Distribution theory of the least squares averaging estimator

Chu-An Liu

Journal of Econometrics, 2015, vol. 186, issue 1, 142-159

Abstract: This paper derives the limiting distributions of least squares averaging estimators for linear regression models in a local asymptotic framework. We show that the averaging estimators with fixed weights are asymptotically normal and then develop a plug-in averaging estimator that minimizes the sample analog of the asymptotic mean squared error. We investigate the focused information criterion (Claeskens and Hjort, 2003), the plug-in averaging estimator, the Mallows model averaging estimator (Hansen, 2007), and the jackknife model averaging estimator (Hansen and Racine, 2012). We find that the asymptotic distributions of averaging estimators with data-dependent weights are nonstandard and cannot be approximated by simulation. To address this issue, we propose a simple procedure to construct valid confidence intervals with improved coverage probability. Monte Carlo simulations show that the plug-in averaging estimator generally has smaller expected squared error than other existing model averaging methods, and the coverage probability of proposed confidence intervals achieves the nominal level. As an empirical illustration, the proposed methodology is applied to cross-country growth regressions.

Keywords: Local asymptotic theory; Model averaging; Model selection; Plug-in estimators (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C51 C52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (55)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Distribution Theory of the Least Squares Averaging Estimator (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:econom:v:186:y:2015:i:1:p:142-159

DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconom.2014.07.002

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