This paper considers econometric issues related to time-series data that have been subject to abrupt governmental interventions. The motivating example for this study is the Brazilian monthly inflation rate (1974:1-1993:6) which we use throughout for illustration. This series has been heavily...

This study considers the time series behavior of the U.S. real interest rate from 1961 to 1986. We provide a statistical characterization of the series using the methodology of Hamilton (1989), by allowing three possible regimes affecting both the mean and variance of the series. The results...

This paper proposes a new test for the presence of a nonlinear deterministic trend approximated by a Fourier expansion in a univariate time series for which there is no prior knowledge as to whether the noise component is stationary or contains an autoregressive unit root. Our approach builds on...

We propose estimators of the memory parameter of a time series that are robust to a wide variety of random level shift processes, deterministic level shifts and deterministic time trends. The estimators are simple trimmed versions of the popular log-periodogram regression estimator that employ...

In a recent paper, Engel, C. (1999) presents monte-carlo evidence to suggest that unit root tests cannot detect a non-stationary component in the real exchange rate even when this component accounts for almost half of its longhorizon forecast error variance. This hidden non-stationary component...