ESTIMATION IN RANDOM COEFFICIENT AUTOREGRESSIVE MODELS By Alexander Aue, Lajos Horváth and Josef Steinebach University of Utah and Universität zu Köln First Version received September 2004 Abstract. We propose the quasi-maximum likelihood method to estimate the parameters of an RCA(1) process, i.e. a random coefficient autoregressive time series of order 1. The strong consistency and the asymptotic normality of the estimators are derived under optimal conditions. Keywords. Random coefficient autoregressive time series; parameter estimation; quasi-maximum likelihood; consistency; asymptotic normality. AMS 2000 subject classification. Primary 62M10; Secondary 62F10, 62F12. 1. INTRODUCTION During the last 30 years, there has been an increasing interest in nonlinear time series models. One of the first examples is the random coefficient model introduced and studied by Nicholls and Quinn (1982). Denote by N the set of positive integers and by Z the set of all integers. Then, the random coefficient autoregressive model of order 1, abbreviated RCA(1), is given by the equations Xk ¼ ðu þ bk ÞXk1 þ ek ; k 2 Z; ð1Þ where u is a real parameter. Throughout this paper, we assume that fðbk ; ek Þ : k 2 Zg are independent and identically distributed pairs of random variables on some probability space ðX; F ; P Þ: ð2Þ Time series fXk : k 2 Zg satisfying (1) have been used in the context of random perturbations of dynamical systems and they have found a variety of applications, for example, in finance and biology (cf. Nicholls and Quinn, 1982; and Tong, 1990). In this paper, we are interested in the quasi-maximum likelihood estimation of the unknown parameters of an RCA(1) process. The procedure was introduced by Quinn and Nicholls (1981) for more general RCA processes (see Chapter 4 of Nicholls and Quinn, 1982), who established strong consistency and a central limit theorem. However, their results require additional restrictive assumptions such as the existence of second-order moments of the random variables in (2) (see 0143-9782/06/01 61–76 JOURNAL OF TIME SERIES ANALYSIS Vol. 27, No. 1 Ó 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 62 A. AUE, L. HORVÁTH AND J. STEINEBACH Nicholls and Quinn, 1982, p. 70) as well as the boundedness of the second moments of the Xk itself (see Assumption (v) in Quinn and Nicholls, 1981). In contrast to this, we shall impose natural (and minimal) conditions solely on the noise sequences fbkg and fekg. Further studies along these lines were conducted by Schick (1996), who dealt with estimating the deterministic coefficient u in (1). His method could, in principle, be extended to obtain similar results for the joint estimation of all parameters. The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we discuss some basic properties of RCA(1) time series such as necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of a strictly stationary solution of (1) as well as the finiteness of moments. Our main results are given in Section 3, where the strong consistency and the asymptotic normality of the quasi-maximum likelihood estimator is obtained under optimal assumptions. Section 4 contains the proofs of the latter results. 