Residual-Based Tests for the Null of Stationarity with Applications to U.S. Macroeconomic Time Series

Abstract

This paper proposes residual-based tests for the null of level- and trend-stationarity, which are analogs of the LM test for an MA unit root. Asymptotic distributions of the tests are nonstandard, but they are expressed in a unified manner by expressing stochastic integrals. In addition, the tests are shown to be consistent. By expressing the distributions expressed as a function of a chi-square variable with one degree of freedom, the exact limiting probability density and cumulative distribution functions are obtained, and the exact limiting cumulative distribution functions are tabulated. Finite sample performance of the proposed tests is studied by simulation. The tests display stable size when the lag truncation number for the long-run variance estimation is chosen appropriately. But the power of the tests is generally not high at selected sample sizes. The test for the null of trend-stationarity is applied to the U.S. macroeconomic time series along with the Phillips-Perron Z(⋯) test. For some monthly and annual series, the two tests provide consistent inferential results. But for most series, the two contradictory nulls of trend-stationarity and a unit root cannot be rejected at the conventional significance levels.