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Small Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Based Wald Tests

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  • Craig Burnside
  • Martin Eichenbaum

Abstract

This paper assesses the small sample properties of Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) based Wald statistics. The analysis is conducted assuming that the data generating process corresponds to (i) a simple vector white noise process and (ii) an equilibrium business cycle model. Our key findings are that the small sample size of the Wald tests exceeds their asymptotic size, and that their size increases uniformly with the dimensionality of joint hypotheses. For tests involving even moderate numbers of moment restrictions, the small sample size of the tests greatly exceeds their asymptotic size. Relying on asymptotic distribution theory leads one to reject joint hypothesis tests far too often. We argue that the source of the problem is the difficulty of estimating the spectral density matrix of the GMM residuals, which is needed to conduct inference in a GMM environment. Imposing restrictions implied by the underlying economic model being investigated or the null hypothesis being tested on this spectral density matrix can lead to substantial improvements in the small sample properties of the Wald tests.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Technical Working Papers with number 0155.

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Date of creation: May 1994
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberte:0155

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  1. Edward C. Prescott, 1986. "Theory ahead of business cycle measurement," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Fall, pages 9-22.
  2. Chistiano, Lawrence J & den Haan, Wouter J, 1996. "Small-Sample Properties of GMM for Business-Cycle Analysis," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 14(3), pages 309-27, July.
  3. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-54, July.
  4. Martin S. Eichenbaum & Lars Peter Hansen, 1991. "Estimating Models with Intertemporal Substitution Using Aggregate Time Series Data," NBER Working Papers 2181, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  5. Hansen, Gary D., 1985. "Indivisible labor and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 309-327, November.
  6. repec:att:wimass:9220 is not listed on IDEAS
  7. Craig Burnside & Martin Eichenbaum, 1994. "Factor Hoarding and the Propagation of Business Cycles Shocks," NBER Working Papers 4675, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  8. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 1990. "On tests of representative consumer asset pricing models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 285-304, October.
  9. Robert J. Hodrick & Edward Prescott, 1981. "Post-War U.S. Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation," Discussion Papers 451, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
  10. Fuhrer, Jeffrey C. & Moore, George R. & Schuh, Scott D., 1995. "Estimating the linear-quadratic inventory model Maximum likelihood versus generalized method of moments," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 115-157, February.
  11. Kydland, Finn E & Prescott, Edward C, 1982. "Time to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1345-70, November.
  12. Donald W.K. Andrews, 1988. "Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 877R, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Jul 1989.
  13. Whitney K. Newey & Kenneth D. West, 1986. "A Simple, Positive Semi-Definite, Heteroskedasticity and AutocorrelationConsistent Covariance Matrix," NBER Technical Working Papers 0055, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  14. Donald W.K. Andrews & Christopher J. Monahan, 1990. "An Improved Heteroskedasticity and Autocorrelation Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 942, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
  15. Newey, Whitney K & West, Kenneth D, 1994. "Automatic Lag Selection in Covariance Matrix Estimation," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 631-53, October.
  16. Lawrence J. Christiano & Martin Eichenbaum, 1990. "Current real business cycle theories and aggregate labor market fluctuations," Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics 24, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  17. Kenneth D. West, 1993. "Inventory Models," NBER Technical Working Papers 0143, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  18. Ellen McGrattan & Richard Rogerson & Randall Wright, 1993. "Household production and taxation in the stochastic growth model," Staff Report 166, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  19. Sumru Altug, 1986. "Time to build and aggregate fluctuations: some new evidence," Working Papers 277, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  20. Gregory, Allan W & Veall, Michael R, 1985. "Formulating Wald Tests of Nonlinear Restrictions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1465-68, November.
  21. Christiano, Lawrence J., 1988. "Why does inventory investment fluctuate so much?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2-3), pages 247-280.
  22. Hansen, Lars Peter & Singleton, Kenneth J, 1982. "Generalized Instrumental Variables Estimation of Nonlinear Rational Expectations Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(5), pages 1269-86, September.
  23. Tauchen, George, 1986. "Statistical Properties of Generalized Method-of-Moments Estimators of Structural Parameters Obtained from Financial Market Data," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 4(4), pages 397-416, October.
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Cited by:
  1. Chistiano, Lawrence J & den Haan, Wouter J, 1996. "Small-Sample Properties of GMM for Business-Cycle Analysis," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 14(3), pages 309-27, July.
  2. Wouter J. den Haan & Andrew T. Levin, 1995. "Inferences from parametric and non-parametric covariance matrix estimation procedures," International Finance Discussion Papers 504, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  3. Dufour, Jean-Marie & Torres, Olivier, 2000. "Markovian processes, two-sided autoregressions and finite-sample inference for stationary and nonstationary autoregressive processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 255-289, December.
  4. Francesco Bravo, . "Empirical likelihood inference with applications to some econometric models," Discussion Papers 00/05, Department of Economics, University of York.
  5. Peter R. Hartley & Joseph A. Whitt, Jr., 1997. "Macroeconomic fluctuations in Europe: demand or supply, permanent or temporary?," Working Paper 97-14, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
  6. Wouter J. Den Haan & Andrew T. Levin, 1996. "A Practitioner's Guide to Robust Covariance Matrix Estimation," NBER Technical Working Papers 0197, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  7. Wagenvoort, Rien & Waldmann, Robert, 2002. "On B-robust instrumental variable estimation of the linear model with panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 106(2), pages 297-324, February.
  8. Nevo, Aviv, 2002. "Sample selection and information-theoretic alternatives to GMM," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 107(1-2), pages 149-157, March.
  9. Christopher R. Knittel & Konstantinos Metaxoglou, 2008. "Estimation of Random Coefficient Demand Models: Challenges, Difficulties and Warnings," NBER Working Papers 14080, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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