Although linearly interpolated series are often used in economics, little has been done to examine the effects of interpolation on time-series properties and on statistical inference. We show that linear interpolation of a trend stationary series superimposes a ‘periodic’ structure on the...

The U.S. prewar output series exhibit smaller shock-persistence than postwar-series. Some studies suggest that this may be due to linear interpolation used to generate missing prewar data. Monte Carlo simulations that support this view generate large standard-errors, making such inference...