IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2512.12110.html

Estimation of a Dynamic Tobit Model with a Unit Root

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Bykhovskaya
  • James A. Duffy

Abstract

This paper studies robust estimation in the dynamic Tobit model under local-to-unity (LUR) asymptotics. We show that both Gaussian maximum likelihood (ML) and censored least absolute deviations (CLAD) estimators are consistent, extending results from the stationary case where ordinary least squares (OLS) is inconsistent. The asymptotic distributions of MLE and CLAD are derived; for the short-run parameters they are shown to be Gaussian, yielding standard normal t-statistics. In contrast, although OLS remains consistent under LUR, its t-statistics are not standard normal. These results enable reliable model selection via sequential t-tests based on ML and CLAD, paralleling the linear autoregressive case. Applications to financial and epidemiological time series illustrate their practical relevance.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Bykhovskaya & James A. Duffy, 2025. "Estimation of a Dynamic Tobit Model with a Unit Root," Papers 2512.12110, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2512.12110
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.12110
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li, Guodong & Li, Wai Keung, 2009. "Least Absolute Deviation Estimation For Unit Root Processes With Garch Errors," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(5), pages 1208-1227, October.
    2. Xiao, Zhijie, 2009. "Quantile cointegrating regression," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 150(2), pages 248-260, June.
    3. Laura Liu & Hyungsik Roger Moon & Frank Schorfheide, 2023. "Forecasting with a panel Tobit model," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 14(1), pages 117-159, January.
    4. Hansen, Bruce E. & Seo, Byeongseon, 2002. "Testing for two-regime threshold cointegration in vector error-correction models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 110(2), pages 293-318, October.
    5. Graham Elliott & Ulrich K. Müller & Mark W. Watson, 2015. "Nearly Optimal Tests When a Nuisance Parameter Is Present Under the Null Hypothesis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 771-811, March.
    6. Kristensen, Dennis & Rahbek, Anders, 2010. "Likelihood-based inference for cointegration with nonlinear error-correction," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 158(1), pages 78-94, September.
    7. Brezigar-Masten, Arjana & Masten, Igor & Volk, Matjaž, 2021. "Modelin-g credit risk with a Tobit model of days past due," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    8. James A. Duffy & Sophocles Mavroeidis, 2024. "Common Trends and Long-Run Identification in Nonlinear Structural VARs," Papers 2404.05349, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2024.
    9. Anna Bykhovskaya & James A. Duffy, 2022. "The Local to Unity Dynamic Tobit Model," Papers 2210.02599, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    10. Bykhovskaya, Anna & Duffy, James A., 2024. "The local to unity dynamic Tobit model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 241(2).
    11. Cavaliere, Giuseppe, 2005. "Limited Time Series With A Unit Root," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(5), pages 907-945, October.
    12. Valerie A. Ramey & Sarah Zubairy, 2018. "Government Spending Multipliers in Good Times and in Bad: Evidence from US Historical Data," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(2), pages 850-901.
    13. Liang, Hanying & Phillips, Peter C.B. & Wang, Hanchao & Wang, Qiying, 2016. "Weak Convergence To Stochastic Integrals For Econometric Applications," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(6), pages 1349-1375, December.
    14. Terasvirta, Timo & Tjostheim, Dag & Granger, Clive W. J., 2010. "Modelling Nonlinear Economic Time Series," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199587155.
    15. Olsen, Randall J, 1978. "Note on the Uniqueness of the Maximum Likelihood Estimator for the Tobit Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(5), pages 1211-1215, September.
    16. Diansheng Dong & Todd M. Schmit & Harry Kaiser, 2012. "Modelling household purchasing behaviour to analyse beneficial marketing strategies," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(6), pages 717-725, February.
    17. Powell, James L., 1984. "Least absolute deviations estimation for the censored regression model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 303-325, July.
    18. Chan, Nigel & Wang, Qiying, 2015. "Nonlinear regressions with nonstationary time series," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 185(1), pages 182-195.
    19. Aruoba, S. Borağan & Mlikota, Marko & Schorfheide, Frank & Villalvazo, Sergio, 2022. "SVARs with occasionally-binding constraints," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 231(2), pages 477-499.
    20. Sophocles Mavroeidis, 2021. "Identification at the Zero Lower Bound," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(6), pages 2855-2885, November.
    21. Herce, Miguel A., 1996. "Asymptotic Theory of LAD Estimation in a Unit Root Process with Finite Variance Errors," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 129-153, March.
    22. Michael Jansson & Marcelo J. Moreira, 2006. "Optimal Inference in Regression Models with Nearly Integrated Regressors," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 74(3), pages 681-714, May.