2. THE STRUCTURE OF RCA(1) TIME SERIES The process fXk : k 2 Zg satisfies a stochastic recurrence equation, so the necessary and sufficient condition for the existence and the uniqueness of the solution of (1) can be derived from Brandt (1986) and Bougerol and Picard (1992). Related pioneering studies on bilinear equations, which may also be applied to RCA(1) processes, were conducted by Quinn (1980, 1982). Andél (1976) studied conditions for the weak stationarity of fXk : k 2 Zg without assuming (2). First, we study the properties of X ¼ 1 X ei i¼0 i1 Y ðu þ bj Þ: ð3Þ j¼0 (We use the convention P; ¼ 1.) Let logþx ¼ maxflog x, 0g be the positive part of the logarithm. Lemma 1. We assume that (2) holds, E logþ je0 j < 1 and E logþ ju þ b0 j < 1: ð4Þ (i) If 1 E log ju þ b0 j < 0; ð5Þ then X defined in (3) converges absolutely with probability 1 (a.s.). (ii) Conversely, if Pfe0 ¼ 0g < 1 and Pf|X| < 1g ¼ 1, then (5) holds. Proof. (i) First we assume that (5) holds. By the strong law of large numbers, there is a random variable i0 such that Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 ESTIMATION IN RANDOM COEFFICIENT AUTOREGRESSIVE MODELS log ju þ b1 j þ log ju þ b2 j þ þ log ju þ bi j 1 ic; 2 if i i0 ; 63 ð6Þ when 1 < c ¼ E log |u þ b0| < 0. Using (6), we have jX j i0 X jei j i¼0 i1 Y ju þ bj j þ i0 Y jei jeic=2 : ð7Þ i¼i0 þ1 k¼0 j¼0 1 X ju þ bk j Lemma 2.2 of Berkes et al. (2003) yields that ( ) 1 X ic=2 jei je < 1 ¼ 1; P i¼0 completing the first part of the lemma, when 1 < E log |u þ b0| < 0. If E log|u þ b0| ¼ 1, then (6) holds for any c < 0 (cf. Chow and Teicher, 1997, pp. 125–126), so the argument in (7) can be repeated. (ii) Since Pf|e0| ¼ 0g < 1, there is a constant a > 0 such that Pf|e0| ag > 0. Let the events Ak be defined as ( ! ) k 1 Y ju þ bi j 2 ½a; 1Þ ½1; 1Þ ; k 2 N: Ak ¼ x : jek j; i¼0 Next we introduce an increasing sequence of r-algebras given by F0 ¼ f;, Xg and Fk ¼ r((ei, bi), k i 0). Clearly, Ak 2 Fk. Applying (2), we get ( ) k 1 X log ju þ bi j 0 : P fAk jF k1 g ¼ P fje0 j agI i¼0 Hence 1 X P fAk jF k1 g ¼ P fje0 j ag k¼1 1 X ( I k¼1 k1 X ) log ju þ bi j 0 : ð8Þ i¼0 Next we show that 1 X k¼1 ( I k1 X ) log ju þ bi j 0 ¼1 a.s. ð9Þ i¼0 If E log|u þ b0| > 0, then (9) follows from the strong law of large numbers. If E log|u þ b0| ¼ 0, then the Chung–Fuchs law (cf. Chow and Teicher, 1997, p. 154) yields (9). Corollary 3.2 of Durrett (1996, p. 240) with (8) and (9) gives PfAk infinitely ofteng ¼ 1, and therefore ( ) k1 Y P lim ek ðu þ bj Þ ¼ 0 ¼ 0: k!1 j¼0 Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 64 A. AUE, L. HORVÁTH AND J. STEINEBACH h This contradicts the finiteness of X, completing the proof of