IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zur/econwp/172.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Resurrecting weighted least squares

Author

Listed:
  • Joseph P. Romano
  • Michael Wolf

Abstract

This paper shows how asymptotically valid inference in regression models based on the weighted least squares (WLS) estimator can be obtained even when the model for reweighting the data is misspecified. Like the ordinary least squares estimator, the WLS estimator can be accompanied by heterokedasticty-consistent (HC) standard errors without knowledge of the functional form of conditional heteroskedasticity. First, we provide rigorous proofs under reasonable assumptions; second, we provide numerical support in favor of this approach. Indeed, a Monte Carly study demonstrates attractive finite-sample properties compared to the status quo, both in terms of estimation and making inference.

Suggested Citation

  • Joseph P. Romano & Michael Wolf, 2014. "Resurrecting weighted least squares," ECON - Working Papers 172, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Oct 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:zur:econwp:172
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/98546/25/econwp172.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cribari-Neto, Francisco, 2004. "Asymptotic inference under heteroskedasticity of unknown form," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 215-233, March.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    3. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    4. Hausman, Jerry & Palmer, Christopher, 2012. "Heteroskedasticity-robust inference in finite samples," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 232-235.
    5. Harvey, A C, 1976. "Estimating Regression Models with Multiplicative Heteroscedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 44(3), pages 461-465, May.
    6. Davidson, Russell & Flachaire, Emmanuel, 2008. "The wild bootstrap, tamed at last," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 162-169, September.
    7. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    8. Zeileis, Achim, 2004. "Econometric Computing with HC and HAC Covariance Matrix Estimators," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 11(i10).
    9. Chesher, Andrew & Jewitt, Ian, 1987. "The Bias of a Heteroskedasticity Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(5), pages 1217-1222, September.
    10. Koenker, Roger & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1982. "Robust Tests for Heteroscedasticity Based on Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 43-61, January.
    11. Breusch, T S & Pagan, A R, 1979. "A Simple Test for Heteroscedasticity and Random Coefficient Variation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 47(5), pages 1287-1294, September.
    12. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2003. "Cluster-Sample Methods in Applied Econometrics," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 133-138, May.
    13. Kolev, Gueorgui I., 2012. "Underperformance by female CEOs: A more powerful test," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(2), pages 436-440.
    14. Flachaire, Emmanuel, 2005. "Bootstrapping heteroskedastic regression models: wild bootstrap vs. pairs bootstrap," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 361-376, April.
    15. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    16. Chesher, Andrew & Austin, Gerard, 1991. "The finite-sample distributions of heteroskedasticity robust Wald statistics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 153-173, January.
    17. James G. MacKinnon, 2012. "Thirty Years Of Heteroskedasticity-robust Inference," Working Paper 1268, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    18. Kauermann G. & Carroll R.J., 2001. "A Note on the Efficiency of Sandwich Covariance Matrix Estimation," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 96, pages 1387-1396, December.
    19. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2006. "The Log of Gravity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 641-658, November.
    20. Andreas Steinhauer & Tobias Wuergler, 2010. "Leverage and covariance matrix estimation in finite-sample IV regressions," IEW - Working Papers 521, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    21. Cragg, John G, 1983. "More Efficient Estimation in the Presence of Heteroscedasticity of Unknown Form," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(3), pages 751-763, May.
    22. Cragg, John G., 1992. "Quasi-Aitken estimation for heteroskedasticity of unknown form," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1-3), pages 179-201.
    23. MacKinnon, James G. & White, Halbert, 1985. "Some heteroskedasticity-consistent covariance matrix estimators with improved finite sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 305-325, September.
    24. Papke, Leslie E & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 619-632, Nov.-Dec..
    25. Edward E. Leamer, 2010. "Tantalus on the Road to Asymptopia," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 31-46, Spring.
