Staff Reports
Robust Inference in Models Identified via Heteroskedasticity
Number 876
December 2018 Revised August 2019

JEL classification: C12, C32, C36, E43

Authors: Daniel J. Lewis

Identification via heteroskedasticity exploits differences in variances across regimes to identify parameters in simultaneous equations. I study weak identification in such models, which arises when variances change very little or the variances of multiple shocks change close to proportionally. I show that this causes standard inference to become unreliable, outline two tests to detect weak identification, and establish conditions for the validity of nonconservative methods for robust inference on an empirically relevant subset of the parameter vector. I apply these tools to monetary policy shocks, identified using heteroskedasticity in high frequency data. I detect weak identification in daily data, causing standard inference methods to be invalid. However, using intraday data instead allows the shocks to be strongly identified.

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Author Disclosure Statement(s)
Daniel J. Lewis
The author declares that he has no relevant or material financial interests that relate to the research described in this paper. Prior to circulation, this paper was reviewed in accordance with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York review policy, available at https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/staff_reports/index.html.
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