    23. Selva Demiralp & Òscar Jordà, 2002. "The announcement effect: evidence from open market desk data," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 8(May), pages 29-48.
    24. Phillips, Peter C.B. & Jin, Sainan & Hu, Ling, 2007. "Nonstationary discrete choice: A corrigendum and addendum," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 1115-1130, December.
    25. Anna Mikusheva, 2007. "Uniform Inference in Autoregressive Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(5), pages 1411-1452, September.
    26. Joon Y. Park & Peter C. B. Phillips, 2000. "Nonstationary Binary Choice," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(5), pages 1249-1280, September.
    27. Mark Bagnoli & Ted Bergstrom, 2006. "Log-concave probability and its applications," Studies in Economic Theory, in: Charalambos D. Aliprantis & Rosa L. Matzkin & Daniel L. McFadden & James C. Moore & Nicholas C. Yann (ed.), Rationality and Equilibrium, pages 217-241, Springer.
    28. Pollard, David, 1991. "Asymptotics for Least Absolute Deviation Regression Estimators," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 186-199, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Duffy, James A. & Mavroeidis, Sophocles & Wycherley, Sam, 2025. "Cointegration with occasionally binding constraints," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 252(PA).
    2. Bykhovskaya, Anna & Duffy, James A., 2024. "The local to unity dynamic Tobit model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 241(2).
    3. Anna Bykhovskaya & James A. Duffy, 2022. "The Local to Unity Dynamic Tobit Model," Papers 2210.02599, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    4. Christis Katsouris, 2023. "Structural Break Detection in Quantile Predictive Regression Models with Persistent Covariates," Papers 2302.05193, arXiv.org.
    5. Lee, Ji Hyung, 2016. "Predictive quantile regression with persistent covariates: IVX-QR approach," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 192(1), pages 105-118.
    6. Uwe Hassler & Paulo M.M. Rodrigues & Antonio Rubia, 2016. "Quantile Regression for Long Memory Testing: A Case of Realized Volatility," Journal of Financial Econometrics, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(4), pages 693-724.
    7. Maynard, Alex & Shimotsu, Katsumi & Kuriyama, Nina, 2024. "Inference in predictive quantile regressions," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 245(1).
    8. Lahiri, Kajal & Yang, Liu, 2013. "Forecasting Binary Outcomes," Handbook of Economic Forecasting, in: G. Elliott & C. Granger & A. Timmermann (ed.), Handbook of Economic Forecasting, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1025-1106, Elsevier.
    9. Rickard Sandberg, 2017. "Sample Moments and Weak Convergence to Multivariate Stochastic Power Integrals," Journal of Time Series Analysis, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 1000-1009, November.
    10. Liyu Dou & Ulrich K. Müller, 2021. "Generalized Local‐to‐Unity Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(4), pages 1825-1854, July.
    11. Tae-Hwan Kim & Halbert White, 2003. "Estimation, Inference, And Specification Testing For Possibly Misspecified Quantile Regression," Advances in Econometrics, in: Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Misspecified Models: Twenty Years Later, pages 107-132, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    12. Hu, Zhishui & Phillips, Peter C.B. & Wang, Qiying, 2021. "Nonlinear Cointegrating Power Function Regression With Endogeneity," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(6), pages 1173-1213, December.
    13. Li, Degui & Li, Runze, 2016. "Local composite quantile regression smoothing for Harris recurrent Markov processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 194(1), pages 44-56.
    14. Nannan Ma & Hailin Sang & Guangyu Yang, 2023. "Least absolute deviation estimation for AR(1) processes with roots close to unity," Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Springer;The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, vol. 75(5), pages 799-832, October.
    15. Escribano, Alvaro & Peña, Daniel & Ruiz, Esther, 2021. "30 years of cointegration and dynamic factor models forecasting and its future with big data: Editorial," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1333-1337.
    16. Kirstin Hubrich & Timo Teräsvirta, 2013. "Thresholds and Smooth Transitions in Vector Autoregressive Models," CREATES Research Papers 2013-18, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    17. Holberg, Christian & Ditlevsen, Susanne, 2025. "Uniform inference for cointegrated vector autoregressive processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    18. James A. Duffy & Sophocles Mavroeidis, 2024. "Common Trends and Long-Run Identification in Nonlinear Structural VARs," Papers 2404.05349, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2024.
    19. Tu, Yundong & Liang, Han-Ying & Wang, Qiying, 2022. "Nonparametric inference for quantile cointegrations with stationary covariates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 230(2), pages 453-482.
    20. Andrés Langebaek R. & Diego Vásquez E., 2007. "Determinantes de la actividad innovadora en la industria manufacturera colombiana," Borradores de Economia 433, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2512.12110. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.