppix/Desktop/E onometri s

folder

and li king on the i on) and then type CTRL-ALT-o, or use the O tave item in the Shell menu (see Figure 22.1).

331

332

CHAPTER 22.

INTRODUCTION TO OCTAVE

Figure 22.1: Running an O tave program

22.3.

333

IF YOU'RE RUNNING A LINUX INSTALLATION...

printf() doesn't reads  printf(hello

Note that the output is not formatted in a pleasing way. That's be ause automati ally start a new line.

world\n);

Edit

first.m

so that the 8th line

and re-run the program.

We need to know how to load and save data. The program se ond.m shows how. On e you have run this, you will nd the le  x in the dire tory

E onometri s/Examples/O taveIntro/

You might have a look at it with NEdit to see O tave's default format for saving data. Basi ally, if you have data in an ASCII text le, named for example  myfile.data, formed of numbers separated by spa es, just use the ommand  load

myfile.data.

After having done so, the

matrix  myfile (without extension) will ontain the data. Please have a look at CommonOperations.m for examples of how to do some basi things in O tave. Now that we're done with the basi s, have a look at the O tave programs that are in luded as examples. If you are looking at the browsable PDF version of this do ument, then you should be able to li k on links to open them. If not, the example programs are available here and the support les needed to run these are available here. Those pages will allow you to examine individual les, out of ontext. To a tually use these les (edit and run them), you should go to the home page of this do ument, sin e you will probably want to download the pdf version together with all the support les and examples. Or get the bootable CD. There are some other resour es for doing e onometri s with O tave.

he k the arti le E onometri s with O tave

You might like to

and the E onometri s Toolbox , whi h is for

Matlab, but mu h of whi h ould be easily used with O tave.

22.3 If you're running a Linux installation... Then to get the same behavior as found on the CD, you need to:



Get the olle tion of support programs and the examples, from the do ument home page.



Put them somewhere, and tell O tave how to nd them, e.g., by putting a link to the



MyO taveFiles dire tory in

/usr/lo al/share/o tave/site-m

Make sure nedit is installed and ongured to run O tave and use syntax highlighting. Copy the le

/home/e onometri s/.nedit

from the CD to do this.

Or, get the le

NeditConguration and save it in your $HOME dire tory with the name  .nedit. Not to put too ne a point on it, please note that there is a period in that name.



Asso iate

*.m

les with NEdit so that they open up in the editor when you li k on

them. That should do it.

334

CHAPTER 22.

INTRODUCTION TO OCTAVE

Chapter 23 Notation and Review •

All ve tors will be olumn ve tors, unless they have a transpose symbol (or I forget to apply this rule - your help at hing typos and er0rors is mu h appre iated). For example, if

xt

is a

ve tor.

p×1

ve tor,

x′t

is a

1×p

ve tor. When I refer to a

p-ve tor,

I mean a olumn

23.1 Notation for dierentiation of ve tors and matri es [3, Chapter 1℄ Let

s(·) : ℜp → ℜ

be a real valued fun tion of the

p-ve tor,



Following this onvention,

∂s(θ) ∂θ ′ is a

 ∂s(θ)  =  ∂θ  1×p

∂ 2 s(θ) ∂ = ∂θ∂θ ′ ∂θ

∂s(θ) ∂θ1 ∂s(θ) ∂θ2 . . .

∂s(θ) ∂θp

ve tor, and



∂s(θ) ∂θ ′



f (θ):ℜp → ℜn

valued transpose of



Produ t rule: p-ve tor θ .

f

be a

n-ve tor

. Then

Let

Then

f (θ):ℜp → ℜn

and

has dimension

1 × p.

∂ 2 s(θ) ∂θ∂θ ′ is a



∂a′ x ∂x

p×p

∂s(θ) ∂θ



.

= a. p-ve tor θ .

h(θ):ℜp → ℜn 

∂ f ∂θ ′



be

+f



n-ve tor 

 ∂ h ∂θ ′

Applying the transposition rule we get

∂ h(θ)′ f (θ) = ∂θ

matrix. Also,

∂ ∂θ ′ f (θ).

∂ h(θ)′ f (θ) = h′ ∂θ ′ 

   ∂ ′ ∂ ′ f h+ h f ∂θ ∂θ 335

∂s(θ) ∂θ is organized as a

    

valued fun tion of the

 ∂ ′ ′ = ∂θ f (θ)

Then



∂ = ′ ∂θ

Exer ise 33 For a and x both p-ve tors, show that Let

p-ve tor θ.

Let

f (θ)′

be the

1×n

valued fun tions of the

336

CHAPTER 23.

whi h has dimension

NOTATION AND REVIEW

p × 1.

Exer ise 34 For A a p × p matrix and x a p × 1 ve tor, show that •

Chain rule :

Let

r let g():ℜ

ℜp be a

has dimension



f (·):ℜp → ℜn p-ve tor

n × r.

a

n-ve tor

∂x′ Ax ∂x

valued fun tion of a

valued fun tion of an

r -ve tor

= A + A′ .

p-ve tor

argument, and

valued argument

ρ.

Then

∂ ∂ ∂ f [g (ρ)] = f (θ) g(ρ) ′ ′ ′ ∂ρ ∂θ ∂ρ θ=g(ρ)

Exer ise 35 For x and β both p × 1 ve tors, show that

∂ exp(x′ β) ∂β

= exp(x′ β)x.

23.2 Convergenge modes Readings:

[1, Chapter 4℄;[4, Chapter 4℄.

We will onsider several modes of onvergen e. The rst three modes dis ussed are simply for ba kground. The sto hasti modes are those whi h will be used later in the ourse.

Denition 36 A sequen e is a mapping from the natural numbers {1, 2, ...} = {n}∞ n=1 = {n}

to some other set, so that the set is ordered a

ording to the natural numbers asso iated with its elements.

Real-valued sequen es: A real-valued sequen e of ve tors {an } onverges to the ve tor a if for any ε > 0 there exists an integer Nε su h that for all n > Nε , k an − a k< ε . a is the limit of an , written an → a. Denition 37

[Convergen e℄

Deterministi real-valued fun tions Consider a sequen e of fun tions

{fn (ω)}

where

fn : Ω → T ⊆ ℜ. Ω

may be an arbitrary set.

A sequen e of fun tions {fn (ω)} onverges pointwise on Ω to the fun tion f (ω) if for all ε > 0 and ω ∈ Ω there exists an integer Nεω su h that Denition 38

[Pointwise onvergen e℄

|fn (ω) − f (ω)| < ε, ∀n > Nεω . It's important to note that rapid for ertain throughout

Ω.

ω

Nεω

depends upon

ω,

so that onverge may be mu h more

than for others. Uniform onvergen e requires a similar rate of onvergen e

23.2.

337

CONVERGENGE MODES

A sequen e of fun tions {fn (ω)} onverges on Ω to the fun tion f (ω) if for any ε > 0 there exists an integer N su h that Denition 39

[Uniform onvergen e℄

uniformly

sup |fn (ω) − f (ω)| < ε, ∀n > N.

ω∈Ω

(insert a diagram here showing the envelope around f (ω) in whi h fn(ω) must lie)

Sto hasti sequen es In e onometri s, we typi ally deal with sto hasti sequen es.

(Ω, F, P ) ,

Ω → ℜ.

Given a probability spa e

,

re all that a random variable maps the sample spa e to the real line

A sequen e of random variables

{Xn (ω)}

, X(ω) : i.e., ea h

i.e.

is a olle tion of su h mappings,

Xn (ω) is a random variable with respe t to the probability spa e (Ω, F, P ) . For example, given 0 ˆn = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ Y, where n is the sample size, the model Y = Xβ + ε, the OLS estimator β ˆn }. A number of modes of onvergen e are

an be used to form a sequen e of random ve tors {β in use when dealing with sequen es of random variables. Several su h modes of onvergen e

should already be familiar:

Let Xn (ω) be a sequen e of random variables, and let X(ω) be a random variable. Let An = {ω : |Xn (ω) − X(ω)| > ε}. Then {Xn (ω)} onverges in probability to X(ω) if

Denition 40

[Convergen e in probability℄

lim P (An ) = 0, ∀ε > 0.

n→∞

Convergen e in probability is written as

p

Xn → X,

or plim

Xn = X.

