Testing for Change in Long‐Memory Stochastic Volatility Time Series

In this article, change‐point problems for long‐memory stochastic volatility (LMSV) models are considered. A general testing problem which includes various alternative hypotheses is discussed. Under the hypothesis of stationarity the limiting behavior of CUSUM‐ and Wilcoxon‐type test statistics is derived. In this context, a limit theorem for the two‐parameter empirical process of LMSV time series is proved. In particular, it is shown that the asymptotic distribution of CUSUM test statistics may not be affected by long memory, unlike Wilcoxon test statistics which are typically influenced by long‐range dependence. To avoid the estimation of nuisance parameters in applications, the usage of self‐normalized test statistics is proposed. The theoretical results are accompanied by an analysis of Standard & Poor's 500 daily closing indices with respect to structural changes and by simulation studies which characterize the finite sample behavior of the considered testing procedures when testing for changes in mean and in variance.     

Testing for parameter stability in nonlinear autoregressive models

In this article we develop testing procedures for the detection of structural changes in nonlinear autoregressive processes. For the detection procedure, we model the regression function by a single layer feedforward neural network. We show that CUSUM‐type tests based on cumulative sums of estimated residuals, that have been intensively studied for linear regression, can be extended to this case. The limit distribution under the null hypothesis is obtained, which is needed to construct asymptotic tests. For a large class of alternatives, it is shown that the tests have asymptotic power one. In this case, we obtain a consistent change‐point estimator which is related to the test statistics. Power and size are further investigated in a small simulation study with a particular emphasis on situations where the model is misspecified, i.e. the data is not generated by a neural network but some other regression function. As illustration, an application on the Nile data set as well as S&P log‐returns is given.     

Mean shift testing in correlated data

Several tests for detecting mean shifts at an unknown time in stationary time series have been proposed, including cumulative sum (CUSUM), Gaussian likelihood ratio (LR), maximum of F(F_max) and extreme value statistics. This article reviews these tests, connects them with theoretical results, and compares their finite sample performance via simulation. We propose an adjusted CUSUM statistic which is closely related to the LR test and which links all tests. We find that tests based on CUSUMing estimated one‐step‐ahead prediction residuals from a fitted autoregressive moving average perform well in general and that the LR and F_max tests (which induce substantial computational complexities) offer only a slight increase in power over the adjusted CUSUM test. We also conclude that CUSUM procedures work slightly better when the changepoint time is located near the centre of the data, but the adjusted CUSUM methods are preferable when the changepoint lies closer to the beginning or end of the data record. Finally, an application is presented to demonstrate the importance of the choice of method.     

A Powerful Test for Changing Trends in Time Series Models

We propose a non‐parametric test for trend specification with improved properties. Many existing tests in the literature exhibit non‐monotonic power. To deal with this problem, Juhl and Xiao 2005 proposed a non‐parametric test with good power by detrending the data non‐parametrically. However, their test is developed for smooth changing trends and is constructed under the assumption of correct specification in the dynamics. In addition, their test suffers from size distortion in finite samples and imposes restrictive assumptions on the variance structure. The current article tries to address these issues. First, the proposed test allows for both abrupt breaks and smooth structural changes in deterministic trends. Second, the test employs a sieve approach to avoid the misspecification problem. Third, the extended test can be applied to the data with conditional heteroskedasticity and time‐varying variance. Fourth, the power properties under alternatives are also investigated. Finally, a partial plug‐in method is proposed to alleviate size distortion. Monte Carlo simulations show that the new test not only has good size but also has monotonic power in finite samples.     

Robust discrimination between long‐range dependence and a change in mean

In this article we introduce a robust to outliers Wilcoxon change‐point testing procedure, for distinguishing between short‐range dependent time series with a change in mean at unknown time and stationary long‐range dependent time series. We establish the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic under the null hypothesis for L₁ near epoch dependent processes and show its consistency under the alternative. The Wilcoxon‐type testing procedure similarly as the CUSUM‐type testing procedure (of Berkes I., Horváth L., Kokoszka P. and Shao Q. 2006. Ann.Statist. 34:1140–1165), requires estimation of the location of a possible change‐point, and then using pre‐ and post‐break subsamples to discriminate between short and long‐range dependence. A simulation study examines the empirical size and power of the Wilcoxon‐type testing procedure in standard cases and with disturbances by outliers. It shows that in standard cases the Wilcoxon‐type testing procedure behaves equally well as the CUSUM‐type testing procedure but outperforms it in presence of outliers. We also apply both testing procedure to hydrologic data.     