Lemma 1. Lemma 2. We assume that (2) and (5) hold, E|b0| < 1 and E|e0| < 1 with some > 0. Then there is a d > 0 such that E|X|d < 1. Proof. Let M(t) ¼ E|u þ b0|t, 0 t . We note that M(0) ¼ 1 and, by (5), M (0þ) < 0. Hence M(t) is decreasing in a right neighbourhood of 0, so there is a d > 0 such that M(d) < 1. We can assume, without loss of generality, that 0 < d 1. Since (a þ b)d ad þ bd for a, b 0 by concavity, 0 d jX j 1 X jei j i1 Y i¼0 !d ju þ bj j j¼0 1 X i¼0 jei jd i1 Y ju þ bj jd : j¼0 Using (2) and M(d) < 1, we conclude EjX jd Eje0 jd 1 i1 1 X X Y E ju þ bj jd ¼ Eje0 jd M i ðdÞ < 1: i¼0 j¼0 i¼0 h This completes the proof. Lemma 3 provides a condition for the existence of E|X|m, where m 1, generalizing Lemma 2. Lemma 3. We assume that (2) and (5) hold and, for some m 1, E|e0|m < 1, E|b0|m < 1, and E|u þ b0|m < 1. Then E|X|m < 1. Proof. Using (2) and then the Minkowski inequality (cf. Chow and Teicher, 1997, p. 110), we get ðEjX jm Þ1=m ðEje0 jm Þ1=m 1 X ðEju þ b0 jm Þi=m < 1; i¼0 h completing the proof. Eb20 2 ¼ x and Remark 1. If e0 and b0 are independent, Eb0 ¼ Ee0 ¼ 0, Ee20 < 1, then EX2 < 1 if and only if u2 þ x2 < 1. This result was derived from Andél (1976) by Nicholls and Quinn (1982, p. 31). Theorem 1 gives the necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a unique solution of (1). The solution of (1) has the same distribution as X and we see in Theorem 1 that (1) has a unique (strictly) stationary solution if and only if X exists. We say that fXk : k 2 Zg is a nonanticipative solution of (1), if Xj is independent of f(bk, ek) : k > jg for all j 2 Z. Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 65 ESTIMATION IN RANDOM COEFFICIENT AUTOREGRESSIVE MODELS Theorem 1. We assume that (1) and (4) hold. (i) If (5) is satisfied, then Xk ¼ 1 X eki i¼0 i1 Y ðu þ bkj Þ j¼0 converges absolutely a.s. and the process fXk : k 2 Zg is the unique, stationary nonanticipative solution of (1). (ii) If P fc1 b0 þ c2 e0 ¼ c3 g < 1 for any real c1 ; c2 ; c3 with ðc1 ; c2 Þ 6¼ ð0; 0Þ ð10Þ and (1) has a nonanticipative solution, then (5) holds. Proof. The first part of the theorem is an immediate consequence of Lemma 1 and the results of Brandt (1986). Condition (10) yields that Xk is irreducible in the sense of Bougerol and Picard (1992), so their Theorem 2.5 implies the second part. Confer also the discussion in Quinn (1982), in which a reference is made to Quinn (1980). h 3. ESTIMATION OF THE PARAMETERS We assume that x2 covðb0 ; e0 Þ ¼ 0 Eðb0 ; e0 Þ ¼ ð0; 0Þ and 0 ; r2 x2 ; r2 > 0: ð11Þ In this section, we are interested in the estimation of the parameter vector h ¼ (u, x2, r2) based on the quasi-maximum likelihood method. Observe that, for k 2 Z, EðXk jGk1 Þ ¼ uXk1 and 2 varðXk jGk1 Þ ¼ x2 Xk1 þ r2 ; where Gk1 ¼ rððbi ; ei Þ : i k 1Þ: So, if the vectors (bk, ek) were bivariate normal, then the (conditional) likelihood would be given by ! 