    26. Koenker, Roger, 1981. "A note on studentizing a test for heteroscedasticity," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 107-112, September.
    27. Manning, Willard G. & Mullahy, John, 2001. "Estimating log models: to transform or not to transform?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 461-494, July.
    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. Pötscher, Benedikt M. & Preinerstorfer, David, 2021. "Valid Heteroskedasticity Robust Testing," MPRA Paper 107420, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Pötscher, Benedikt M. & Preinerstorfer, David, 2023. "How Reliable Are Bootstrap-Based Heteroskedasticity Robust Tests?," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 789-847, August.
    3. Cyrus J. DiCiccio & Joseph P. Romano & Michael Wolf, 2016. "Improving weighted least squares inference," ECON - Working Papers 232, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Nov 2017.
    4. Jianghao Chu & Tae-Hwy Lee & Aman Ullah & Haifeng Xu, 2020. "Exact Distribution of the F-statistic under Heteroskedasticity of Unknown Form for Improved Inference," Working Papers 202027, University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics.
    5. DiCiccio, Cyrus J. & Romano, Joseph P. & Wolf, Michael, 2019. "Improving weighted least squares inference," Econometrics and Statistics, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 96-119.
    6. Richard H. Spady & Sami Stouli, 2018. "Simultaneous Mean-Variance Regression," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 18/697, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    7. Michael O'Hara & Christopher F. Parmeter, 2013. "Nonparametric Generalized Least Squares in Applied Regression Analysis," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 456-474, October.
    8. Eric S. Lin & Ta-Sheng Chou, 2018. "Finite-sample refinement of GMM approach to nonlinear models under heteroskedasticity of unknown form," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(1), pages 1-28, January.
    9. Hartigan, Luke, 2018. "Alternative HAC covariance matrix estimators with improved finite sample properties," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 55-73.
    10. Sin, C.Y. (Chor-yiu) & Lee, Cheng-Few, 2021. "Using heteroscedasticity-non-consistent or heteroscedasticity-consistent variances in linear regression," Econometrics and Statistics, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 117-142.
    11. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
    12. Katarzyna Jabłońska, 2018. "Dealing With Heteroskedasticity Within The Modeling Of The Quality Of Life Of Older People," Statistics in Transition New Series, Polish Statistical Association, vol. 19(3), pages 423-452, September.
    13. Cheng, Tsung-Chi, 2012. "On simultaneously identifying outliers and heteroscedasticity without specific form," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(7), pages 2258-2272.
    14. Dufour, Jean-Marie & Khalaf, Lynda & Bernard, Jean-Thomas & Genest, Ian, 2004. "Simulation-based finite-sample tests for heteroskedasticity and ARCH effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 317-347, October.
    15. LE GALLO, Julie, 2000. "Econométrie spatiale 2 -Hétérogénéité spatiale," LATEC - Document de travail - Economie (1991-2003) 2001-01, LATEC, Laboratoire d'Analyse et des Techniques EConomiques, CNRS UMR 5118, Université de Bourgogne.
    16. Godfrey, L.G., 2006. "Tests for regression models with heteroskedasticity of unknown form," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 50(10), pages 2715-2733, June.
    17. P. Dorian Owen, 2017. "Evaluating Ingenious Instruments for Fundamental Determinants of Long-Run Economic Growth and Development," Econometrics, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-33, September.
    18. Julie Le Gallo, 2000. "Spatial econometrics (2, Spatial heterogeneity) [Econométrie spatiale (2, Hétérogénéité spatiale)]," Working Papers hal-01526969, HAL.
    19. Emmanuel Flachaire, 2005. "More Efficient Tests Robust to Heteroskedasticity of Unknown Form," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 219-241.
    20. Chaudhuri, Saraswata & Renault, Eric, 2023. "Efficient estimation of regression models with user-specified parametric model for heteroskedasticty," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1473, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Conditional heteroskedasticity; HC standard errors; weighted least squares;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C12 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Hypothesis Testing: General
    • C13 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Estimation: General
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models

    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:zur:econwp:172. 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: Severin Oswald (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/seizhch.html .

    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.