We generalise the spectral EM algorithm for dynamic factor models in Fiorentini, Galesi and Sentana (2014) to bifactor models with pervasive global factors complemented by regional ones. We exploit the sparsity of the loading matrices so that researchers can estimate those models by maximum...

We investigate several important inference issues for factor models with dynamic heteroskedasticity in the common factors. First, we show that such models are identified if we take into account the time-variation in the variances of the factors. Our results also apply to dynamic versions of the...

We develop generalised indirect inference procedures that handle equality and inequality constraints on the auxiliary model parameters. We obtain expressions for the optimal weighting matrices, and discuss as examples an MA(1) estimated as AR(1), an AR(1) estimated as MA(1), and a log-normal...

We provide numerically reliable analytical expressions for the score of conditionally heteroskedastic dynamic regression models when the conditional distribution is multivariate t. We also derive one-sided and two-sided LM tests for multivariate normality versus multivariate t based on the first...

We derive computationally simple and intuitive score tests of neglected serial correlation in unobserved component univariate models using frequency domain techniques. In some common situations in which the information matrix is singular under the null we derive extremum tests that are...

Sequential maximum likelihood and GMM estimators of distributional parameters obtained from the standardised innovations of multivariate conditionally heteroskedastic dynamic regression models evaluated at Gaussian PML estimators preserve the consistency of mean and variance parameters while...

We derive simple algebraic expressions for score tests of serial correlation in the levels and squares of common and idiosyncratic factors in static factor models with (semi) parametrically specified elliptical distributions even though one must generally compute the likelihood by simulation. We...

We rank the efficiency of several likelihood-based parametric and semiparametric estimators of conditional mean and variance parameters in multivariate dynamic models with i.i.d. spherical innovations, and show that Gaussian pseudo maximum likelihood estimators are inefficient except under...

We derive indirect estimators of multivariate conditionally heteroskedastic factor models in which the volatilities of the latent factors depend on their past values. Specifically, we calibrate the analytical score of a Kalman-filter approximation, taking into account the inequality constraints...

We derive computationally simple score tests of serial correlation in the levels and squares of common and idiosyncratic factors in static factor models. The implicit orthogonality conditions resemble the orthogonality conditions resemble the orthogonality conditions of models with observed...