1=2 n Y 1 ðXi sXi1 Þ2 exp ; Ln ðuÞ ¼ 2 þ yÞ 2 þ yÞ 2ðxXi1 2pðxXi1 i¼1 where u ¼ (s, x, y). The quasi-maximum likelihood estimator ^hn is defined by sup Ln ðuÞ ¼ Ln ð^hn Þ ð12Þ u2C Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 66 A. AUE, L. HORVÁTH AND J. STEINEBACH with some suitably chosen C R3. It is more convenient to work with the loglikelihood function ‘n ðuÞ ¼ n 1X gi ðuÞ; n i¼1 gi ðuÞ ¼ ðXi sXi1 Þ2 2 þ yÞ: þ logðxXi1 2 þy xXi1 Now, (12) can be written as inf ‘n ðuÞ ¼ ‘n ð^hn Þ: u2C We assume that 1 1 C ¼ ðs; x; yÞ : s0 s s0 ; x x0 ; y y0 x0 y0 with some s0 > 0; x0 > 1 and ð13Þ y0 > 1: Even though the likelihood function was derived under the assumption of normality, the consistency and the asymptotic normality of ^hn will be derived without this distributional assumption. The proof of the consistency follows the method developed by Pfanzagl (1969). The first main result of this section is the strong consistency of the quasimaximum likelihood estimator ^ hn . Theorem 2. If (2), (4), (5), (10), (11) and (13) hold, P fðu þ b0 Þe0 ¼ 0g < 1 ð14Þ h 2 C; ð15Þ and then ^ hn ! h Remark 2. equivalently, a:s: ðn ! 1Þ: ð16Þ If b0 and e0 are independent, then (14) is satisfied, or P fðu þ b0 Þe0 6¼ 0g > 0: This can easily be checked from the facts that P fb0 > 0g > 0; P fb0 < 0g > 0; Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 P fe0 > 0g > 0; P fe0 < 0g > 0; ESTIMATION IN RANDOM COEFFICIENT AUTOREGRESSIVE MODELS 67 which imply, for example, in case of u 0, that 0 < P fu þ b0 > 0gP fe0 > 0g P fðu þ b0 Þe0 > 0g: A similar argument applies in case of u < 0. Remark 3. We imposed only (5) on the parameters which is the necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a unique strictly stationary version of the RCA(1) process. Nicholls and Quinn (1982) proved that u2 þ x2 < 1 is equivalent to the existence of a weakly stationary solution, if the sequences fbk : k 2 Zg and fek : k 2 Zg are independent and (11) is satisfied. In the presence of (2), this solution is also strictly stationary. Remark 4. We assumed that x2 > 0 and r2 > 0. One of these assumptions can be dropped. Assuming x2 0 and choosing C ¼ fðs; x; yÞ : s0 s s0 ; 0 x x0 ; 1=y0 y y0 g; Theorem 2 remains true. If x2 ¼ 0, then fXk : k 2 Zg is an AR(1) process, and Theorem 2 remains true, if we also assume that EX02 < 1: If r2 0 is allowed, then we can choose Cfðs; x; yÞ : s0 s s0 ; 1=x0 x x0 ; 0 y y0 g; and again Theorem 2 remains valid. Next we consider the asymptotic normality of n1=2 ð^hn hÞ. Let Yi1 ðu; j; cÞ ¼ j Xi1 2 ðxXi1 þ yÞc ; j ¼ 0; 1; . . . ; 2c; c 2 N: ð17Þ The proof will depend on the properties of @ @ @ 0 gi ðuÞ; gi ðuÞ; gi ðuÞ ; gi ðuÞ ¼ @s @x @y where @ gi ðuÞ ¼ 2ðu s þ bi ÞYi1 ðu; 2; 1Þ 2ei Yi1 ðu; 1; 1Þ; @s @ gi ðuÞ ¼ ðu s þ bi Þ2 Yi1 ðu; 4; 2Þ 2ðu s þ bi Þei Yi1 ðu; 3; 2Þ @x e2i Yi1 ðu; 2; 2Þ þ Yi1 ðu; 2; 1Þ ð18Þ ð19Þ @ gi ðuÞ ¼ ðu s þ bi Þ2 Yi1 ðu; 2; 2Þ 2ðu s þ bi Þei Yi1 ðu; 1; 2Þ @y e2i Yi1 ðu; 0; 2Þ þ Yi1 ðu; 0; 1Þ ð20Þ Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 68 A. AUE, L. HORVÁTH AND J. STEINEBACH Let A ¼ Eðg01 ðhÞÞT g01 ðhÞ; ð21Þ where xT denotes the transpose of x. Our next result shows that the quasi-maximum likelihood estimator is asymptotically normal. Let N(h, A) denote a normal random vector with mean h and covariance matrix A, and let int(C) denote the interior of C. Set 2 3 2að2; 1Þ 0 0 H ¼ H ðhÞ ¼ 4 0 að4; 2Þ að2; 2Þ 5 ð22Þ 0 að2; 2Þ að0; 2Þ with aðj; cÞ ¼ E Theorem 3. X0j < 1; þ r 2 Þc j ¼ 0; 1; . . . ; 2c; ðx2 X02 c 2 N: ð23Þ If (2), (4), (5), (11), (13), (14), h 2 int(C) hold, Eb40 < 1; Ee40 < 1 ð24Þ and P fc1 b0 þ e0 2 fc2 ; c3 gg < 1 for any real c1 ; c2 ; c3 with c1 6¼ 0; ð25Þ then D h hÞ ! Nð0; H 1 AH Þ; n1=2 ð^ where A and H are nonsingular matrices defined in (21) and (22), respectively. Remark 5. If b0 and e0 are independent, condition (25) is satisfied. Assume that, otherwise, P fc1 b0 þ e0 2 fc2 ; c3 gg ¼ 1 for some c1 ; c2 ; c3 with c1 6¼ 0: ð26Þ Note that c2 6¼ c3, e.g. c2 < c3, and then c2 < 0 < c3, since E(c1b0 þ e0) ¼ 0, but Eðc1 b0 þ e0 Þ2 ¼ c21 x2 þ r2 > 0: Now, from (26), Z P fc1 b0 þ e0 2 fc2 ; c3 gje0 ¼ vgdPe0 ðvÞ ¼ 1; i.e. P b0 2 c2 v c3 v ; c1 c1 Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 ¼1 for Pe0 almost-all v: ESTIMATION IN RANDOM COEFFICIENT AUTOREGRESSIVE MODELS 69 Hence, b0 has a two-point distribution, e.g. P fb0 ¼ u1 g > 0; P fb0 ¼ u2 g > 0 for some u1 < 0 < u2 : P fe0 ¼ v2 g > 0 for some v1 < 0 < v2 : Similarly, P fe0 ¼ v1 g > 0; This, however, implies P fc1 b0 þ e0 ¼ c1 u1 þ v1 g > 0; P fc1 b0 þ e0 ¼ c1 u1 þ v2 g > 0; P fc1 b0 þ e0 ¼ c1 u2 þ v2 g > 0; with c1u1 þ v1 < c1u1 þ v2 < c1u2 þ v2, if c1 > 0, which contradicts (26). A similar argument applies in case of c1 < 0. 4. PROOFS OF THE MAIN RESULTS We start with two technical lemmas. Lemma 4. If (2), (4), (5), (11), and (13) hold, then E inf g1 ðuÞ > 1; u2C and Eg1(u) is continuous on C. Proof. It follows from Lemma 2 that 2 X 1 E sup j logðxX02 þ yÞj Elog 0 þ þ Ej logðx0 X02 þ y0 Þj þ j log y0 j < 1: x0 y0 u2C So, we have ðX1 sX0 Þ2 E sup logðxX02 þ yÞ > 1; u2C xX 2 þ y u2C 0 E inf g1 ðuÞ E inf u2C since ðX1 sX0 Þ2 ðxX02 þ yÞ1 0 for all u 2 C. Recalling (17), easy calculations show that Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 70 A. AUE, L. HORVÁTH AND J. STEINEBACH gi ðuÞ ¼ ðu s þ bi Þ2 Yi1 ðu; 2; 1Þ þ e2i Yi1 ðu; 0; 1Þ 2 þ yÞ: þ 2ðu s þ bi Þei Yi1 ðu; 1; 1Þ þ logðxXi1 Clearly, for all u 2 C and j ¼ 0, 1, 2, E jXi1 jj < 1: 2 þy xXi1 ð27Þ Hence, by (11) and (23), we have Eg1 ðuÞ ¼ ðu sÞ2 þ x2 að2; 1Þ þ r2 að0; 1Þ E log Y0 ðu; 0; 1Þ: It is immediate that Eg1(u) is continuous on u 2 C. Lemma 5. h If (2), (4), (5), (10), (11), (13) and (14) hold, then Eg1 ðuÞ > Eg1 ðhÞ Proof. ð28Þ for all u 6¼ h; u 2 C: By (28), we have Eg1 ðuÞ ¼ ðu sÞ2 E 2 2 X02 x X 0 þ r2 þ Eh þ E logðx2 X02 þ r2 Þ; xX02 þ y xX02 þ y where h(x) ¼ x log x, x > 0. Elementary arguments give that h(x) > h(1) ¼ 1 for all real