We consider a nonparametric test for the null of seasonal unit roots in quarterly time series that builds on the RUR (records unit root) test by Aparicio, Escribano, and Sipols. We find that the test concept is more promising than a formalization of visual aids such as plots by quarter. In order...

Nonparametric unit-root tests are a useful addendum to the tool-box of time-series analysis. They tend to trade off power for enhanced robustness features. We consider combinations of the RURS (seasonal range unit roots) test statistic and a variant of the level-crossings count. This combination...

This study develops new rank tests for panels that include panel unit root tests as a special case. The tests are unusual in that they can accommodate very general forms of both serial and cross-sectional dependence, including cross-unit cointegration, without the need to specify the form of...

Recent years have seen a growing literature on the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) that resorts in a large part to cointegration techniques. The EKC literature has failed to acknowledge that such regressions involve unit root nonstationary regressors and their integer powers (e.g. GDP and GDP...

We extend fixed-b asymptotic theory to the nonparametric Phillips-Perron (PP) unit root tests. We show that the fixed-b limits depend on nuisance parameters in a complicated way. These non-pivotal limits provide an alternative theoretical explanation for the well known finite sample problems of...

In recent years many empirical studies of environmental Kuznets curves employing unit root and cointegration techniques have been conducted for both time series and panel data. When using such methods several issues arise: the effects of a short time dimension, in a panel context the effects of...

This paper deals with optimal window width choice in non-parametric lag- or spectral window estimation of the spectral density of a stationary zero-mean process. Several approaches are reviewed: the cross-validation based methods described by Hurvich (1985), Beltrao & Bloomfield (1987) and...

We estimate the steady state growth rate for the Nordic countries using a “knowledge economy” approach. An endogenous growth framework is employed, in which total factor productivity is a function of human capital (measured by average years of education), trade openness, research and...

Zimbabwe faces growth and external competitiveness challenges, as indicated by its low trend growth and investment, declining share in the world exports, high current account deficits, and external debt. The stock-flow approach to the equilibrium exchange rate reveals that the real exchange rate...

We examine the Exchange Rate Volatility (ERV) response to the Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU) shocks from a panel VAR perspective used for the first time in this context. Focusing on Emerging Market Economies (EME), our noteworthy findings postulate that (a) both home and foreign EPU shocks...