Journal of Econometrics最新文献

This paper develops a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm for Bayesian inference in large structural vector autoregressions (SVARs) with linear restrictions. Our proposed method is based on a novel parameter transformation scheme, which aims to facilitate sampling from the posterior distribution of model parameters when linear equality and inequality restrictions are imposed on contemporaneous impulse responses. A prominent feature of the proposed methodology is its applicability for inference in SVARs with over-identifying restrictions. In our empirical application, we demonstrate the usefulness of our method by employing a large Proxy-SVAR with multiple proxy variables to simultaneously identify multiple macroeconomic shocks and investigate their contributions to the 2007–09 Recession.

In this paper, we consider the estimation and inferential issues of the threshold spatial autoregressive (TSAR) model, which is a hybrid of the threshold and spatial autoregressive models. We use the quasi maximum likelihood (QML) method to estimate the model. In addition, we prove the tightness and the Hájek–Rényi type inequality for a quadratic form and establish a full inferential theory of the QML estimator under the setup that threshold effect shrinks to zero as the sample size increases. We conduct hypothesis testing on the presence of the threshold effect, using three super-type statistics. Their asymptotic behaviors are studied under the Pitman local alternatives. A bootstrap procedure is applied to obtain the asymptotically correct critical value. We also consider hypothesis testing on the threshold value set equal to a prespecified one. We run Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the finite sample performance of the QML estimators and find that the estimators perform well. In an empirical application, we apply the proposed TSAR model to study the relationship between financial development and economic growth, and we find firm evidence to support the TSAR model.

Empirical risk minimization is a standard principle for choosing algorithms in learning theory. In this paper we study the properties of empirical risk minimization for time series. The analysis is carried out in a general framework that covers different types of forecasting applications encountered in the literature. We are concerned with 1-step-ahead prediction of a univariate time series belonging to a class of location-scale parameter-driven processes. A class of recursive algorithms is available to forecast the time series. The algorithms are recursive in the sense that the forecast produced in a given period is a function of the lagged values of the forecast and of the time series. The relationship between the generating mechanism of the time series and the class of algorithms is not specified. Our main result establishes that the algorithm chosen by empirical risk minimization achieves asymptotically the optimal predictive performance that is attainable within the class of algorithms.

We study identification of preferences in static single-agent discrete choice models where decision makers may be imperfectly informed about the state of the world. Leveraging the notion of one-player Bayes Correlated Equilibrium by Bergemann and Morris (2016), we provide a tractable characterisation of the sharp identified set. We develop a procedure to practically construct the sharp identified set following a sieve approach, and provide sharp bounds on counterfactual outcomes of interest. Using our methodology and data on the 2017 UK general election, we estimate a spatial voting model under weak assumptions on agents’ information about the returns to voting. Counterfactual exercises quantify the consequences of imperfect information on the well-being of voters and parties.

Matrix calculus is an important tool when we wish to optimize functions involving matrices or perform sensitivity analyses. This tutorial is designed to make matrix calculus more accessible to graduate students and young researchers. It contains the theory that would suffice in most applications, many fully worked-out exercises and examples, and presents some of the ‘tacit knowledge’ that is prevalent in this field.

A common approach to constructing a Synthetic Control unit is to fit on the outcome variable and covariates in pre-treatment time periods, but it has been shown by Ferman and Pinto (2021) that this approach does not provide asymptotic unbiasedness when the fit is imperfect and the number of controls is fixed. Many related panel methods have a similar limitation when the number of units is fixed. I introduce and evaluate a new method in which the Synthetic Control is constructed using a General Method of Moments approach where units not being included in the Synthetic Control are used as instruments. I show that a Synthetic Control Estimator of this form will be asymptotically unbiased as the number of pre-treatment time periods goes to infinity, even when pre-treatment fit is imperfect and the number of units is fixed. Furthermore, if both the number of pre-treatment and post-treatment time periods go to infinity, then averages of treatment effects can be consistently estimated. I provide a model selection procedure for deciding whether a unit should be used as an instrument or as a control. I also conduct simulations and an empirical application to compare the performance of this method with existing approaches in the literature.

Marginal treatment effect methods are widely used for causal inference and policy evaluation with instrumental variables. However, they fundamentally rely on the well-known monotonicity (threshold-crossing) condition on treatment choice behavior. This condition cannot hold with multiple instruments unless treatment choice is effectively homogeneous. We develop a new marginal treatment effect framework under a weaker, partial monotonicity condition. The partial monotonicity condition is implied by standard choice theory and allows for rich unobserved heterogeneity even in the presence of multiple instruments. The new framework can be viewed as having multiple different choice models for the same observed treatment variable, all of which must be consistent with the data and with each other. Using this framework, we develop a methodology for partial identification of clearly stated, policy-relevant target parameters while allowing for a wide variety of nonparametric shape restrictions and parametric functional form assumptions. We show how the methodology can be used to combine multiple instruments together to yield more informative empirical conclusions than one would obtain by using each instrument separately. The methodology provides a blueprint for extracting and aggregating information from multiple controlled or natural experiments while still allowing for rich unobserved heterogeneity in both treatment effects and choice behavior.

This paper studies semiparametric versions of the classical sample selection model (Heckman, 1976, 1979) without exclusion restrictions. We extend the analysis in Honoré and Hu (2020) by allowing for parameter heterogeneity and derive implications of this model. We also consider models that allow for heteroskedasticity and briefly discuss other extensions. The key ideas are illustrated in a simple wage regression for females. We find that the derived implications of a semiparametric version of Heckman’s classical sample selection model are consistent with the data for women with no college education, but strongly rejected for women with a college degree or more.

This paper considers the problem of making inferences about the effects of a program on multiple outcomes when the assignment of treatment status is imperfectly randomized. By imperfect randomization we mean that treatment status is reassigned after an initial randomization on the basis of characteristics that may be observed or unobserved by the analyst. We develop a partial identification approach to this problem that makes use of information limiting the extent to which randomization is imperfect to show that it is still possible to make nontrivial inferences about the effects of the program in such settings. We consider a family of null hypotheses in which each null hypothesis specifies that the program has no effect on one of many outcomes of interest. Under weak assumptions, we construct a procedure for testing this family of null hypotheses in a way that controls the familywise error rate – the probability of even one false rejection – in finite samples. We develop our methodology in the context of a reanalysis of the HighScope Perry Preschool program. We find statistically significant effects of the program on a number of different outcomes of interest, including outcomes related to criminal activity for males and females, even after accounting for imperfections in the randomization and the multiplicity of null hypotheses.