Estimating the periodicity of a stationary time series via fitting a second-order stationary autoregressive (AR(2)) model has been initiated by the seminal paper of Yule (1927). We investigate properties of this procedure when applied to general stationary processes possessing a spectral density with a dominant peak at some unknown frequency . For this, a general class of stationary processes is considered with spectral densities having an arbitrary sharp peak. It is shown within this class, that if the peak of the spectral density is strong enough (in a sense to be specified), then the AR(2) model, which best (in mean square sense) approximates the underlying process, correctly identifies the frequency . To investigate consistency properties of the corresponding AR(2) based estimator of , a near-to-pole asymptotic framework is adopted. Triangular arrays of stationary stochastic processes are considered that possess a spectral density the peak of which at frequency becomes more pronounced as the sample size of the observed time series increases to infinity. It is then shown that, depending on the rate at which the sharpness of the spectral density at gets closer to that of a pole, the AR(2) based estimator achieves a rate of convergence which is larger than the parametric rate and can be arbitrarily close to , the best rate that can be achieved by this estimator.

This paper applies the functional sieve bootstrap (FSB) to estimate the distribution of the partial sum process for time series stemming from a weakly stationary functional process. Consistency of the FSB procedure under weak assumptions on the underlying functional process is established. This result allows for the application of the FSB procedure to testing for a change-point in the mean of a functional time series using the CUSUM-statistic. We show that the FSB asymptotically correctly estimates critical values of the CUSUM-based test under the null-hypothesis. Consistency of the FSB-based test under local alternatives also is proven. The finite sample performance of the procedure is studied via simulations.

A frequency domain bootstrap procedure for functional time series is proposed and applied to the class of spectral mean operators. The procedure works by first generating independent pseudo periodogram operators across the positive Fourier frequencies using an estimator of the spectral density operator involved. Functional replicates of the spectral mean operators of interest are then generated. Through an additive, projection-based decomposition of the bootstrapped spectral mean operator, its leading m-dimensional part is properly complemented to also capture the relevant fourth order characteristics of the process. The complementation is achieved by means of a resampling procedure based on convolved periodogram operators of subsamples. The resulting bootstrap spectral mean operator consistently estimates the entire second order as well as the m-dimensional fourth order structure of the distribution of spectral mean operators. By allowing for the decomposition parameter m to increase to infinity as the sample size increases to infinity, consistency in estimating the entire fourth order structure of the process also is achieved. The asymptotic theory developed investigates properties of the procedure for fixed and for increasing m and establishes validity of the frequency domain bootstrap proposal under rather weak conditions on the underlying functional process class.

In this article, we consider the construction of simultaneous confidence bands for the spectral density of a stationary time series using a Gaussian approximation for classical lag-window spectral density estimators evaluated at the set of all positive Fourier frequencies. The Gaussian approximation opens up the possibility to verify asymptotic validity of a multiplier bootstrap procedure and, even further, to derive the corresponding rate of convergence. A small simulation study sheds light on the finite sample properties of this bootstrap proposal.

We show that internationally diversified portfolios carry sizeable political risk premia and expose investors to tail risk. We obtain political efficient frontiers with and without hedging political risk using a portfolio selection model for skewed distributions and develop a new asymptotic inference test to compare portfolio performance. Politically hedged portfolios outperform a broad market index and the equally weighted portfolio for US, Eurozone, and Japanese investors. Political risk hedging is not subsumed by currency hedging, and the diversification gains of politically hedged portfolios persist under currency hedging and transaction cost frictions. Hedging political risk induces equity home bias but does not fully explain the puzzle.

For discrete-valued time series, predictive inference cannot be implemented through the construction of prediction intervals to some predetermined coverage level, as this is the case for real-valued time series. To address this problem, we propose to reverse the construction principle by considering preselected sets of interest and estimating the probability that a future observation of the process falls into these sets. The accuracy of the prediction is then evaluated by quantifying the uncertainty associated with estimation of these predictive probabilities. We consider parametric and non-parametric approaches and derive asymptotic theory for the estimators involved. Suitable bootstrap approaches to evaluate the distribution of the estimators considered also are introduced. They have the advantage to imitate the distributions of interest under different possible settings, including the practical important case where uncertainty holds true about the correctness of a parametric model used for prediction. Theoretical justification of the bootstrap is given, which also requires investigation of asymptotic properties of parameter estimators under model misspecification. We elaborate on bootstrap implementations under different scenarios and focus on parametric prediction using INAR and INARCH models and (conditional) maximum likelihood estimators. Simulations investigate the finite sample performance of the predictive method developed and applications to real life data sets are presented.