Let Xn (ω) be a sequen e of random variables, and let X(ω) be a random variable. Let A = {ω : limn→∞ Xn (ω) = X(ω)}. Then {Xn (ω)}

onverges almost surely to X(ω) if Denition 41

[Almost sure onvergen e℄

P (A) = 1. In other words, set

C = Ω−A

Xn → X, a.s.

Xn (ω) → X(ω)

su h that

(ordinary onvergen e of the two fun tions) ex ept on a

P (C) = 0.

Almost sure onvergen e is written as

One an show that

a.s.

Xn → X,

or

p

a.s.

Xn → X ⇒ Xn → X.

Let the r.v. Xn have distribution fun tion Fn and the r.v. Xn have distribution fun tion F. If Fn → F at every ontinuity point of F, then Xn onverges in distribution to X. Denition 42

[Convergen e in distribution℄

Convergen e in distribution is written as

d

Xn → X.

probability implies onvergen e in distribution.

It an be shown that onvergen e in

338

CHAPTER 23.

NOTATION AND REVIEW

Sto hasti fun tions Simple laws of large numbers (LLN's) allow us to dire tly on lude that example, sin e

βˆn = β 0 + and



X ′X n

−1 

X ′ε n



a.s. βˆn → β 0

in the OLS

,

a.s.

X′ε n

→0

by a SLLN. Note that this term is not a fun tion of the parameter

β.

This

easy proof is a result of the linearity of the model, whi h allows us to express the estimator in a way that separates parameters from random fun tions. In general, this is not possible. We often deal with the more ompli ated situation where the sto hasti sequen e depends on parameters in a manner that is not redu ible to a simple sequen e of random variables. In this ase, we have a sequen e of random fun tions that depend on

Xn (ω, θ) is a random θ

variable with respe t to a probability spa e

belongs to a parameter spa e

Denition 43

θ ∈ Θ.

[Uniform almost sure onvergen e℄

surely in Θ to X(ω, θ) if

{Xn (ω, θ)}

θ : {Xn (ω, θ)},

(Ω, F, P )

where ea h

and the parameter

onverges uniformly almost

lim sup |Xn (ω, θ) − X(ω, θ)| = 0, (a.s.)

n→∞ θ∈Θ

Impli it is the assumption that all

(Ω, F, P )

for all

θ ∈ Θ.

and

X(ω, θ)

are random variables w.r.t.

We'll indi ate uniform almost sure onvergen e by

onvergen e in probability by



Xn (ω, θ)

u.a.s.

u.p.

→ .



and uniform

An equivalent denition, based on the fa t that almost sure means with probability one is

Pr



 lim sup |Xn (ω, θ) − X(ω, θ)| = 0 = 1

n→∞ θ∈Θ

This has a form similar to that of the denition of a.s. dieren e is the addition of the

onvergen e - the essential

sup.

23.3 Rates of onvergen e and asymptoti equality It's often useful to have notation for the relative magnitudes of quantities. Quantities that are small relative to others an often be ignored, whi h simplies analysis.

Denition 44 o(g(n))

means

[Little-o℄

Let f (n) and g(n) be two real-valued fun tions. The notation f (n) =

(n) limn→∞ fg(n)

= 0.

Let f (n) and g(n) be two real-valued fun tions. The notation f (n) = f (n) O(g(n)) means there exists some N su h that for n > N, g(n) < K, where K is a nite

onstant. Denition 45

[Big-O℄

This denition doesn't require that If

{fn }

and

{gn }

f (n) g(n) have a limit (it may u tuate boundedly).

are sequen es of random variables analogous denitions are

23.3.

339

RATES OF CONVERGENCE AND ASYMPTOTIC EQUALITY

Denition 46 The notation f (n) = op (g(n)) means

f (n) p g(n) →

0.

 Example 47 The least squares estimator θˆ = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ Y = (X ′ X)−1 X ′ Xθ 0 + ε = θ 0 +

(X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε. Sin e plim (X

′ X)−1 X ′ ε

1

= 0, we an write (X ′ X)−1 X ′ ε = op (1) and θˆ = θ 0 +op (1).

Asymptoti ally, the term op (1) is negligible. This is just a way of indi ating that the LS estimator is onsistent.

Denition 48 The notation f (n) = Op (g(n)) means there exists some Nε su h that for ε > 0

and all n > Nε ,

where Kε is a nite onstant.

  f (n) P < Kε > 1 − ε, g(n)

Example 49 If Xn ∼ N (0, 1) then Xn = Op (1), sin e, given ε, there is always some Kε su h

that P (|Xn | < Kε ) > 1 − ε. Useful rules:

• Op (np )Op (nq ) = Op (np+q ) • op (np )op (nq ) = op (np+q )

Example 50 Consider a random sample of iid r.v.'s with mean 0 and varian e σ2 . The P

A estimator of the mean θˆ = 1/n ni=1 xi is asymptoti ally normally distributed, e.g., n1/2 θˆ ∼ N (0, σ 2 ). So n1/2 θˆ = Op (1), so θˆ = Op (n−1/2 ). Before we had θˆ = op (1), now we have have the stronger result that relates the rate of onvergen e to the sample size.

Example 51 Now onsider a random sample of iid r.v.'s with mean µ and varian e σ2 . P

n ˆ The estimator  of the mean θ = 1/n  i=1 xi is asymptoti ally normally distributed, e.g., A n1/2 θˆ − µ ∼ N (0, σ 2 ). So n1/2 θˆ − µ = Op (1), so θˆ − µ = Op (n−1/2 ), so θˆ = Op (1). These two examples show that averages of entered (mean zero) quantities typi ally have plim 0, while averages of un entered quantities have nite nonzero plims. denition of

Op

does not mean that

f (n) and g(n) are of the same order.

Note that the

Asymptoti equality

ensures that this is the ase.

Denition 52 Two sequen es of random variables {fn } and {gn } are asymptoti ally equal

(written fn =a gn ) if

plim



f (n) g(n)

Finally, analogous almost sure versions of

op



=1

and

Op

are dened in the obvious way.

340

CHAPTER 23.

For

a

For

A

a

For

x

and

β

both

For

x

and

β

both

and

x

both

p×p

p×1

ve tors, show that

p×1

ve tors, show that

matrix and

p×1

x

a

p×1

NOTATION AND REVIEW

Dx a′ x = a.

ve tor, show that

Dx2 x′ Ax = A + A′ .

Dβ exp x′ β = exp(x′ β)x.

ve tors, nd the analyti expression for

Dβ2 exp x′ β .

Write an O tave program that veries ea h of the previous results by taking numeri derivatives. For a hint, type

help numgradient

and

help numhessian

inside o tave.

Chapter 24 Li enses This do ument and the asso iated examples and materials are opyright Mi hael Creel, under the terms of the GNU General Publi Li ense, ver. 2., or at your option, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Li ense, Version 2.5. The li enses follow.

24.1 The GPL GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, June 1991 Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, In . 59 Temple Pla e, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Everyone is permitted to opy and distribute verbatim opies of this li ense do ument, but hanging it is not allowed. Preamble The li enses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and hange it. By ontrast, the GNU General Publi Li ense is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and hange free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Publi Li ense applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors ommit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is overed by the GNU Library General Publi Li ense instead.) You an apply it to your programs, too. When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not pri e. Our General Publi Li enses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute opies of free software (and harge for 341

342

CHAPTER 24.

LICENSES

this servi e if you wish), that you re eive sour e ode or an get it if you want it, that you an hange the software or use pie es of it in new free programs; and that you know you an do these things. To prote t your rights, we need to make restri tions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restri tions translate to ertain responsibilities for you if you distribute opies of the software, or if you modify it. For example, if you distribute opies of su h a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the re ipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, re eive or an get the sour e ode. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights. We prote t your rights with two steps: (1) opyright the software, and (2) offer you this li ense whi h gives you legal permission to opy, distribute and/or modify the software. Also, for ea h author's prote tion and ours, we want to make ertain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its re ipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introdu ed by others will not refle t on the original authors' reputations. Finally, any free program is threatened onstantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent li enses, in effe t making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it lear that any patent must be li ensed for everyone's free use or not li ensed at all. The pre ise terms and onditions for opying, distribution and modifi ation follow.

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION

24.1.

343

THE GPL

0. This Li ense applies to any program or other work whi h ontains a noti e pla ed by the opyright holder saying it may be distributed under the terms of this General Publi Li ense. The "Program", below, refers to any su h program or work, and a "work based on the Program" means either the Program or any derivative work under opyright law: that is to say, a work ontaining the Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifi ations and/or translated into another language. (Hereinafter, translation is in luded without limitation in the term "modifi ation".) Ea h li ensee is addressed as "you". A tivities other than opying, distribution and modifi ation are not

overed by this Li ense; they are outside its s ope. The a t of running the Program is not restri ted, and the output from the Program is overed only if its ontents onstitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does. 1. You may opy and distribute verbatim opies of the Program's sour e ode as you re eive it, in any medium, provided that you

onspi uously and appropriately publish on ea h opy an appropriate

opyright noti e and dis laimer of warranty; keep inta t all the noti es that refer to this Li ense and to the absen e of any warranty; and give any other re ipients of the Program a opy of this Li ense along with the Program. You may harge a fee for the physi al a t of transferring a opy, and you may at your option offer warranty prote tion in ex hange for a fee. 2. You may modify your opy or opies of the Program or any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and opy and distribute su h modifi ations or work under the terms of Se tion 1 above, provided that you also meet all of these onditions: a) You must ause the modified files to arry prominent noti es stating that you hanged the files and the date of any hange. b) You must ause any work that whole or in part ontains or is part thereof, to be li ensed as parties under the terms of this

you distribute or publish, that in derived from the Program or any a whole at no harge to all third Li ense.

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CHAPTER 24.

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) If the modified program normally reads ommands intera tively when run, you must ause it, when started running for su h intera tive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an announ ement in luding an appropriate opyright noti e and a noti e that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under these onditions, and telling the user how to view a opy of this Li ense. (Ex eption: if the Program itself is intera tive but does not normally print su h an announ ement, your work based on the Program is not required to print an announ ement.)

These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If identifiable se tions of that work are not derived from the Program, and an be reasonably onsidered independent and separate works in themselves, then this Li ense, and its terms, do not apply to those se tions when you distribute them as separate works. But when you distribute the same se tions as part of a whole whi h is a work based on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this Li ense, whose permissions for other li ensees extend to the entire whole, and thus to ea h and every part regardless of who wrote it. Thus, it is not the intent of this se tion to laim rights or ontest your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to exer ise the right to ontrol the distribution of derivative or

olle tive works based on the Program. In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the s ope of this Li ense. 3. You may opy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it, under Se tion 2) in obje t ode or exe utable form under the terms of Se tions 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following: a) A

ompany it with the omplete orresponding ma hine-readable

24.1.

THE GPL

sour e ode, whi h must be distributed under the terms of Se tions 1 and 2 above on a medium ustomarily used for software inter hange; or, b) A

ompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a harge no more than your

ost of physi ally performing sour e distribution, a omplete ma hine-readable opy of the orresponding sour e ode, to be distributed under the terms of Se tions 1 and 2 above on a medium

ustomarily used for software inter hange; or,

) A

ompany it with the information you re eived as to the offer to distribute orresponding sour e ode. (This alternative is allowed only for non ommer ial distribution and only if you re eived the program in obje t ode or exe utable form with su h an offer, in a

ord with Subse tion b above.) The sour e ode for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifi ations to it. For an exe utable work, omplete sour e

ode means all the sour e ode for all modules it ontains, plus any asso iated interfa e definition files, plus the s ripts used to

ontrol ompilation and installation of the exe utable. However, as a spe ial ex eption, the sour e ode distributed need not in lude anything that is normally distributed (in either sour e or binary form) with the major omponents ( ompiler, kernel, and so on) of the operating system on whi h the exe utable runs, unless that omponent itself a

ompanies the exe utable. If distribution of exe utable or obje t ode is made by offering a

ess to opy from a designated pla e, then offering equivalent a

ess to opy the sour e ode from the same pla e ounts as distribution of the sour e ode, even though third parties are not

ompelled to opy the sour e along with the obje t ode.

4. You may not opy, modify, subli ense, or distribute the Program ex ept as expressly provided under this Li ense. Any attempt otherwise to opy, modify, subli ense or distribute the Program is void, and will automati ally terminate your rights under this Li ense.

345

346

CHAPTER 24.

LICENSES

However, parties who have re eived opies, or rights, from you under this Li ense will not have their li enses terminated so long as su h parties remain in full omplian e. 5. You are not required to a

ept this Li ense, sin e you have not signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works. These a tions are prohibited by law if you do not a

ept this Li ense. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the Program), you indi ate your a

eptan e of this Li ense to do so, and all its terms and onditions for opying, distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it. 6. Ea h time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the Program), the re ipient automati ally re eives a li ense from the original li ensor to opy, distribute or modify the Program subje t to these terms and onditions. You may not impose any further restri tions on the re ipients' exer ise of the rights granted herein. You are not responsible for enfor ing omplian e by third parties to this Li ense. 7. If, as a onsequen e of a ourt judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),

onditions are imposed on you (whether by ourt order, agreement or otherwise) that ontradi t the onditions of this Li ense, they do not ex use you from the onditions of this Li ense. If you annot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this Li ense and any other pertinent obligations, then as a onsequen e you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent li ense would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who re eive opies dire tly or indire tly through you, then the only way you ould satisfy both it and this Li ense would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program. If any portion of this se tion is held invalid or unenfor eable under any parti ular ir umstan e, the balan e of the se tion is intended to apply and the se tion as a whole is intended to apply in other

ir umstan es. It is not the purpose of this se tion to indu e you to infringe any patents or other property right laims or to ontest validity of any

24.1.

THE GPL

347

su h laims; this se tion has the sole purpose of prote ting the integrity of the free software distribution system, whi h is implemented by publi li ense pra ti es. Many people have made generous ontributions to the wide range of software distributed through that system in relian e on onsistent appli ation of that system; it is up to the author/donor to de ide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a li ensee annot impose that hoi e. This se tion is intended to make thoroughly lear what is believed to be a onsequen e of the rest of this Li ense.

8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restri ted in

ertain ountries either by patents or by opyrighted interfa es, the original opyright holder who pla es the Program under this Li ense may add an expli it geographi al distribution limitation ex luding those ountries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among

ountries not thus ex luded. In su h ase, this Li ense in orporates the limitation as if written in the body of this Li ense. 9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the General Publi Li ense from time to time. Su h new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or on erns. Ea h version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program spe ifies a version number of this Li ense whi h applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and onditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not spe ify a version number of this Li ense, you may hoose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation. 10. If you wish to in orporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution onditions are different, write to the author to ask for permission. For software whi h is opyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes

348

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make ex eptions for this. Our de ision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally. NO WARRANTY 11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. 12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the publi , the best way to a hieve this is to make it free software whi h everyone an redistribute and hange under these terms. To do so, atta h the following noti es to the program. It is safest to atta h them to the start of ea h sour e file to most effe tively

onvey the ex lusion of warranty; and ea h file should have at least

24.1.

