Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 

About: Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics is an academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Unemployment & Wage. It has an ISSN identifier of 0305-9049. Over the lifetime, 1800 publications have been published receiving 119907 citations.

Maximum likelihood estimation and inference on cointegration — with applications to the demand for money

Abstract: The estimation and testing of long-run relations in economic modeling are addressed. Starting with a vector autoregressive (VAR) model, the hypothesis of cointegration is formulated as the hypothesis of reduced rank of the long-run impact matrix. This is given in a simple parametric form that allows the application of the method of maximum likelihood and likelihood ratio tests. In this way, one can derive estimates and test statistics for the hypothesis of a given number of cointegration vectors, as well as estimates and tests for linear hypotheses about the cointegration vectors and their weights. The asymptotic inferences concerning the number of cointegrating vectors involve nonstandard distributions. Inference concerning linear restrictions on the cointegration vectors and their weights can be performed using the usual chi squared methods. In the case of linear restrictions on beta, a Wald test procedure is suggested. The proposed methods are illustrated by money demand data from the Danish and Finnish economies.

A Comparative Study of Unit Root Tests with Panel Data and a New Simple Test

Abstract: The panel data unit root test suggested by Levin and Lin (LL) has been widely used in several applications, notably in papers on tests of the purchasing power parity hypothesis. This test is based on a very restrictive hypothesis which is rarely ever of interest in practice. The Im–Pesaran–Shin (IPS) test relaxes the restrictive assumption of the LL test. This paper argues that although the IPS test has been offered as a generalization of the LL test, it is best viewed as a test for summarizing the evidence from a number of independent tests of the sample hypothesis. This problem has a long statistical history going back to R. A. Fisher. This paper suggests the Fisher test as a panel data unit root test, compares it with the LL and IPS tests, and the Bonferroni bounds test which is valid for correlated tests. Overall, the evidence points to the Fisher test with bootstrap-based critical values as the preferred choice. We also suggest the use of the Fisher test for testing stationarity as the null and also in testing for cointegration in panel data.

Critical Values for Cointegration Tests in Heterogeneous Panels with Multiple Regressors

Abstract: I. INTRODUCTION In this paper we describe a method for testing the null of no cointegration in dynamic panels with multiple regressors and compute approximate critical values for these tests. Methods for non-stationary panels, including panel unit root and panel cointegration tests, have been gaining increased acceptance in recent empirical research. To date, however, tests for the null of no cointegration in heterogeneous panels based on Pedroni (1995, 1997a) have been limited to simple bivariate examples, in large part due to the lack of critical values available for more complex multivariate regressions. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by describing a method to implement tests for the null of no cointegration for the case with multiple regressors and to provide appropriate critical values for these cases. The tests allow for considerable heterogeneity among individual members of the panel, including heterogeneity in both the long-run cointegrating vectors as well as heterogeneity in the dynamics associated with short-run deviations from these cointegrating vectors.

A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments

Abstract: The difference and system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimators are growing in popularity. As implemented in popular software, the estimators easily generate instruments that are numerous and, in system GMM, potentially suspect. A large instrument collection overfits endogenous variables even as it weakens the Hansen test of the instruments’ joint validity. This paper reviews the evidence on the effects of instrument proliferation, and describes and simulates simple ways to control it. It illustrates the dangers by replicating Forbes [American Economic Review (2000) Vol. 90, pp. 869–887] on income inequality and Levine et al. [Journal of Monetary Economics] (2000) Vol. 46, pp. 31–77] on financial sector development. Results in both papers appear driven by previously undetected endogeneity.

Testing for error correction in panel data

Abstract: This paper proposes new error correction-based cointegration tests for panel data. The limiting distributions of the tests are derived and critical values provided. Our simulation results suggest that the tests have good small-sample properties with small size distortions and high power relative to other popular residual-based panel cointegration tests. In our empirical application, we present evidence suggesting that international healthcare expenditures and GDP are cointegrated once the possibility of an invalid common factor restriction has been accounted for.