The authors consider the problem of making asymptotically valid inference on structural parameters in instrumental variables regression with weak instruments. Using local-to-zero asymptotics, they derive the asymptotic distributions of likelihood ratio (LR) and Lagrange multiplier (LM) type statistics for testing simple hypotheses on structural parameters based on maximum likelihood and generalized methods of moments estimation methods. In contrast to the nonstandard limiting behavior of Wald statistics, the limiting distributions of certain LR and LM statistics are bounded by a chi-square distribution with degrees of freedom given by the number of instruments.

This paper reconciles two widely used decompositions of GDP into trend and cycle that yield starkly different results. The Beveridge-Nelson (BN) decomposition implies that a stochastic trend accounts for most of the variation in output, whereas the unobserved-components (UC) implies cyclical variation is dominant. Which is correct has broad implications for the relative importance of real versus nominal shocks. We show the difference arises from the restriction imposed in UC that trend and cycle innovations are uncorrelated. When this restriction is relaxed, the UC decomposition is identical to the BN decomposition. Furthermore, the zero-correlation restriction can be rejected for U.S. quarterly GDP, with the estimated correlation being -0.9.