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Consistent Specification Testing

James Davidson (University of Exeter)
11/03/11


We generalize Bierens’(1982, 1990) approach to a wider class of models and estimators. Bierens constructs consistent moment tests in the context of linear and nonlinear least squares but there are a number of mis-specifications, such as heteroskedastic errors, against which they will not typically have power. Our framework is independent of the form of the model, and covers all variants of maximum likelihood and quasi-maximum likelihood estimation and also the generalized method of moments. It has particular applications in new cases such as discrete data models, but the chief appeal of our approach is that it provides a "one size fits all" test, that can be computed routinely, does not need to be tailored to the particular model, and is expected to have power against a wide class of alternatives. Although primarily envisaged as a test of functional form, this type of moment test can also be extended to testing for omitted variables.

Joint work with A.G. Halunga

Paper is available from here


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