Analyzing time series in the frequency domain enables the development of powerful tools for investigating the second-order characteristics of multivariate processes. Parameters like the spectral density matrix and its inverse, the coherence or the partial coherence, encode comprehensively the complex linear relations between the component processes of the multivariate system. In this paper, we develop inference procedures for such parameters in a high-dimensional, time series setup. Towards this goal, we first focus on the derivation of consistent estimators of the coherence and, more importantly, of the partial coherence which possess manageable limiting distributions that are suitable for testing purposes. Statistical tests of the hypothesis that the maximum over frequencies of the coherence, respectively, of the partial coherence, do not exceed a prespecified threshold value are developed. Our approach allows for testing hypotheses for individual coherences and/or partial coherences as well as for multiple testing of large sets of such parameters. In the latter case, a consistent procedure to control the false discovery rate is developed. The finite sample performance of the inference procedures introduced is investigated by means of simulations and applications to the construction of graphical interaction models for brain connectivity based on EEG data are presented.

A variety of statistics for functional time series allows for a representation as weighted average of corresponding periodogram operators over the frequency domain. We study consistency and asymptotic normality of such spectral mean estimators under mild assumptions. We show that weak convergence of these estimators can be deduced from the (joint) weak convergence of the sample autocovariance operators. The latter is established for a large class of weakly dependent functional time series, which admit expansions as Bernoulli shifts and the weak dependence is quantified by the condition of L4-m-approximability.

Strict stationarity is a common assumption used in the time series literature in order to derive asymptotic distributional results for second-order statistics, like sample autocovariances and sample autocorrelations. Focusing on weak stationarity, this paper derives the asymptotic distribution of the maximum of sample autocovariances and sample autocorrelations under weak conditions by using Gaussian approximation techniques. The asymptotic theory for parameter estimation obtained by fitting a (linear) autoregressive model to a general weakly stationary time series is revisited and a Gaussian approximation theorem for the maximum of the estimators of the autoregressive coefficients is derived. To perform statistical inference for the second order parameters considered, a bootstrap algorithm, the so-called second-order wild bootstrap, is applied. Consistency of this bootstrap procedure is proven. In contrast to existing bootstrap alternatives, validity of the second-order wild bootstrap does not require the imposition of strict stationary conditions or structural process assumptions, like linearity. The good finite sample performance of the second-order wild bootstrap is demonstrated by means of simulations.

For many relevant statistics of multivariate time series, no valid frequency domain bootstrap procedures exist. This is mainly due to the fact that the distribution of such statistics depends on the fourth-order moment structure of the underlying process in nearly every scenario, except for some special cases like Gaussian time series. In contrast to the univariate case, even additional structural assumptions such as linearity of the multivariate process or a standardization of the statistic of interest do not solve the problem. This paper focuses on integrated periodogram statistics as well as functions thereof and presents a new frequency domain bootstrap procedure for multivariate time series, the multivariate frequency domain hybrid bootstrap (MFHB), to fill this gap. Asymptotic validity of the MFHB procedure is established for general classes of periodogram-based statistics and for stationary multivariate processes satisfying rather weak dependence conditions. A simulation study is carried out which compares the finite sample performance of the MFHB with that of the moving block bootstrap.

Fitting parametric models by optimizing frequency domain objective functions is an attractive approach of parameter estimation in time series analysis. Whittle estimators are a prominent example in this context. Under weak conditions and the (realistic) assumption that the true spectral density of the underlying process does not necessarily belong to the parametric class of spectral densities fitted, the distribution of Whittle estimators typically depends on difficult to estimate characteristics of the underlying process. This makes the implementation of asymptotic results for the construction of confidence intervals or for assessing the variability of estimators, difficult in practice. This paper proposes a frequency domain bootstrap method to estimate the distribution of Whittle estimators which is asymptotically valid under assumptions that not only allow for (possible) model misspecification but also for weak dependence conditions which are satisfied by a wide range of stationary stochastic processes. Adaptions of the bootstrap procedure developed to incorporate different modifications of Whittle estimators proposed in the literature, like for instance, tapered, de-biased or boundary extended Whittle estimators, are also considered. Simulations demonstrate the capabilities of the bootstrap method proposed and its good finite sample performance. A real-life data analysis also is presented.

We consider statistical inference for impulse responses in sparse, structural high-dimensional vector autoregressive (SVAR) systems. We introduce consistent estimators of impulse responses in the high-dimensional setting and suggest valid inference procedures for the same parameters. Statistical inference in our setting is much more involved since standard procedures, like the delta-method, do not apply. By using local projection equations, we first construct a de-sparsified version of regularized estimators of the moving average parameters associated with the VAR system. We then obtain estimators of the structural impulse responses by combining the aforementioned de-sparsified estimators with a non-regularized estimator of the contemporaneous impact matrix, also taking into account the high-dimensionality of the system. We show that the distribution of the derived estimators of structural impulse responses has a Gaussian limit. We also present a valid bootstrap procedure to estimate this distribution. Applications of the inference procedure in the construction of confidence intervals for impulse responses as well as in tests for forecast error variance decomposition are presented. Our procedure is illustrated by means of simulations.