x 6¼ 1. Hence Eg1(u) Eg1(h) and Eg1(u) ¼ Eg1(h) if and only if 2 2 x X0 þ r2 ¼ 1 ¼ 1: ð29Þ s ¼ u and P xX02 þ y If x2 X02 þ r2 ¼ xX02 þ y a.s., then also ðx2 xÞX02 ¼ y r2 a.s. Now, if x2 6¼ x or y 6¼ r2, then P fX02 ¼ cg ¼ 1 with some real c. By (1), we obtain X12 ¼ ðu þ b1 Þ2 X02 þ e21 þ 2ðu þ b1 Þe1 X0 a.s. ð30Þ Using the stationarity of fXk : k 2 Zg, we also have P fX12 ¼ cg ¼ 1, so (30) gives c ¼ ðu þ b1 Þ2 c þ e21 þ 2ðu þ b1 Þe1 X0 a.s. ð31Þ Note that, in view of (1), (2) and (11), EX1 ¼ E(u þ b1)E(X0) þ Ee1 ¼uE(X0), with |u| < 1, and hence, by stationarity, EXk ¼ 0 for all k 2 Z. On taking conditional expectations with respect to (b1, e1) in (31), we have, almost surely, c ¼ ðu þ b1 Þ2 c þ e21 . Plugging the latter relation back into (31) and noting that Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 ESTIMATION IN RANDOM COEFFICIENT AUTOREGRESSIVE MODELS 71 pffiffiffi jX0 j ¼ c 6¼ 0, we must have (u þ b1)e1 ¼ 0 with probability 1, which contradicts assumption (14). Hence (29) implies that s ¼ u, x ¼ x2 and y ¼ r2. h Proof of Theorem 2. Our proof follows the general method developed by Pfanzagl (1969). First, we observe that, by (15), inf ‘n ðuÞ ‘n ðhÞ; u2C and therefore lim sup inf ‘n ðuÞ lim sup ‘n ðhÞ u2C n!1 a.s. n!1 The sequence fgi(h) : i 2 Zg is a stationary and ergodic sequence with E|g1(h)| < 1. So, by the ergodic theorem, we have lim ‘n ðhÞ ¼ Eg1 ðhÞ n!1 a.s.; resulting in lim sup inf ‘n ðuÞ Eg1 ðhÞ n!1 u2C ð32Þ a.s. For each positive integer n, ‘n (u) is continuous on the compact set C, and therefore ^ hn 2 C. Now, by (32), we have hn Þ Eg1 ðhÞ lim sup ‘n ð^ ð33Þ a.s. n!1 Let C C be a compact set such that the distance between C and h is positive. The set C can easily be constructed. For example, let U be an open ball around h with a small enough radius. Clearly, C ¼ CnU would satisfy the required assumptions on C. Since g1(u) is continuous on C (and therefore on C), for any r < Eg1(u), u 2 C, there exists an open ball U(u) around u such that r < E inf g1 ðtÞ t2U ðuÞ (cf. Pfanzagl, 1969, p. 271). The sets U(u), u 2 C, are an open covering of C, and therefore they contain a finite covering, say, U(u1), U(u2), . . . , U(uk) of C. By the ergodic theorem, for any 1 j k, we have n 1X inf gi ðuÞ ¼ E inf g1 ðuÞ > r n!1 n u2U ðuj Þ u2U ðuj Þ i¼1 lim a.s. ð34Þ Observing that inf ‘n ðuÞ min u2C n 1X inf gi ðuÞ; 1jk n u2U ð uj Þ i¼1 inf ‘n ðuÞ min 1jk u2U ðuj Þ Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 72 A. AUE, L. HORVÁTH AND J. STEINEBACH we have, by (34), lim inf inf ‘n ðuÞ min lim inf n!1 u2C 1jk n!1 n 1X inf gi ðuÞ > r; n i¼1 u2U ðuj Þ except on an event Br with P(Br) ¼ 0 for any rational r satisfying r < inf Eg1 ðuÞ: ð35Þ u2C Let B¼ [ fBr : r is rational and satisfies (35)g: Then P(B) ¼ 0 and, on the complement of B, we have lim inf inf ‘n ðuÞ > r n!1 u2C for all r rational satisfying (35). Thus, lim inf inf ‘n ðuÞ inf Eg1 ðuÞ n!1 u2C u2C ð36Þ a.s. According