THE GPL

the " opyright" line and a pointer to where the full noti e is found. Copyright (C) This program is free software; you an redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Publi Li ense as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the Li ense, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Publi Li ense for more details. You should have re eived a opy of the GNU General Publi Li ense along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, In ., 59 Temple Pla e, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

Also add information on how to onta t you by ele troni and paper mail. If the program is intera tive, make it output a short noti e like this when it starts in an intera tive mode: Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author Gnomovision omes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'. This is free software, and you are wel ome to redistribute it under ertain onditions; type `show ' for details. The hypotheti al ommands `show w' and `show ' should show the appropriate parts of the General Publi Li ense. Of ourse, the ommands you use may be alled something other than `show w' and `show '; they ould even be mouse- li ks or menu items--whatever suits your program. You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your s hool, if any, to sign a " opyright dis laimer" for the program, if ne essary. Here is a sample; alter the names: Yoyodyne, In ., hereby dis laims all opyright interest in the program `Gnomovision' (whi h makes passes at ompilers) written by James Ha ker.

349

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<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989 Ty Coon, President of Vi e This General Publi Li ense does not permit in orporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may

onsider it more useful to permit linking proprietary appli ations with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Publi Li ense instead of this Li ense.

24.2 Creative Commons Legal Code Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 CREATIVE COMMONS CORPORATION IS NOT A LAW FIRM AND DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES. DISTRIBUTION OF THIS LICENSE DOES NOT CREATE AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. CREATIVE COMMONS PROVIDES THIS INFORMATION ON AN "AS-IS" BASIS. CREATIVE COMMONS MAKES NO WARRANTIES REGARDING THE INFORMATION PROVIDED, AND DISCLAIMS LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ITS USE. Li ense THE WORK (AS DEFINED BELOW) IS PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE ("CCPL" OR "LICENSE"). THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW. ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER THIS LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED. BY EXERCISING ANY RIGHTS TO THE WORK PROVIDED HERE, YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. THE LICENSOR GRANTS YOU THE RIGHTS CONTAINED HERE IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS. 1. Denitions 1. "Colle tive Work" means a work, su h as a periodi al issue, anthology or en y lopedia, in whi h the Work in its entirety in unmodied form, along with a number of other ontributions,

onstituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a olle tive whole. A work that onstitutes a Colle tive Work will not be onsidered a Derivative Work (as dened below) for the purposes of this Li ense. 2. "Derivative Work" means a work based upon the Work or upon the Work and other pre-existing works, su h as a translation, musi al arrangement, dramatization,  tionalization, motion pi ture version, sound re ording, art reprodu tion, abridgment, ondensation, or any other form in whi h the Work may be re ast, transformed, or adapted, ex ept that a work that onstitutes a Colle tive Work will not be onsidered a Derivative Work for the purpose of

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this Li ense. For the avoidan e of doubt, where the Work is a musi al omposition or sound re ording, the syn hronization of the Work in timed-relation with a moving image ("syn hing") will be onsidered a Derivative Work for the purpose of this Li ense. 3. "Li ensor" means the individual or entity that oers the Work under the terms of this Li ense. 4. "Original Author" means the individual or entity who reated the Work. 5.

"Work" means the opyrightable work of authorship oered under the terms of this

Li ense. 6. "You" means an individual or entity exer ising rights under this Li ense who has not previously violated the terms of this Li ense with respe t to the Work, or who has re eived express permission from the Li ensor to exer ise rights under this Li ense despite a previous violation. 7.

"Li ense Elements" means the following high-level li ense attributes as sele ted by

Li ensor and indi ated in the title of this Li ense: Attribution, ShareAlike. 2.

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Nothing in this li ense is intended to redu e, limit, or restri t any

rights arising from fair use, rst sale or other limitations on the ex lusive rights of the opyright owner under opyright law or other appli able laws. 3.

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Subje t to the terms and onditions of this Li ense, Li ensor hereby

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form publi ly by means of a digital audio transmission the Work in luding as in orporated in Colle tive Works; 4. to distribute opies or phonore ords of, display publi ly, perform publi ly, and perform publi ly by means of a digital audio transmission Derivative Works. 5. For the avoidan e of doubt, where the work is a musi al omposition: 1. Performan e Royalties Under Blanket Li enses. Li ensor waives the ex lusive right to

olle t, whether individually or via a performan e rights so iety (e.g. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC), royalties for the publi performan e or publi digital performan e (e.g. web ast) of the Work. 2. Me hani al Rights and Statutory Royalties. Li ensor waives the ex lusive right to olle t, whether individually or via a musi rights so iety or designated agent (e.g. Harry Fox Agen y), royalties for any phonore ord You reate from the Work (" over version") and distribute, subje t to the ompulsory li ense reated by 17 USC Se tion 115 of the US Copyright A t (or the equivalent in other jurisdi tions). 6.

Web asting Rights and Statutory Royalties.

For the avoidan e of doubt, where the

Work is a sound re ording, Li ensor waives the ex lusive right to olle t, whether individually or via a performan e-rights so iety (e.g.

SoundEx hange), royalties for the publi digital

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performan e (e.g. web ast) of the Work, subje t to the ompulsory li ense reated by 17 USC Se tion 114 of the US Copyright A t (or the equivalent in other jurisdi tions). The above rights may be exer ised in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter devised.

The above rights in lude the right to make su h modi ations as are te hni ally

ne essary to exer ise the rights in other media and formats. All rights not expressly granted by Li ensor are hereby reserved. 4. Restri tions.The li ense granted in Se tion 3 above is expressly made subje t to and limited by the following restri tions: 1.

You may distribute, publi ly display, publi ly perform, or publi ly digitally perform

the Work only under the terms of this Li ense, and You must in lude a opy of, or the Uniform Resour e Identier for, this Li ense with every opy or phonore ord of the Work You distribute, publi ly display, publi ly perform, or publi ly digitally perform. You may not oer or impose any terms on the Work that alter or restri t the terms of this Li ense or the re ipients' exer ise of the rights granted hereunder. You may not subli ense the Work. You must keep inta t all noti es that refer to this Li ense and to the dis laimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publi ly display, publi ly perform, or publi ly digitally perform the Work with any te hnologi al measures that ontrol a

ess or use of the Work in a manner in onsistent with the terms of this Li ense Agreement.

The above applies to the Work as

in orporated in a Colle tive Work, but this does not require the Colle tive Work apart from the Work itself to be made subje t to the terms of this Li ense.

If You reate a Colle tive

Work, upon noti e from any Li ensor You must, to the extent pra ti able, remove from the Colle tive Work any redit as required by lause 4( ), as requested. If You reate a Derivative Work, upon noti e from any Li ensor You must, to the extent pra ti able, remove from the Derivative Work any redit as required by lause 4( ), as requested. 2.

You may distribute, publi ly display, publi ly perform, or publi ly digitally perform

a Derivative Work only under the terms of this Li ense, a later version of this Li ense with the same Li ense Elements as this Li ense, or a Creative Commons iCommons li ense that

ontains the same Li ense Elements as this Li ense (e.g. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Japan). You must in lude a opy of, or the Uniform Resour e Identier for, this Li ense or other li ense spe ied in the previous senten e with every opy or phonore ord of ea h Derivative Work You distribute, publi ly display, publi ly perform, or publi ly digitally perform.

You

may not oer or impose any terms on the Derivative Works that alter or restri t the terms of this Li ense or the re ipients' exer ise of the rights granted hereunder, and You must keep inta t all noti es that refer to this Li ense and to the dis laimer of warranties.

