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Download or read book Essays on Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Global and Local Identification in Linear and Nonlinear Models written by Xin Liang and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This Ph.D. thesis consists of three essays on identification theory in econometrics. In view of achieving reliable inference methods when some parameters are not identifiable (or weakly identifiable), we establish necessary and sufficient conditions for identification of linear and nonlinear parameter transformations, when the full parameter vector is not identifiable. The first essay considers a class of generalized linear models (deemed "partially linear models") where parameters of interest determine the distribution of the data through multiplication by a known matrix. This setup not only covers linear regression models with collinearity (such as cases where the number of explanatory variables is potentially very large or the number observations is inferior to the number of variables) and a general error covariance matrix, but a wide spectrum of other models used in econometrics, such as linear median regressions and quantile regressions, generalized linear mixed models, probit and Tobit models, multinomial logit models and other discrete choice models, exponential models, index models, etc. We first provide a general necessary and sufficient condition for the global identification of a general transformation of model parameters (when the full parameter vector is not typically identified) based on a new separability condition. The general result is then applied to partially linear models. Even though none of the original individual parameters of the model may be identified, we describe the class of linear transformations which can be identified. To get usable conditions, different equivalent characterizations are derived. The effect of adding restrictions is also considered, and the corresponding identification conditions are supplied.The second essay reconsiders the problem of characterizing identifiable parameters in linear IV regressions and simultaneous equations models (SEMs), using methods based on the first essay. The recent econometric literature on weak instruments mainly deals with this basic setup, and the appropriate statistical methods depend on whether the parameters of interest are identifiable. We study the general case where some model parameters are not identifiable, without any restriction on the rank of the instrument matrix, and we characterize which linear transformations of the structural parameters are identifiable. An important observation is that identifiable parameters may depend on the instrument matrix (in addition to the parameters of the reduced form), and a number of alternative characterizations are provided. These results are also applicable to partially linear IV-type models where the linear IV structure is embedded in a nonlinear structure, such as a quantile specification or a discrete choice model.The third essay takes up the problem of characterizing the identification of nonlinear functions of parameters in nonlinear models. The setup is fundamentally semiparametric, and the basic assumption is that structural parameters of interest determine a number of identifiable parameters through a nonlinear equation. Again, we consider the general case where not all model parameters are identifiable, with the purpose of characterizing nonlinear parameter transformations which are identifiable. The literature on this problem is thin, and focuses on the identification of the full parameter vector in the equation of interest. In view of the fact global identification is extremely difficult to achieve, this paper looks at the problem from a local identification viewpoint. Both sufficient conditions, as well as necessary and sufficient conditions are derived under assumptions of differentiability of the relevant moment equations and parameter transformations. Some classical results on identification in likelihood models are also derived and extended. Finally, the results are applied to identification problems in DSGE models." --