This study tests for a break in the persistence of EMU government bond yield spreads examining data from France, Italy and Spain and using German interest rates as a kind of benchmark. The results reported here provide evidence for breaks between 2006 and 2008. The persistence of the yield...

We study the empirical behaviour of semi-parametric estimation for long-memory models when the true data generating process exhibits a change in persistence. Evidence for long memory is likely to be found. Procedures for discrimination between different models are proposed.

Linearity testing against smooth transition autoregressive (STAR) models when deterministic trends are potentially present in the data is considered in this work. Our findings show, in contrast to results recently reported in Zhang (2012), that linearity tests against STAR models lead to useful...