The assumption of conditional symmetry is often invoked to validate adaptive estimation and consistent estimation of ARCH/GARCH models by quasi maximum likelihood. Imposing conditional symmetry can increase the efficiency of bootstraps if the symmetry assumption is valid. This paper proposes a procedure for testing conditional symmetry. The proposed test does not require the data to be stationary or i.i.d., and the dimension of the conditional variables could be infinite. The size and power of the test are satisfactory even for small samples. In addition, the proposed test is shown to have non-trivial power against root-T local alternatives. Applying the test to various time series, we reject conditional symmetry in inflation, exchange rate and stock returns. These data have previously been tested and rejected for unconditional symmetry. Among the non-financial time series considered, we find that investment, the consumption of durables, and manufacturing employment also reject conditional symmetry. Interestingly, these are series whose dynamics are believed to be affected by fixed costs of adjustments.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Length: 34 pages Date of creation: 27 Aug 1998 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:boc:bocoec:410
Contact details of provider: Postal: Boston College, 140 Commonwealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill MA 02467 USA Phone: 617-552-3670 Fax: +1-617-552-2308 Email: Web page: http://fmwww.bc.edu/EC/ More information through EDIRC
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Christopher F Baum).
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)