A bootstrap procedure for constructing prediction bands for a stationary functional time series is proposed. The procedure exploits a general vector autoregressive representation of the time-reversed series of Fourier coefficients appearing in the Karhunen-Loeve representation of the functional process. It generates backward-in-time, functional replicates that adequately mimic the dependence structure of the underlying process in a model-free way and have the same conditionally fixed curves at the end of each functional pseudo-time series. The bootstrap prediction error distribution is then calculated as the difference between the model-free, bootstrap-generated future functional observations and the functional forecasts obtained from the model used for prediction. This allows the estimated prediction error distribution to account for the innovation and estimation errors associated with prediction and the possible errors due to model misspecification. We establish the asymptotic validity of the bootstrap procedure in estimating the conditional prediction error distribution of interest, and we also show that the procedure enables the construction of prediction bands that achieve (asymptotically) the desired coverage. Prediction bands based on a consistent estimation of the conditional distribution of the studentized prediction error process also are introduced. Such bands allow for taking more appropriately into account the local uncertainty of prediction. Through a simulation study and the analysis of two data sets, we demonstrate the capabilities and the good finite-sample performance of the proposed method.

The problem of comparing the entire second order structure of two functional processes is considered and a L2-type statistic for testing equality of the corresponding spectral density operators is investigated. The test statistic evaluates, over all frequencies, the Hilbert–Schmidt distance between the two estimated spectral density operators. Under certain assumptions, the limiting distribution under the null hypothesis is derived. A novel frequency domain bootstrap method is introduced, which leads to a more accurate approximation of the distribution of the test statistic under the null than the large sample Gaussian approximation derived. Under quite general conditions, asymptotic validity of the bootstrap procedure is established for estimating the distribution of the test statistic under the null. Furthermore, consistency of the bootstrap-based test under the alternative is proved. Numerical simulations show that, even for small samples, the bootstrap-based test has a very good size and power behavior. An application to a bivariate real-life functional time series illustrates the methodology proposed.

High‐dimensional‐20 vector autoregressive (VAR) models are important tools for the analysis of multi‐variate time series. This article focuses on high‐dimensional time series and on the different regularized estimation procedures proposed for fitting sparse VAR models to such time series. Attention is paid to the different sparsity assumptions imposed on the VAR parameters and how these sparsity assumptions are related to the particular consistency properties of the estimators established. A sparsity scheme for high‐dimensional VAR models is proposed which is found to be more appropriate for the time series setting. Furthermore, it is shown that, under this sparsity setting, thresholding extends the consistency properties of regularized estimators to a wide range of matrix norms. Among other things, this enables application of the VAR parameters estimators to different problems, like forecasting or estimating the second‐order characteristics of the underlying VAR process. Extensive simulations compare the finite sample behavior of the different regularized estimators proposed using a variety of performance criteria.

Fitting sparse models to high-dimensional time series is an important area of statistical inference. In this paper, we consider sparse vector autoregressive models and develop appropriate bootstrap methods to infer properties of such processes. Our bootstrap methodology generates pseudo time series using a model-based bootstrap procedure which involves an estimated, sparsified version of the underlying vector autoregressive model. Inference is performed using so-called de-sparsified or de-biased estimators of the autoregressive model parameters. We derive the asymptotic distribution of such estimators in the time series context and establish asymptotic validity of the bootstrap procedure proposed for estimation and, appropriately modified, for testing purposes. In particular, we focus on testing that large groups of autoregressive coefficients equal zero. Our theoretical results are complemented by simulations which investigate the finite sample performance of the bootstrap methodology proposed. A real-life data application is also presented.

We investigate the problem of estimating the distribution of the individual reproduction number governing the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the assumption that this random variable follows a Negative Binomial distribution, we focus on constructing estimators of the parameters of this distribution using reported infection data and taking into account issues like under-reporting or the time behavior of the infection and of the reporting processes. To this end, we extract information from regionally dissaggregated data reported by German health authorities, in order to estimate not only the mean but also the variance of the distribution of the individual reproduction number. In contrast to the mean, the latter parameter also depends on the unknown under-reporting rate of the pandemic. The estimates obtained allow not only for a better understanding of the time-varying behavior of the expected value of the individual reproduction number but also of its dispersion, for the construction of bootstrap confidence intervals and for a discussion of the implications of different policy interventions. Our methodological investigations are accompanied by an empirical study of the development of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, which shows a strong overdispersion of the individual reproduction number.

We show that internationally diversified portfolios carry sizeable political risk premia and expose investors to tail risk. We develop a portfolio selection model for skewed distributions, with a new asymptotic inference test, to obtain political efficient frontiers and hedge political risk. We find that politically hedged international portfolios outperform a broad market index and other benchmarks for US, Eurozone, and Japanese investors. Political risk hedging is not subsumed by currency hedging. The diversification gains of politically hedged portfolios persist under transaction cost frictions and increase for long-horizon investors. Political risk induces home equity bias but does not explain the puzzle