You may

not distribute, publi ly display, publi ly perform, or publi ly digitally perform the Derivative Work with any te hnologi al measures that ontrol a

ess or use of the Work in a manner in onsistent with the terms of this Li ense Agreement. The above applies to the Derivative Work as in orporated in a Colle tive Work, but this does not require the Colle tive Work apart from the Derivative Work itself to be made subje t to the terms of this Li ense. 3. If you distribute, publi ly display, publi ly perform, or publi ly digitally perform the Work or any Derivative Works or Colle tive Works, You must keep inta t all opyright noti es

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CREATIVE COMMONS

353

for the Work and provide, reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing: (i) the name of the Original Author (or pseudonym, if appli able) if supplied, and/or (ii) if the Original Author and/or Li ensor designate another party or parties (e.g. a sponsor institute, publishing entity, journal) for attribution in Li ensor's opyright noti e, terms of servi e or by other reasonable means, the name of su h party or parties; the title of the Work if supplied; to the extent reasonably pra ti able, the Uniform Resour e Identier, if any, that Li ensor spe ies to be asso iated with the Work, unless su h URI does not refer to the opyright noti e or li ensing information for the Work; and in the ase of a Derivative Work, a redit identifying the use of the Work in the Derivative Work (e.g., "Fren h translation of the Work by Original Author," or "S reenplay based on original Work by Original Author"). Su h redit may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the ase of a Derivative Work or Colle tive Work, at a minimum su h redit will appear where any other omparable authorship redit appears and in a manner at least as prominent as su h other omparable authorship redit. 5. Representations, Warranties and Dis laimer UNLESS OTHERWISE AGREED TO BY THE PARTIES IN WRITING, LICENSOR OFFERS THE WORK AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE MATERIALS, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTIBILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THE ABSENCE OF LATENT OR OTHER DEFECTS, ACCURACY, OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS, WHETHER OR NOT DISCOVERABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SUCH EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. 6. Limitation on Liability. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THIS LICENSE OR THE USE OF THE WORK, EVEN IF LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. 7. Termination 1. This Li ense and the rights granted hereunder will terminate automati ally upon any brea h by You of the terms of this Li ense. Individuals or entities who have re eived Derivative Works or Colle tive Works from You under this Li ense, however, will not have their li enses terminated provided su h individuals or entities remain in full omplian e with those li enses. Se tions 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 will survive any termination of this Li ense. 2. Subje t to the above terms and onditions, the li ense granted here is perpetual (for the duration of the appli able opyright in the Work). Notwithstanding the above, Li ensor reserves the right to release the Work under dierent li ense terms or to stop distributing the Work at any time; provided, however that any su h ele tion will not serve to withdraw this Li ense (or any other li ense that has been, or is required to be, granted under the terms of this Li ense), and this Li ense will ontinue in full for e and ee t unless terminated as stated

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onne tion with the Work. Creative Commons will not be liable to You or any party on any legal theory for any damages whatsoever, in luding without limitation any general, spe ial, in idental or onsequential damages arising in onne tion to this li ense. Notwithstanding the foregoing two (2) senten es, if Creative Commons has expressly identied itself as the Li ensor hereunder, it shall have all rights and obligations of Li ensor. Ex ept for the limited purpose of indi ating to the publi that the Work is li ensed under the CCPL, neither party will use the trademark "Creative Commons" or any related trademark or logo of Creative Commons without the prior written onsent of Creative Commons. Any permitted use will be in omplian e with Creative Commons' then- urrent trademark usage guidelines, as may be published on its website or otherwise made available upon request from time to time. Creative Commons may be onta ted at http:// reative ommons.org/.

Chapter 25 The atti This holds material that is not really ready to be in orporated into the main body, but that I don't want to lose. Basi ally, ignore it, unless you'd like to help get it ready for in lusion.

25.1 Hurdle models Returning to the Poisson model, lets look at a tual and tted ount probabilities. relative frequen ies are

Pn

f (y = j) =

P

i

1(yi = j)/n

and tted frequen ies are

A tual

fˆ(y = j) =

ˆ i=1 fY (j|xi , θ)/n We see that for the OBDV measure, there are many more a tual zeros Table 25.1: A tual and Poisson tted frequen ies Count

OBDV

ERV

Count

A tual

Fitted

A tual

Fitted

0

0.32

0.06

0.86

0.83

1

0.18

0.15

0.10

0.14

2

0.11

0.19

0.02

0.02

3

0.10

0.18

0.004

0.002

4

0.052

0.15

0.002

0.0002

5

0.032

0.10

0

2.4e-5

than predi ted. For ERV, there are somewhat more a tual zeros than tted, but the dieren e is not too important. Why might OBDV not t the zeros well?

What if people made the de ision to onta t

the do tor for a rst visit, they are si k, then the

do tor

de ides on whether or not follow-up

visits are needed. This is a prin ipal/agent type situation, where the total number of visits depends upon the de ision of both the patient and the do tor. Sin e dierent parameters may govern the two de ision-makers hoi es, we might expe t that dierent parameters govern the probability of zeros versus the other ounts. Let for visits, and let

λd

λp

be the parameters of the patient's demand

be the paramter of the do tor's demand for visits.

The patient will

initiate visits a

ording to a dis rete hoi e model, for example, a logit model:

355

356

CHAPTER 25.

THE ATTIC

Pr(Y = 0) = fY (0, λp ) = 1 − 1/ [1 + exp(−λp )] Pr(Y > 0)

=

1/ [1 + exp(−λp )] ,

The above probabilities are used to estimate the binary 0/1 hurdle pro ess.

Then, for the

observations where visits are positive, a trun ated Poisson density is estimated. This density is

fY (y, λd |y > 0) = =

fY (y, λd ) Pr(y > 0) fY (y, λd ) 1 − exp(−λd )

sin e a

ording to the Poisson model with the do tor's paramaters,

Pr(y = 0) =

exp(−λd )λ0d . 0!

Sin e the hurdle and trun ated omponents of the overall density for

Y

share no parameters,

they may be estimated separately, whi h is omputationally more e ient than estimating the overall model.

(Re all that the BFGS algorithm, for example, will have to invert the

approximated Hessian. The omputational overhead is of order parameters to be estimated) . The expe tation of

Y

K2

where

is

E(Y |x) = Pr(Y > 0|x)E(Y |Y > 0, x)    1 λd = 1 + exp(−λp ) 1 − exp(−λd )

K

is the number of

25.1.

HURDLE MODELS

357

Here are hurdle Poisson estimation results for OBDV, obtained from this estimation program

************************************************************************** MEPS data, OBDV logit results Strong onvergen e Observations = 500 Fun tion value -0.58939 t-Stats params t(OPG) t(Sand.) t(Hess)

onstant -1.5502 -2.5709 -2.5269 -2.5560 pub_ins 1.0519 3.0520 3.0027 3.0384 priv_ins 0.45867 1.7289 1.6924 1.7166 sex 0.63570 3.0873 3.1677 3.1366 age 0.018614 2.1547 2.1969 2.1807 edu 0.039606 1.0467 0.98710 1.0222 in 0.077446 1.7655 2.1672 1.9601 Information Criteria Consistent Akaike 639.89 S hwartz 632.89 Hannan-Quinn 614.96 Akaike 603.39 **************************************************************************

358

CHAPTER 25.

THE ATTIC

The results for the trun ated part:

************************************************************************** MEPS data, OBDV tpoisson results Strong onvergen e Observations = 500 Fun tion value -2.7042 t-Stats params t(OPG) t(Sand.) t(Hess)

onstant 0.54254 7.4291 1.1747 3.2323 pub_ins 0.31001 6.5708 1.7573 3.7183 priv_ins 0.014382 0.29433 0.10438 0.18112 sex 0.19075 10.293 1.1890 3.6942 age 0.016683 16.148 3.5262 7.9814 edu 0.016286 4.2144 0.56547 1.6353 in -0.0079016 -2.3186 -0.35309 -0.96078 Information Criteria Consistent Akaike 2754.7 S hwartz 2747.7 Hannan-Quinn 2729.8 Akaike 2718.2 **************************************************************************

25.1.

359

HURDLE MODELS

Fitted and a tual probabilites (NB-II ts are provided as well) are:

Table 25.2: A tual and Hurdle Poisson tted frequen ies Count

OBDV

Count

A tual

0 1

ERV

Fitted HP

Fitted NB-II

A tual

Fitted HP

Fitted NB-II

0.32

0.32

0.34

0.86

0.86

0.86

0.18

0.035

0.16

0.10

0.10

0.10

2

0.11

0.071

0.11

0.02

0.02

0.02

3

0.10

0.10

0.08

0.004

0.006

0.006

4

0.052

0.11

0.06

0.002

0.002

0.002

5

0.032

0.10

0.05

0

0.0005

0.001

For the Hurdle Poisson models, the ERV t is very a

urate. The OBDV t is not so good. Zeros are exa t, but 1's and 2's are underestimated, and higher ounts are overestimated. For the NB-II ts, performan e is at least as good as the hurdle Poisson model, and one should re all that many fewer parameters are used. Hurdle version of the negative binomial model are also widely used.

