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Tests based on t-statistics for IV regression with weak instruments

Benjamin Mills, Marcelo Moreira and Lucas P. Vilela

Journal of Econometrics, 2014, vol. 182, issue 2, 351-363

Abstract: This paper considers tests of the parameter of an endogenous variable in an instrumental variables regression model. The focus is on one-sided conditional t-tests. Theoretical and numerical work shows that the conditional 2SLS and Fuller t-tests perform well even when instruments are weakly correlated with the endogenous variable. When the population F-statistic is as small as two, their power is reasonably close to the power envelopes for similar and non-similar tests which are invariant to rotation transformations of the instruments. This finding is surprising considering the bad performance of two-sided conditional t-tests found in Andrews et al. (2007). We show these tests have bad power because the conditional null distributions of t-statistics are asymmetric when instruments are weak. Taking this asymmetry into account, we propose two-sided tests based on t-statistics. These novel tests are approximately unbiased and can perform as well as the conditional likelihood ratio (CLR) test.

Keywords: Instrumental variables regression; Invariant tests; Optimal tests; Similar tests; Unbiased tests; Weak instruments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C12 C30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:econom:v:182:y:2014:i:2:p:351-363

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconom.2014.03.012

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Journal of Econometrics is currently edited by T. Amemiya, A. R. Gallant, J. F. Geweke, C. Hsiao and P. M. Robinson

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