Testing for structural changes in factor models via a nonparametric regression

We propose a model-free test for structural changes in factor models. The basic idea is to regress the data on commonly estimated factors by local smoothing and compare the fitted values of time-varying factor loadings with those of time-invariant factor loadings estimated via principal component an...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: SU, Liangjun, WANG, Xia
Format: text
Language:English
Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
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Online Access:https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/2465
https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soe_research/article/3464/viewcontent/factor_breaks20190910_sv.pdf
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Institution: Singapore Management University
Language: English
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Summary:We propose a model-free test for structural changes in factor models. The basic idea is to regress the data on commonly estimated factors by local smoothing and compare the fitted values of time-varying factor loadings with those of time-invariant factor loadings estimated via principal component analysis. By construction, the test is designed to be powerful against both smooth structural changes and sudden structural breaks with a possibly unknown number of breaks and unknown break dates in the factor loadings. No restrictions on the form of alternatives or trimming of boundary regions near the beginning or end of the sample period is required for the test. The test has power to detect the usual nonparametric rate of local alternatives. Monte Carlo studies demonstrate excellent power of the test in detecting both smooth and sudden structural changes in the factor loadings. In an application using U.S. asset returns, we find significant evidence against time-invariant factor loadings.