Statistical Properties of Generalized Method-of-Moments Estimators of Structural Parameters Obtained from Financial Market Data
Abstract
The article examines the properties of generalized method of moments GMM estimators of utility function parameters. The research strategy is to apply the GMM procedure to generated data on asset returns from stochastic exchange economies; discrete methods and Markov chain models are used to approximate the solutions to the integral equations for the asset prices. The findings are as follows: (a) There is variance/bias trade-off regarding the number of lags used to form instruments; with short lags, the estimates of utility function parameters are nearly asymptotically optimal, but with longer lags the estimates concentrate around biased values and confidence intervals become misleading. (b) The test of the overidentifying restrictions performs well in small samples; if anything, the test is biased toward acceptance of the null hypothesis.
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Scholars@Duke

George E. Tauchen
George Tauchen is the William Henry Glasson Professor of Economics and professor of finance at the Fuqua School of Business. He joined the Duke faculty in 1977 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin. Professor Tauchen is a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Statistical Association, the Journal of Econometrics, and the Society for Financial Econometrics (SoFie). He is also the 2003 Duke University Scholar/Teacher of the Year. Professor Tauchen is an internationally known time series econometrician. He has developed several important new techniques for making statistical inference from financial time series data and for testing models of financial markets. He has given invited lectures at many places around the world, including London, Paris, Beijing, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Sydney. His current research (with Professor Li of Duke) examines the impact of large jump-like moves in stock market returns on the returns of various portfolios and individual securities. He is a former editor of the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics (JBES) and former associate editor of Econometrica, Econometric Theory, The Journal of the American Statistical Association (JASA), and JBES. He is currently Co-Editor of the Journal of Financial Econometrics.
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