This paper computes the semiparametric efficiency bound for finite dimensional parameters identified by models of sequential moment restrictions containing unknown functions. Our results extend those of Chamberlain (1992b) and Ai and Chen (2003) for semiparametric conditional moment restriction models with identical information sets to the case of nested information sets, and those of Chamberlain (1992a) and Brown and Newey (1998) for models of sequential moment restrictions without unknown functions to cases with unknown functions of possibly endogenous variables. Our bound results are applicable to semiparametric panel data models and semiparametric two stage plug-in problems. As an example, we compute the efficiency bound for a weighted average derivative of a nonparametric instrumental variables (IV) regression, and find that the simple plug-in estimator is not efficient. Finally, we present an optimally weighted, orthogonalized, sieve minimum distance estimator that achieves the semiparametric efficiency bound.
We investigate a method for extracting nonlinear principal components. These principal components maximize variation subject to smoothness and orthogonality constraints; but we allow for a general class of constraints and multivariate densities, including densities without compact support and even densities with algebraic tails. We provide primitive sufficient conditions for the existence of these principal components. We characterize the limiting behavior of the associated eigenvalues, the objects used to quantify the incremental importance of the principal components. By exploiting the theory of continuous-time, reversible Markov processes, we give a different interpretation of the principal components and the smoothness constraints. When the diffusion matrix is used to enforce smoothness, the principal components maximize long-run variation relative to the overall variation subject to orthogonality constraints. Moreover, the principal components behave as scalar autoregressions with heteroskedastic innovations; this supports semiparametric identification of a multivariate reversible diffusion process and tests of the overidentifying restrictions implied by such a process from low frequency data. We also explore implications for stationary, possibly non-reversible diffusion processes.
This paper considers efficient estimation of copula-based semiparametric strictly stationary Markov models. These models are characterized by nonparametric invariant (one-dimensional marginal) distributions and parametric bivariate copula functions; where the copulas capture temporal dependence and tail dependence of the processes. The Markov processes generated via tail dependent copulas may look highly persistent and are useful for financial and economic applications. We first show that Markov processes generated via Clayton, Gumbel and Student’s t$ copulas and their survival copulas are all geometrically ergodic. We then propose a sieve maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) for the copula parameter, the invariant distribution and the conditional quantiles. We show that the sieve MLEs of any smooth functionals are root-n consistent, asymptotically normal and efficient; and that their sieve likelihood ratio statistics are asymptotically chi-square distributed. We present Monte Carlo studies to compare the finite sample performance of the sieve MLE, the two-step estimator of Chen and Fan (2006), the correctly specified parametric MLE and the incorrectly specified parametric MLE. The simulation results indicate that our sieve MLEs perform very well; having much smaller biases and smaller variances than the two-step estimator for Markov models generated via Clayton, Gumbel and other tail dependent copulas.
Many models of semiparametric multivariate survival functions are characterized by nonparametric marginal survival functions and parametric copula functions, where different copulas imply different dependence structures. This paper considers estimation and model selection for these semiparametric multivariate survival functions, allowing for misspecified parametric copulas and data subject to general censoring. We first establish convergence of the two-step estimator of the copula parameter to the pseudo-true value defined as the value of the parameter that minimizes the KLIC between the parametric copula induced multivariate density and the unknown true density. We then derive its root–n asymptotically normal distribution and provide a simple consistent asymptotic variance estimator by accounting for the impact of the nonparametric estimation of the marginal survival functions. These results are used to establish the asymptotic distribution of the penalized pseudo-likelihood ratio statistic for comparing multiple semiparametric multivariate survival functions subject to copula misspecification and general censorship. An empirical application of the model selection test to the Loss-ALAE insurance data set is provided.
Parametric copulas are shown to be attractive devices for specifying quantile autoregressive models for nonlinear time-series. Estimation of local, quantile-specific copula-based time series models offers some salient advantages over classical global parametric approaches. Consistency and asymptotic normality of the proposed quantile estimators are established under mild conditions, allowing for global misspecification of parametric copulas and marginals, and without assuming any mixing rate condition. These results lead to a general framework for inference and model specification testing of extreme conditional value-at-risk for financial time series data.
Nonlinearities in the drift and diffusion coefficients influence temporal dependence in scalar diffusion models. We study this link using two notions of temporal dependence: beta-mixing and rho-mixing. We show that beta-mixing and rho-mixing with exponential decay are essentially equivalent concepts for scalar diffusions. For stationary diffusions that fail to be rho-mixing, we show that they are still beta-mixing except that the decay rates are slower than exponential. For such processes we find transformations of the Markov states that have finite variances but infinite spectral densities at frequency zero. Some have spectral densities that diverge at frequency zero in a manner similar to that of stochastic processes with long memory. Finally we show how nonlinear, state-dependent, Poisson sampling alters the unconditional distribution as well as the temporal dependence.
Nonlinearities in the drift and diffusion coefficients influence temporal dependence in diffusion models. We study this link using three measures of temporal dependence: rho-mixing, beta-mixing and alpha-mixing. Stationary diffusions that are rho-mixing have mixing coefficients that decay exponentially to zero. When they fail to be rho-mixing, they are still beta-mixing and alpha-mixing; but coefficient decay is slower than exponential. For such processes we find transformations of the Markov states that have finite variances but infinite spectral densities at frequency zero. The resulting spectral densities behave like those of stochastic processes with long memory. Finally we show how state-dependent, Poisson sampling alters the temporal dependence.