to Lemma 4, Eg1(u) is continuous and, by Lemma 5, h 2j C is the unique minimum of Eg1(u), so (36) yields lim inf inf ‘n uÞ > Eg1 ðhÞ a.s. ð37Þ n!1 u2C Let U be an open ball around h with a small enough radius and U ¼ U \ C. If ^ hn 2j U infinitely often, there is a random subsequence nk such that, with C ¼ CnU , we have hnk Þ lim sup ‘n ð^hn Þ lim inf inf ‘n ðuÞ lim inf ‘nk ð^ n!1 u2C k!1 a.s. ð38Þ n!1 However, (38) contradicts (33) and (37). So, for any U as above, there is a random variable n0 such that ^ hn 2 U for all n n0. This completes the proof. h The proof of Theorem 3, i.e. of the asymptotic normality of n1=2 ð^hn hÞ, will also be divided into several lemmas. Lemma 6. We assume that (2), (4), (5), (11), (13), (15), (24) and (25) hold. Then Eg0 1ðhÞ ¼ 0 and the matrix A from (21) exists and is nonsingular. Proof. From (2), (11), (18)–(20) and (23), it follows that @ @ @ gi ðhÞ ¼ gi ðhÞ ¼ gi ðhÞ ¼ 0: @s @x @y It is clear that A is non-negative definite and finite, so it is enough to prove that A is nonsingular. Let us assume that A is singular. Then Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 ESTIMATION IN RANDOM COEFFICIENT AUTOREGRESSIVE MODELS c1 @ @ @ g1 ðhÞ þ c2 g1 ðhÞ þ c3 g1 ðhÞ ¼ 0 a.s. @s @x @y 73 ð39Þ with some constants c1, c2 and c3, not all zero. Using the formulas for the partial derivatives of g1(h), (39) holds if and only if ðc3 þ c2 X02 Þ ðb1 X0 þ e1 Þ2 ðx2 X02 þ r2 Þ 2c1 X0 2 b1 X0 þ e 1 c3 þ c2 X02 þ ¼0 x2 X02 þ r2 x2 X02 þ r2 a.s. ð40Þ First observe that c2 6¼ 0 or c3 6¼ 0. Otherwise, c1 6¼ 0 and X0(b1X0 þ e1) ¼ 0 a.s., which implies ðb1 X0 þ e1 ÞIfX0 6¼0g ¼ 0 a.s. On taking the conditional expectation with respect to (b1, e1), we have b1 EðX0 IfX0 6¼0g Þ þ e1 P fX0 6¼ 0g ¼ e1 P fX0 6¼ 0g ¼ 0: Since PfX0 6¼ 0g > 0, e1 ¼ 0 a.s., which contradicts our assumptions. So, c2 6¼ 0 or c3 6¼ 0, which results in P fc3 þ c2 X02 6¼ 0g ¼ 1, because otherwise P fX02 ¼ cg ¼ 1 for some c, a contradiction. Now, from (40), P fb1 X0 þ e1 2 fC2 ; C3 gg ¼ 1; where C2 ¼ C2(X0), C3 ¼ C3(X0). This implies EP fb1 X0 þ e1 2 fC2 ðX0 Þ; C3 ðX0 ÞgjX0 g ¼ 1; i.e. since X0 and (b1, e1) are independent, Z P fb1 x þ e1 2 fC2 ðxÞ; C3 ðxÞggdPX0 ðxÞ ¼ 1; resulting in P fb1 x þ e1 2 fC2 ðxÞ; C3 ðxÞgg ¼ 1 for PX0 almost-all x: In view of PfX0 6¼ 0g > 0, the latter equality contradicts our assumption (25), which completes the proof. h Our next result shows that n1=2 ‘0n ðhÞ converges in distribution to a nondegenerate three-dimensional normal random vector. Lemma 7. Then We assume that (2), (4), (5), (11), (13), (15), (24) and (25) hold. D n1=2 ‘0n ðhÞ ! Nðh; AÞ; where A is defined in (21). Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 74 A. AUE, L. HORVÁTH AND J. STEINEBACH Proof. We note that n1=2 ‘0n ðhÞ ¼ n1=2 n X g0i ðhÞ; i¼1 Eg0i ðhÞ 0; covðg0i ðhÞÞ g0i ðhÞ; g0j ðhÞ ¼ ¼ A, and are uncorrelated if i 6¼ j. where Moreover, by (2) and (11), we have ! k k 1 X X 0 gi ðhÞGk1 ¼ g0i ðhÞ: E i¼1 i¼1 Thus, Theorem 23.1 of Billingsley (1968, p. 206) and an application of the Cramér–Wold device (Billingsley, 1968, pp. 48–49) yield Lemma 7. h Set H ðuÞ ¼ Eg001 ðuÞ. By (11), similarly to (27), it is obvious that H(u) is finite for all u 2 C. Let |Æ| denote the maximum norm of a matrix. Lemma 8. Then We assume that (2), (4), (5), (11), (13), (14), (15) and (24) hold. sup j‘00n ðuÞ H ðuÞj ! 0 ð41Þ a:s: u2C Moreover, H(u) is continuous on C and H ¼ H(h) as in (22) is nonsingular. Proof. The ergodic theorem yields lim sup sup j‘ð3Þ n ðuÞj lim sup n!1 u2C n!1 n 1X ð3Þ ð3Þ sup jg ðuÞj ¼ E sup jg1 ðuÞj < 1 n i¼1 u2C i u2C a.s. Hence, the mean value theorem applied to the coordinates of ‘00n ðuÞ yields (41). It is immediate that H(u) is continuous on C. If we show that að4; 2Þ að2; 2Þ H ¼ að2; 2Þ að0; 2Þ is nonsingular, the proof of Lemma 8 will be complete. We note that H ¼ EgTg, where X02 1 g¼ ; : x2 X02 þ r2 x2 X02 þ r2 If H is singular, then there are c1 and c2, (c1, c2) 6¼ (0, 0), such that X2 1 P c1 2 2 0 2 þ c2 2 2 ¼ 0 ¼ 1: x X0 þ r x X 0 þ r2 Since (42) implies that c1 6¼ 0, we have Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006 ð42Þ ESTIMATION IN RANDOM COEFFICIENT AUTOREGRESSIVE MODELS P fX02 ¼ c2 =c1 g ¼ 1; 75 ð43Þ which is the same contradiction as in the proof of Lemma 6. h Now we are ready to prove the asymptotic normality of n1=2 ð^hn hÞ. Proof of Theorem 3. We proved in Lemma 8 that H1 exists. Since ‘n(u) is continuously differentiable on int(C), by Theorem 2 we have that ‘0n ð^hn Þ ¼ 0 and therefore ‘0n ð^ hn Þ ‘0n ðhÞ ¼ ‘0n ðhÞ. Applying the mean value theorem to the coordinates of ‘0n ðuÞ, by Lemma 8 and Theorem 2 we get ð^ hn hÞðH þ oð1ÞÞ ¼ ‘0n ðhÞ The result now follows from Lemma 7. a.s. h ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A. Aue, L. Horváth and J. Steinebach were partially supported by NATO grant PST. EAP.CLG 980599; A. Aue and L. Horváth were partially supported by NSF grant INT-0223262. NOTE Corresponding author: J. Steinebach, Mathematisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Weyertal 86-90, D-50931 Köln, Germany. E-mail: jost@math.uni-koeln.de REFERENCES Andél, J. (1976) Autoregressive series with random parameters. Math. Operationsforsch. Statist. 7, 735–41. Berkes, I., Horváth, L. and Kokoszka, P. (2003) GARCH processes: structure and estimation. Bernoulli 9, 201–27. Billingsley, P. (1968) Convergence of Probability Measures. New York: Wiley. Bougerol, P. and Picard, N. 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(1981) The estimation of random coefficient autoregressive models II. J. Time Ser. Anal. pffiffiffi 2, 185–203. Schick, A. (1996) n-consistent estimation in a random coefficient autoregressive model. Austral. J. Statist. 38, 155–60. Tong, H. (1990) Non-linear Time Series: A Dynamical System Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Ó Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2006