25.1.1 Finite mixture models The following are results for a mixture of 2 negative binomial (NB-I) models, for the OBDV data, whi h you an repli ate using this estimation program

360

CHAPTER 25.

THE ATTIC

************************************************************************** MEPS data, OBDV mixnegbin results Strong onvergen e Observations = 500 Fun tion value -2.2312 t-Stats params t(OPG) t(Sand.) t(Hess)

onstant 0.64852 1.3851 1.3226 1.4358 pub_ins -0.062139 -0.23188 -0.13802 -0.18729 priv_ins 0.093396 0.46948 0.33046 0.40854 sex 0.39785 2.6121 2.2148 2.4882 age 0.015969 2.5173 2.5475 2.7151 edu -0.049175 -1.8013 -1.7061 -1.8036 in 0.015880 0.58386 0.76782 0.73281 ln_alpha 0.69961 2.3456 2.0396 2.4029

onstant -3.6130 -1.6126 -1.7365 -1.8411 pub_ins 2.3456 1.7527 3.7677 2.6519 priv_ins 0.77431 0.73854 1.1366 0.97338 sex 0.34886 0.80035 0.74016 0.81892 age 0.021425 1.1354 1.3032 1.3387 edu 0.22461 2.0922 1.7826 2.1470 in 0.019227 0.20453 0.40854 0.36313 ln_alpha 2.8419 6.2497 6.8702 7.6182 logit_inv_mix 0.85186 1.7096 1.4827 1.7883 Information Criteria Consistent Akaike 2353.8 S hwartz 2336.8 Hannan-Quinn 2293.3 Akaike 2265.2 ************************************************************************** Delta method for mix parameter st. err. mix se_mix 0.70096 0.12043 •

The 95% onden e interval for the mix parameter is perilously lose to 1, whi h suggests that there may really be only one omponent density, rather than a mixture. Again, this is

not

the way to test this - it is merely suggestive.

25.1.



361

HURDLE MODELS

Edu ation is interesting. For the subpopulation that is healthy, i.e., that makes relatively few visits, edu ation seems to have a positive ee t on visits. For the unhealthy group, edu ation has a negative ee t on visits. The other results are more mixed. A larger sample ould help larify things.

The following are results for a 2 omponent onstrained mixture negative binomial model where all the slope parameters in

λj = exβj

onstants and the overdispersion parameters

are the same a ross the two omponents.

αj

The

are allowed to dier for the two omponents.

362

CHAPTER 25.

THE ATTIC

************************************************************************** MEPS data, OBDV

mixnegbin results Strong onvergen e Observations = 500 Fun tion value -2.2441 t-Stats params t(OPG) t(Sand.) t(Hess)

onstant -0.34153 -0.94203 -0.91456 -0.97943 pub_ins 0.45320 2.6206 2.5088 2.7067 priv_ins 0.20663 1.4258 1.3105 1.3895 sex 0.37714 3.1948 3.4929 3.5319 age 0.015822 3.1212 3.7806 3.7042 edu 0.011784 0.65887 0.50362 0.58331 in 0.014088 0.69088 0.96831 0.83408 ln_alpha 1.1798 4.6140 7.2462 6.4293

onst_2 1.2621 0.47525 2.5219 1.5060 lnalpha_2 2.7769 1.5539 6.4918 4.2243 logit_inv_mix 2.4888 0.60073 3.7224 1.9693 Information Criteria Consistent Akaike 2323.5 S hwartz 2312.5 Hannan-Quinn 2284.3 Akaike 2266.1 ************************************************************************** Delta method for mix parameter st. err. mix se_mix 0.92335 0.047318 •

Now the mixture parameter is even loser to 1.



The slope parameter estimates are pretty lose to what we got with the NB-I model.

25.2 Models for time series data This se tion an be ignored in its present form. Just left in to form a basis for ompletion (by someone else ?!) at some point.

25.2.

363

MODELS FOR TIME SERIES DATA

Hamilton,

Time Series Analysis is a good referen e for this se tion.

This is very in omplete

and ontributions would be very wel ome. Up to now we've onsidered the behavior of the dependent variable other variables

xt .

yt

as a fun tion of

These variables an of ourse ontain lagged dependent variables, e.g.,

xt = (wt , yt−1 , ..., yt−j ).

Pure time series methods onsider the behavior of

yt

as a fun tion

only of its own lagged values, un onditional on other observable variables. One an think of this as modeling the behavior of

yt

after marginalizing out all other variables. While it's not

immediately lear why a model that has other explanatory variables should marginalize to a linear in the parameters time series model, most time series work is done with linear models, though nonlinear time series is also a large and growing eld.

We'll sti k with linear time

series models.

25.2.1 Basi on epts Denition 53 (Sto hasti pro ess) A sto hasti pro ess is a sequen e of random variables,

indexed by time:

{Yt }∞ t=−∞

(25.1)

Denition 54 (Time series) A time series is one observation of a sto hasti pro ess, over

a spe i interval:

{yt }nt=1 So a time series is a sample of size

n

from a sto hasti pro ess.

(25.2)

It's important to keep

in mind that on eptually, one ould draw another sample, and that the values would be dierent.

Denition 55 (Auto ovarian e) The j th auto ovarian e of a sto hasti pro ess is γjt = E(yt − µt )(yt−j − µt−j )

(25.3)

where µt = E (yt ) . Denition 56 (Covarian e (weak) stationarity) A sto hasti pro ess is ovarian e sta-

tionary if it has time onstant mean and auto ovarian es of all orders: µt

= µ, ∀t

γjt = γj , ∀t As we've seen, this implies that

γj = γ−j : the auto ovarian es depend only one the interval

between observations, but not the time of the observations.

Denition 57 (Strong stationarity) A sto hasti pro ess is strongly stationary if the joint

distribution of an arbitrary olle tion of the {Yt } doesn't depend on t.

364

CHAPTER 25.

THE ATTIC

Sin e moments are determined by the distribution, strong stationarity⇒weak stationarity.

Yt ?

What is the mean of

ould think of

M

The time series is one sample from the sto hasti pro ess. One

repeated samples from the sto h.

pro ., e.g.,

expe t that

{ytm }

By a LLN, we would

M 1 X p lim ytm → E(Yt ) M →∞ M m=1 The problem is, we have only one sample to work with, sin e we an't go ba k in time and

olle t another. How an property.

E(Yt )

be estimated then? It turns out that

ergodi ity

is the needed

Denition 58 (Ergodi ity) A stationary sto hasti pro ess is ergodi (for the mean) if the

time average onverges to the mean

n

1X p yt → µ n t=1

(25.4)

A su ient ondition for ergodi ity is that the auto ovarian es be absolutely summable:

∞ X j=0

|γj | < ∞

This implies that the auto ovarian es die o, so that the

yt

are not so strongly dependent that

they don't satisfy a LLN.

Denition 59 (Auto orrelation) The j th auto orrelation, ρj is just the j th auto ovarian e

divided by the varian e:

ρj =

γj γ0

(25.5)

Denition 60 (White noise) White noise is just the time series literature term for a las-

si al error. ǫt is white noise if i) E(ǫt ) = 0, ∀t, ii) V (ǫt ) = σ2 , ∀t, and iii) ǫt and ǫs are independent, t 6= s. Gaussian white noise just adds a normality assumption.

25.2.2 ARMA models With these on epts, we an dis uss ARMA models. These are losely related to the AR and MA error pro esses that we've already dis ussed. The main dieren e is that the lhs variable is observed dire tly now.

MA(q) pro esses A

q th

order moving average (MA) pro ess is

yt = µ + εt + θ1 εt−1 + θ2 εt−2 + · · · + θq εt−q

25.2.

