Statistical Analysis and Evaluation of Macroeconomic Policies: A Selective Review

In this paper,we highlight some recent developments of a new route to evaluate macroeconomic policy effects,which are investigated under the framework with potential outcomes.First,this paper begins with a brief introduction of the basic model setup in modern econometric analysis of program evaluation.Secondly,primary attention goes to the focus on causal effect estimation of macroeconomic policy with single time series data together with some extensions to multiple time series data.Furthermore,we examine the connection of this new approach to traditional macroeconomic models for policy analysis and evaluation.Finally,we conclude by addressing some possible future research directions in statistics and econometrics.

Panel data models with cross-sectional dependence: a selective review

In this review, we highlight some recent methodological and theoretical develop- ments in estimation and testing of large panel data models with cross-sectional dependence. The paper begins with a discussion of issues of cross-sectional dependence, and introduces the concepts of weak and strong cross-sectional dependence. Then, the main attention is primarily paid to spatial and factor approaches for modeling cross-sectional dependence for both linear and nonlinear （nonparametric and semiparametric） panel data models. Finally, we conclude with some speculations on future research directions.

A new test on the conditional capital asset pricing model

Testing the validity of the conditional capital asset pricing model （CAPM） is a puzzle in the finance literature. Lewellen and Nagel[14] find that the variation in betas and in the equity premium would have to be implausibly large to explain important asset-pricing anomalies. Unfortunately, they do not provide a rigorous test statistic. Based on a simulation study, the method proposed in Lewellen and Nagel[14] tends to reject the null too frequently. We develop a new test procedure and derive its limiting distribution under the null hypothesis. Also, we provide a Bootstrap approach to the testing procedure to gain a good finite sample performance. Both simulations and empirical studies show that our test is necessary for making correct inferences with the conditional CAPM.

Econometric modeling of risk measures: A selective review of the recent literature

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the risk measures which are the core of risk management, have received increasing attention among economists and practitioners. In this review, the concentration is on recent developments in the estimation of the most popular risk measures, namely, value at risk (VaR), expected shortfall (ES), and expectile. After introducing the concept of risk measures, the focus is on discussion and comparison of their econometric modeling. Then, parametric and nonparametric estimations of tail dependence are investigated. Finally, we conclude with insights into future research directions.

Recent advances in statistical methodologies in evaluating program for high-dimensional data

The era of big data brings opportunities and challenges to developing new statistical methods and models to evaluate social programs or economic policies or interventions. This paper provides a comprehensive review on some recent advances in statistical methodologies and models to evaluate programs with high-dimensional data. In particular, four kinds of methods for making valid statistical inferences for treatment effects in high dimensions are addressed. The first one is the so-called doubly robust type estimation, which models the outcome regression and propensity score functions simultaneously. The second one is the covariate balance method to construct the treatment effect estimators. The third one is the sufficient dimension reduction approach for causal inferences. The last one is the machine learning procedure directly or indirectly to make statistical inferences to treatment effect. In such a way, some of these methods and models are closely related to the de-biased Lasso type methods for the regression model with high dimensions in the statistical literature. Finally, some future research topics are also discussed.

A perspective on recent methods on testing predictability of asset returns

This paper highlights some recent developments in testing predictability of asset returns with focuses on linear mean regressions, quantile regressions and nonlinear regression models. For these models, when predictors are highly persistent and their innovations are contemporarily correlated with dependent variable, the ordinary least squares estimator has a finite-sample bias, and its limiting distribution relies on some unknown nuisance parameter, which is not consistently estimable. Without correcting these issues, conventional test statistics are subject to a serious size distortion and generate a misleading conclusion in testing pre- dictability of asset returns in real applications. In the past two decades, sequential studies have contributed to this subject and proposed various kinds of solutions, including, but not limit to, the bias-correction procedures, the linear projection approach, the IVX filtering idea, the variable addition approaches, the weighted empirical likelihood method, and the double-weight robust approach. Particularly, to catch up with the fast-growing literature in the recent decade, we offer a selective overview of these methods. Finally, some future research topics, such as the econometric theory for predictive regressions with structural changes, and nonparametric predictive models, and predictive models under a more general data setting, are also discussed.

A new nonparametric stability test with an application to major Chinese macroeconomic time series

In this paper, we propose a new test for testing the stability in macroeconomic time series, based on the LASSO variable selection approach and nonparametric estimation of a time-varying model. The wild bootstrap is employed to obtain its data-dependent critical values. We apply the new method to test the stability of bivariate relations among 92 major Chinese macroeconomic time series. We find that more than 70% bivariate relations are significantly unstable.