The use of robust regression estimators has gained popularity among applied econometricians. The main argument invoked to justify the use of the robust estimators is that they provide efficiency gains in the presence of outliers or non-normal errors. Unfortunately, most practitioners seem to be...

In the estimation of models with averaged data, weighted least squares is often used and recommended as a way of improving the efficiency of the estimator. However, if the size of the different groups is not conditionally independent of the regressand, consistent estimation may not be possible...

Building on the work of Lustbader and Moolgavkar (1985, 'A Diagnostic Statistic for the Score Test', Journal of the American Statistical Association 80, 375-379), this paper studies influence diagnostics for score tests. The diagnostic proposed by Lustbader and Moolgavkar is reassessed and...

We extend the simulation results in Santos Silva and Tenreyro (2006, The log of gravity, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 88, 641-658) by considering a novel data-generating process. Our results confirm that the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimator is generally well behaved, even...

We propose a semi-parametric mode regression estimator for the case in which the dependent variable has a continuous conditional density with a well-defined global mode. The estimator is semi-parametric in that the conditional mode is specified as a parametric function, but only mild assumptions...

We highlight a subtle identification problem that afflicts models for non-negative data in which the conditional expectation is specified as the product of a logit and an exponential function. The results are illustrated with an empirical model for medical expenditures.

A particular robust regression estimator has gained popularity among applied econometricians. We show that this estimator is inconsistent for the parameters of the conditional mean when the errors are skewed and heteroskedastic, and conclude that therefore its use cannot be generally recommended.

In this note, we argue that tests of overidentifying restrictions give little information on the validity of the moment conditions implied by the underlying economic model, and therefore are mute about the possibility of identifying the parameters of interest.

Understanding and quantifying the determinants of the number of sectors or firms exporting in a given country is of relevance for the assessment of trade policies. Estimation of models for the number of exporting sectors, however, poses a challenge because the dependent variable has both a lower...