MODELS FOR TIME SERIES DATA

where

εt

365

is white noise. The varian e is

= E (yt − µ)2

γ0

= E (εt + θ1 εt−1 + θ2 εt−2 + · · · + θq εt−q )2  = σ 2 1 + θ12 + θ22 + · · · + θq2

Similarly, the auto ovarian es are

γj

= θj + θj+1 θ1 + θj+2 θ2 + · · · + θq θq−j , j ≤ q = 0, j > q

Therefore an MA(q) pro ess is ne essarily ovarian e stationary and ergodi , as long as and all of the

θj

σ2

are nite.

AR(p) pro esses An AR(p) pro ess an be represented as

yt = c + φ1 yt−1 + φ2 yt−2 + · · · + φp yt−p + εt The dynami behavior of an AR(p) pro ess an be studied by writing this

pth

order dieren e

equation as a ve tor rst order dieren e equation:



yt

  yt−1  .  .  . yt−p+1









φ1 φ2

 1      0   =  .  0   .    .   ..  . 0 0 c

0

φp

0

1 ..

··· 0

.

..

··· 0

.

..

.

..

.

1



  yt−1 0    yt−2  0  .   ..  0···  yt−p 0





Yt = C + F Yt−1 + Et With this, we an re ursively work forward in time:

= C + F Yt + Et+1 = C + F (C + F Yt−1 + Et ) + Et+1 = C + F C + F 2 Yt−1 + F Et + Et+1

and

Yt+2



     0  + .    .    .  0

or

Yt+1

εt

= C + F Yt+1 + Et+2

 = C + F C + F C + F 2 Yt−1 + F Et + Et+1 + Et+2

= C + F C + F 2 C + F 3 Yt−1 + F 2 Et + F Et+1 + Et+2

366

CHAPTER 25.

THE ATTIC

or in general

Yt+j = C + F C + · · · + F j C + F j+1 Yt−1 + F j Et + F j−1 Et+1 + · · · + F Et+j−1 + Et+j t

Consider the impa t of a sho k in period

on

yt+j .

This is simply

∂Yt+j j = F(1,1) ∂Et′ (1,1) If the system is to be stationary, then as we move forward in time this impa t must die o. Otherwise a sho k auses a permanent hange in the mean of

yt .

Therefore, stationarity

requires that

j =0 lim F(1,1)

j→∞



Save this result, we'll need it in a minute.

Consider the eigenvalues of the matrix

F.

These are the for

λ

su h that

|F − λIP | = 0 The determinant here an be expressed as a polynomial. for example, for

p = 1,

the matrix

F

is simply

F = φ1 so

|φ1 − λ| = 0

an be written as

φ1 − λ = 0 When

p = 2,

the matrix

F

is

F =

"

so

F − λIP =

"

φ1 φ2 1

0

#

φ1 − λ φ2

1

−λ

#

and

|F − λIP | = λ2 − λφ1 − φ2 So the eigenvalues are the roots of the polynomial

λ2 − λφ1 − φ2 whi h an be found using the quadrati equation. This generalizes. For a the eigenvalues are the roots of

λp − λp−1 φ1 − λp−2 φ2 − · · · − λφp−1 − φp = 0

pth

order AR pro ess,

25.2.

367

MODELS FOR TIME SERIES DATA

Supposing that all of the roots of this polynomial are distin t, then the matrix

F

an be

fa tored as

F = T ΛT −1 where

T

is the matrix whi h has as its olumns the eigenve tors of

F,

and

Λ

is a diagonal

matrix with the eigenvalues on the main diagonal. Using this de omposition, we an write

F j = T ΛT −1 where

T ΛT −1

is repeated

j



  T ΛT −1 · · · T ΛT −1

times. This gives

F j = T Λj T −1 and

λj1 0

  0 Λ =   0 j

Supposing that the



λi i = 1, 2, ..., p

0

λj2 ..

.

λjp

     

are all real valued, it is lear that

j =0 lim F(1,1)

j→∞ requires that

|λi | < 1, i = 1, 2, ..., p e.g., the eigenvalues must be less than one in absolute value.



It may be the ase that some eigenvalues are omplex-valued.

The previous result

generalizes to the requirement that the eigenvalues be less than one in the modulus of a omplex number

a + bi

modulus,

where

is

mod(a + bi) =

p

a2 + b2

This leads to the famous statement that stationarity requires the roots of the determinantal polynomial to lie inside the omplex unit ir le.



When there are roots on



Dynami multipliers:

draw pi ture here.

the unit ir le (unit roots) or outside the unit ir le, we leave

the world of stationary pro esses.

j ∂yt+j /∂εt = F(1,1)

is a

dynami multiplier

or an

impulse-response

fun tion. Real eigenvalues lead to steady movements, whereas omlpex eigenvalue lead to o illatory behavior. Of ourse, when there are multiple eigenvalues the overall ee t

an be a mixture.

pi tures

Invertibility of AR pro ess

368

CHAPTER 25.

To begin with, dene the lag operator

THE ATTIC

L

Lyt = yt−1 The lag operator is dened to behave just as an algebrai quantity, e.g.,

L2 yt = L(Lyt ) = Lyt−1 = yt−2 or

(1 − L)(1 + L)yt = 1 − Lyt + Lyt − L2 yt = 1 − yt−2

A mean-zero AR(p) pro ess an be written as

yt − φ1 yt−1 − φ2 yt−2 − · · · − φp yt−p = εt or

yt (1 − φ1 L − φ2 L2 − · · · − φp Lp ) = εt Fa tor this polynomial as

1 − φ1 L − φ2 L2 − · · · − φp Lp = (1 − λ1 L)(1 − λ2 L) · · · (1 − λp L) For the moment, just assume that the

λi

are oe ients to be determined. Sin e

to operate as an algebrai quantitiy, determination of the the

λi

λi

L is

dened

is the same as determination of

su h that the following two expressions are the same for all

z:

1 − φ1 z − φ2 z 2 − · · · − φp z p = (1 − λ1 z)(1 − λ2 z) · · · (1 − λp z) Multiply both sides by

z −p

z −p − φ1 z 1−p − φ2 z 2−p − · · · φp−1 z −1 − φp = (z −1 − λ1 )(z −1 − λ2 ) · · · (z −1 − λp ) and now dene

λ = z −1

so we get

λp − φ1 λp−1 − φ2 λp−2 − · · · − φp−1 λ − φp = (λ − λ1 )(λ − λ2 ) · · · (λ − λp ) The LHS is pre isely the determinantal polynomial that gives the eigenvalues of the

λi

F.

Therefore,

that are the oe ients of the fa torization are simply the eigenvalues of the matrix

F.

25.2.

369

MODELS FOR TIME SERIES DATA

Now onsider a dierent stationary pro ess

(1 − φL)yt = εt •

Stationarity, as above, implies that

Multiply both sides by

|φ| < 1.

1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj

to get

  1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj (1 − φL)yt = 1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj εt

or, multiplying the polynomials on th LHS, we get

 1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj − φL − φ2 L2 − ... − φj Lj − φj+1 Lj+1 yt  == 1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj εt

and with an ellations we have

  1 − φj+1 Lj+1 yt = 1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj εt

so

Now as

 yt = φj+1 Lj+1 yt + 1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj εt

j → ∞, φj+1 Lj+1 yt → 0,

sin e

|φ| < 1,

so

 yt ∼ = 1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj εt j

and the approximation be omes better and better as

in reases. However, we started with

(1 − φL)yt = εt Substituting this into the above equation we have

 yt ∼ = 1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj (1 − φL)yt

so

 1 + φL + φ2 L2 + ... + φj Lj (1 − φL) ∼ =1

and the approximation be omes arbitrarily good as

|φ| < 1,

dene

−1

(1 − φL)

=

∞ X

j

in reases arbitrarily.

φj Lj

j=0

Re all that our mean zero AR(p) pro ess

yt (1 − φ1 L − φ2 L2 − · · · − φp Lp ) = εt

Therefore, for

370

CHAPTER 25.

THE ATTIC

an be written using the fa torization

yt (1 − λ1 L)(1 − λ2 L) · · · (1 − λp L) = εt where the

λ

are the eigenvalues of

F,

and given stationarity, all the

an invert ea h rst order polynomial on the LHS to get

|λi | < 1.