Detecting changes in a multiparameter exponential family by using adaptive CUSUM procedure

An adaptive cumulative sum (CUSUM) procedure is proposed to monitor parameter changes in a multiparameter exponential family where the change-point and postchange parameters are estimated adaptively. Approximations for average run lengths are derived. Monitoring changes in both mean and variance in the normal case is considered as an illustration. The conditional biases of the estimations for the change-point and postchange mean and variance is studied by simulation comparison with several other CUSUM procedures. An adaptive dam process by modifying the adaptive CUSUM process is used to detect and identify change points and change segments by using Citibank stock prices from 30 Dow Jones Industry Index.     

Robust Wilcoxon‐Type Estimation of Change‐Point Location Under Short‐Range Dependence

We introduce a robust estimator of the location parameter for the change‐point in the mean based on Wilcoxon statistic and establish its consistency for L₁ near‐epoch dependent processes. It is shown that the consistency rate depends on the magnitude of the change. A simulation study is performed to evaluate the finite sample properties of the Wilcoxon‐type estimator under Gaussianity as well as under heavy‐tailed distributions and disturbances by outliers, and to compare it with a CUSUM‐type estimator. It shows that the Wilcoxon‐type estimator is equivalent to the CUSUM‐type estimator under Gaussianity but outperforms it in the presence of heavy tails or outliers in the data.     

Likelihood inference for discriminating between long‐memory and change‐point models

We develop a likelihood ratio (LR) test procedure for discriminating between a short‐memory time series with a change‐point (CP) and a long‐memory (LM) time series. Under the null hypothesis, the time series consists of two segments of short‐memory time series with different means and possibly different covariance functions. The location of the shift in the mean is unknown. Under the alternative, the time series has no shift in mean but rather is LM. The LR statistic is defined as the normalized log‐ratio of the Whittle likelihood between the CP model and the LM model, which is asymptotically normally distributed under the null. The LR test provides a parametric alternative to the CUSUM test proposed by Berkes et al. (2006) . Moreover, the LR test is more general than the CUSUM test in the sense that it is applicable to changes in other marginal or dependence features other than a change‐in‐mean. We show its good performance in simulations and apply it to two data examples.     

ON‐LINE MONITORING OF POLLUTION CONCENTRATIONS WITH AUTOREGRESSIVE MOVING AVERAGE TIME SERIES

The concentration of aerosol particles, largely caused by traffic volume and often enhanced during temperature inversion episodes in the cold season, can be a concern for human health in the urban environment. This particulate matter is typically recorded as PM₁₀, the total mass of particles below 10 μm in diameter. It is suspected that, within the PM₁₀ class, ultrafine particles ( < 100 nm) may be responsible for causing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Because of their low mass, ultrafine particles are hard to detect, and researchers try to utilize PM₁₀ in combination with nitrogen oxides NO_x and other trace gases to monitor their dynamic evolution. To meet pollution standards set by national government and European Union regulation, the city of Klagenfurt, Austria, began using calcium magnesium acetate as a deicer on 11 January 2012, hoping to literally glue pollutants to the ground and thereby reducing pollution concentrations. With the statistical methodology developed in this article, the dynamic evolution of PM₁₀ and NO_x is traced for the time period starting 4 January and ending 25 January 2012, and a change in dynamics is found. The findings are based on on‐line monitoring procedures that sequentially detect structural breaks in the mean and the parameter values of an autoregressive moving average process. These are defined in terms of model residuals and one‐step ahead predictors. Theoretical properties are studied, and a simulation study shows that the proposed procedures work well in finite samples.     

Change-Point Detection in Binomial Thinning Processes,with Applications in Epidemiology

Abstract

Most of the classical change-point detection schemes are designed for the sequences of independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) random variables. In this article, motivated by the outbreak of 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza, we develop change-point detection procedures for the susceptible–infected–recovered (SIR) epidemic model, where a change-point in the infection rate parameter signifies either the beginning or the end of an epidemic trend.

The considered model falls into a general class of binomial thinning processes, which is a Markov chain. The cumulative sum (CUSUM) change-point detection procedure is developed for this class, and its performance is evaluated. Apparently, the CUSUM stopping rule is no longer optimal for this non-i.i.d. case. It can be improved by introducing a non constant adaptive threshold. The resulting modified scheme attains a shorter mean delay and at the same time a longer expected time of a false alarm, given that a false alarm eventually occurs.

Proposed detection procedures are applied to the 2001–2012 influenza data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.     

The Generalized Synthetic Chart

Abstract

The Generalized Synthetic chart is presented and mathematical expressions for its average run length and variance of the run length are developed. The methodology is applied to the EWMA and CUSUM charts and near-optimization procedures are discussed. The synthetic EWMA and CUSUM charts are compared with their standard counterparts, the original synthetic chart, and the Shewhart chart. Significant improvements in detecting power are reported.     

Clustering Multiple Time Series with Structural Breaks

Time series clustering pattern could change over time. In this article we develop a new Bayesian approach to handle clustering analysis of multiple time series with structural breaks. The number of breaks is treated as a random variable, with group membership and group‐specific parameters allowed to change on these breaks. