When Everything Old is New Again

Some ideas are so good that they keep re-appearing again and again. In other words, they stand the test of time, and prove to be useful in lots of different contexts – sometimes in situations that we couldn’t have imagined when the idea first came to light.

This certainly happens in econometrics, and here are just a few examples that come to mind.

Vintage Years in Econometrics - The 1970's

Continuing on from my earlier posts about vintage years for econometrics in the 1930's, 1940's, 1950's, 1960's, here's my tasting guide for the 1970's.

Once again, let me note that "in econometrics, what constitutes quality and importance is partly a matter of taste - just like wine! So, not all of you will agree with the choices I've made in the following compilation."

Trading Models and Distributed Lags

Yesterday, I received an email from Robert Hillman.

Robert wrote:

"I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your recent posts and associated links on distributed lags. I’d like to throw in a slightly different perspective.

 To give you some brief background on myself: I did a PhD in econometrics 1993-1998 at Southampton University. ............ I now manage capital and am heavily influenced by my study of econometrics and in particular exploring the historical foundations of many things that today that look new and funky but are probably old but no less funky!

I wanted to draw attention to the fact that many finance practitioners have long used ‘models’ that in my view are robust and heuristic versions of nonlinear ADL models. I’m not sure this interpretation is as widely recognised as it could be."

With Robert's permission, you can access the full contents of what Robert had to say, here

Robert provides some interesting and useful insights into the connections between certain trading models and ARDL models, and I thought that these would be useful to readers of this blog.

Thanks, Robert!

© 2017, David E. Giles

Explaining the Almon Distributed Lag Model

In an earlier post I discussed Shirley Almon's contribution to the estimation of Distributed Lag (DL) models, with her seminal paper in 1965.

That post drew quite a number of email requests for more information about the Almon estimator, and how it fits into the overall scheme of things. In addition, Almon's approach to modelling distributed lags has been used very effectively more recently in the estimation of the so-called MIDAS model. The MIDAS model (developed by Eric Ghysels and his colleagues - e.g., see Ghysels et al., 2004) is designed to handle regression analysis using data with different observation frequencies. The acronym, "MIDAS", stands for "Mixed-Data Sampling". The MIDAS model can be implemented in R, for instance (e.g., see here), as well as in EViews. (I discussed this in this earlier post.)

For these reasons I thought I'd put together this follow-up post by way of an introduction to the Almon DL model, and some of the advantages and pitfalls associated with using it.

Let's take a look.

More on the History of Distributed Lag Models

In a follow-up to my recent post about Irving Fisher's contribution to the development of distributed lag models,  Mike Belongia emailed me again with some very interesting material. He commented:

"While working with Peter Ireland to create a model of the business cycle based on what were mainstream ideas of the 1920s (including a monetary policy rule suggested by Holbrook Working), I ran across this note on Fisher's "short cut" method to deal with computational complexities (in his day) of non-linear relationships. 

I look forward to your follow-up post on Almon lags and hope Fisher's old, and sadly obscure, note adds some historical context to work on distributed lags."

It certainly does, Mike, and thank you very much for sharing this with us.

The note in question is titled, "Irving Fisher: Pioneer on distributed lags", and was written by J.N.M Wit (of the Netherlands central bank) in 1998. If you don't have time to read the full version, here's the abstract:

"The theory of distributed lags is that any cause produces a supposed effect only after some lag in time, and that this effect is not felt all at once, but is distributed over a number of points in time. Irving Fisher initiated this theory and provided an empirical methodology in the 1920’s. This article provides a small overview."

Incidentally, the paper co-authored with Peter Ireland that Mike is referring to it titled, "A classical view of the business cycle", and can be found here.
© 2016, David E. Giles

Irving Fisher & Distributed Lags

Some time back, Mike Belongia (U. Mississippi) emailed me as follows: 

"I enjoyed your post on Shirley Almon;  her name was very familiar to those of us of a certain age.

With regard to your planned follow-up post, I thought you might enjoy the attached piece by Irving Fisher who, in 1925, was attempting to associate variations in the price level with the volume of trade.  At the bottom of p. 183, he claims that "So far as I know this is the first attempt to distribute a statistical lag" and then goes on to explain his approach to the question.  Among other things, I'm still struck by the fact that Fisher's "computer" consisted of his intellect and a pencil and paper."

The 1925 paper by Fisher that Mike is referring to can be found here. Here are pages 183 and 184:

Thanks for sharing this interesting bit of econometrics history, Mike. And I haven't forgotten that I promised to prepare a follow-up post on the Almon estimator!

© 2016, David E. Giles

Who was Shirley Almon?

How often have you said to yourself, "I wonder what happened to Jane X"? (Substitute any person's name you wish.)

Personally, I've noticed a positive correlation between my age and the frequency of occurrence of this event, but we all know that correlation doesn't imply causality.

Every now and then, over the years, I've wondered what happened to Shirley Almon, of the "Almon Distributed Lag Model" fame. Of course I should have gone to the internet for assistance, but somehow, I never did this - until the other day.......

August reading

Here's my (slightly delayed) August reading list:

• Ahelegbey, A. F., 2015. The econometrics of networks: A review. Working Paper  2015/13, Department of Economics, University of Venice.
• Clemens, M. A., 2015. The meaning of failed replications: A review and proposal. IZA Discussion Paper No.9000.
• Fair, R. C., 2015. Information limits of aggregate data. Discussion Paper No. 2011, Cowles Foundation, Yale University.
• Phillips, P. C. B., 2015. Inference in near singular regression. Discussion Paper No. 2009, Cowles Foundation, Yale University.
• Stock, J. H. and M. W. Watson, 2015. Core inflation and trend inflation. NBER Working Paper 21282.
• Ullah, A. and X. Zhang, 2015. Grouped model averaging for finite sample size. Working paper, Department of Economics, University of California, Riverside.

© 2015, David E. Giles

Vintage Years in Econometrics - The 1960's

Remember that saying - "if you can remember the 60's you probably weren't there"? Well, with that said, and continuing from my earlier posts about vintage years for econometrics in the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's, here's my take on the 1960's.

Once again, let me note that "in econometrics, what constitutes quality and importance is partly a matter of taste - just like wine! So, not all of you will agree with the choices I've made in the following compilation."

When Everything Old is New Again

We see it with clothing styles. Not just hemline lengths, but also the widths of jacket lapels and guy's ties. How wide should the trouser legs be? Cuffs or no cuffs? Leave your clothes in the closet long enough, and there's a good chance they'll be back in style some day!

And so it is with econometrics. Here are just a few examples:

Economics Nobel Prize, 2013

The waiting is over - the 2013 Nobel in Economics was announced this morning! Most deservedly, it has been awarded to Eugene F. Fama (U. Chicago), Lars Peter Hansen (U. Chicago), and Robert J. Shiller (Yale U.). The citation says: "For their empirical analysis of asset prices". 

For more details, see here.

It's really  nice to see the recognition of empirical research.

And let's not forget that Hansen gave us GMM estimation; and do you recall Shiller distributed lag models?

© 2013, David E. Giles

Vintage Years in Econometrics - The 1950's

Following on from my earlier posts about vintage years for econometrics in the 1930's and 1940's, here's my run-down on the 1950's.

As before, let me note that "in econometrics, what constitutes quality and importance is partly a matter of taste - just like wine! So, not all of you will agree with the choices I've made in the following compilation."