Therefore, we

     ∞ ∞ ∞ X X X yt =  λj1 Lj   λj2 Lj  · · ·  λjp Lj  εt j=0

j=0

j=0

The RHS is a produ t of innite-order polynomials in

L,

whi h an be represented as

yt = (1 + ψ1 L + ψ2 L2 + · · · )εt where the

ψi

are real-valued and absolutely summable.



The

ψi

are formed of produ ts of powers of the



The

ψi

are real-valued be ause any omplex-valued

This means that if

a + bi

is an eigenvalue of

λi ,

F,

whi h are in turn fun tions of the

λi

φi .

always o

ur in onjugate pairs.

then so is

a − bi.

In multipli ation

(a + bi) (a − bi) = a2 − abi + abi − b2 i2 = a2 + b2

whi h is real-valued.



This shows that an AR(p) pro ess is representable as an innite-order MA(q) pro ess.



Re all before that by re ursive substitution, an AR(p) pro ess an be written as

Yt+j = C + F C + · · · + F j C + F j+1 Yt−1 + F j Et + F j−1 Et+1 + · · · + F Et+j−1 + Et+j If the pro ess is mean zero, then everything with a

j

C

drops out. Take this and lag it by

periods to get

Yt = F j+1 Yt−j−1 + F j Et−j + F j−1 Et−j+1 + · · · + F Et−1 + Et As

j → ∞,

the lagged

Y

on the RHS drops out. The

Et−s

are ve tors of zeros ex ept

for their rst element, so we see that the rst equation here, in the limit, is just

yt =

∞ X j=0

Fj



ε 1,1 t−j

whi h makes expli it the relationship between the

j re alling the previous fa torization of F ).

ψi

and the

φi

(and the

λi

as well,

25.2.

371

MODELS FOR TIME SERIES DATA

Moments of AR(p) pro ess

The AR(p) pro ess is

yt = c + φ1 yt−1 + φ2 yt−2 + · · · + φp yt−p + εt Assuming stationarity,

E(yt ) = µ, ∀t,

so

µ = c + φ1 µ + φ2 µ + ... + φp µ so

µ=

c 1 − φ1 − φ2 − ... − φp

and

c = µ − φ1 µ − ... − φp µ so

yt − µ = µ − φ1 µ − ... − φp µ + φ1 yt−1 + φ2 yt−2 + · · · + φp yt−p + εt − µ = φ1 (yt−1 − µ) + φ2 (yt−2 − µ) + ... + φp (yt−p − µ) + εt With this, the se ond moments are easy to nd: The varian e is

γ0 = φ1 γ1 + φ2 γ2 + ... + φp γp + σ 2 The auto ovarian es of orders

j≥1

γj

follow the rule

= E [(yt − µ) (yt−j − µ))] = E [(φ1 (yt−1 − µ) + φ2 (yt−2 − µ) + ... + φp (yt−p − µ) + εt ) (yt−j − µ)] = φ1 γj−1 + φ2 γj−2 + ... + φp γj−p

Using the fa t that

p+1

γ−j = γj ,

2 unknowns (σ ,

one an take the

γ0 , γ1 , ..., γp )

p+1

equations for

j = 0, 1, ..., p,

and solve for the unknowns. With these, the

an be solved for re ursively.

Invertibility of MA(q) pro ess An MA(q) an be written as

yt − µ = (1 + θ1 L + ... + θq Lq )εt As before, the polynomial on the RHS an be fa tored as

(1 + θ1 L + ... + θq Lq ) = (1 − η1 L)(1 − η2 L)...(1 − ηq L)

whi h have

γj

for

j>p

372

CHAPTER 25.

and ea h of the write

(1 − ηi L)

an be inverted as long as

|ηi | < 1.

THE ATTIC

If this is the ase, then we an

(1 + θ1 L + ... + θq Lq )−1 (yt − µ) = εt where

(1 + θ1 L + ... + θq Lq )−1 will be an innite-order polynomial in

∞ X j=0

with

δ0 = −1,

L,

so we get

−δj Lj (yt−j − µ) = εt

or

(yt − µ) − δ1 (yt−1 − µ) − δ2 (yt−2 − µ) + ... = εt

or

yt = c + δ1 yt−1 + δ2 yt−2 + ... + εt where

c = µ + δ1 µ + δ2 µ + ... So we see that an MA(q) has an innite AR representation, as long as the



|ηi | < 1, i = 1, 2, ..., q.

It turns out that one an always manipulate the parameters of an MA(q) pro ess to nd an invertible representation. For example, the two MA(1) pro esses

yt − µ = (1 − θL)εt and

yt∗ − µ = (1 − θ −1 L)ε∗t have exa tly the same moments if

σε2∗ = σε2 θ 2 For example, we've seen that

γ0 = σ 2 (1 + θ 2 ). Given the above relationships amongst the parameters,

γ0∗ = σε2 θ 2 (1 + θ −2 ) = σ 2 (1 + θ 2 ) so the varian es are the same.

It turns out that

all

the auto ovarian es will be the

same, as is easily he ked. This means that the two MA pro esses are

equivalent.

observationally

As before, it's impossible to distinguish between observationally equivalent

pro esses on the basis of data.



For a given MA(q) pro ess, it's always possible to manipulate the parameters to nd an

25.2.

373

MODELS FOR TIME SERIES DATA

invertible representation (whi h is unique).

• •

It's important to nd an invertible representation, sin e it's the only representation that allows one to represent

εt

as a fun tion of past

y ′ s.

The other representations express

Why is invertibility important? The most important reason is that it provides a justi ation for the use of parsimonious models. Sin e an AR(1) pro ess has an MA(∞) rep-

resentation, one an reverse the argument and note that at least some MA(∞) pro esses have an AR(1) representation. At the time of estimation, it's a lot easier to estimate the single AR(1) oe ient rather than the innite number of oe ients asso iated with the MA representation.



This is the reason that ARMA models are popular. Combining low-order AR and MA models an usually oer a satisfa tory representation of univariate time series data with a reasonable number of parameters.



Stationarity and invertibility of ARMA models is similar to what we've seen - we won't go into the details. Likewise, al ulating moments is similar.

Exer ise 61 Cal ulate the auto ovarian es of an ARMA(1,1) model: (1 + φL)yt = c + (1 + θL)ǫt

374

CHAPTER 25.

THE ATTIC

Bibliography [1℄ Davidson, R. and J.G. Ma Kinnon (1993)

Estimation and Inferen e in E onometri s,

Oxford Univ. Press. [2℄ Davidson, R. and J.G. Ma Kinnon (2004)

E onometri Theory and Methods,

Oxford

Univ. Press. [3℄ Gallant, A.R. (1985)

Nonlinear Statisti al Models, Wiley.

[4℄ Gallant, A.R. (1997)

An Introdu tion to E onometri Theory, Prin eton Univ. Press.

[5℄ Hamilton, J. (1994) [6℄ Hayashi, F. (2000) [7℄ Wooldridge (2003),

Time Series Analysis, Prin eton Univ. Press

E onometri s, Prin eton Univ. Press. Introdu tory E onometri s,

plementary use only).

375

Thomson. (undergraduate level, for sup-

Index ARCH, 294

R-squared, entered, 29

asymptoti equality, 339

residuals, 23

Chain rule, 336 Cobb-Douglas model, 22

onditional heteros edasti ity, 294

onvergen e, almost sure, 337

onvergen e, in distribution, 337

onvergen e, in probability, 337 Convergen e, ordinary, 336

onvergen e, pointwise, 336

onvergen e, uniform, 337

onvergen e, uniform almost sure, 338

ross se tion, 19 estimator, linear, 26, 33 estimator, OLS, 23 extremum estimator, 177 tted values, 23 GARCH, 294 leptokurtosis, 294 leverage, 27 likelihood fun tion, 41 matrix, idempotent, 26 matrix, proje tion, 25 matrix, symmetri , 26 observations, inuential, 26 outliers, 26 own inuen e, 27 parameter spa e, 41 Produ t rule, 335 R- squared, un entered, 29

376

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