On Aug 5, 2004, at 2:33 AM, Falko wrote:
Dear statalisters,
I have a question concerning the levinlin-ado file (panel unit root
test,
ssc install levinlin).
The option 'nocons' omits the constant term from the individual Dickey-
Fuller regressions. Is it possible to test for the joint significance
of
the constant terms? My problem is that I do not know how to address
these
coefficients after the estimation, because they are not returned in the
ereturn list.
Whenever one estimates a unit root test, one must decide whether
constants and/or trends are to be included in the specification of the
Dickey-Fuller regression. A simple D-F model with constant (but without
trend) would be
\Delta y_t = a + b y_t-1 + e which in the case of stationarity of the
series implies a steady state of
y = a / (1+b) + e
If the mean of (level) y is demonstrably nonzero, then it is
unreasonable to omit a constant term from the D-F regression, since
that would imply that under the alternative y would be meanzero (like
e). Under the null hypothesis, b=0 and a is the drift term in the
random walk. One could have a pure RW without drift, of course, but if
you're looking to reject H_0, you need to have a H_1 that has a chance
of fitting the DGP of the observed data.
So unless your _level_ variables are meanzero, leave the constant term
in there, just as you would normally include a constant term in a
static regression equation.
Kit
coauthor levinlin
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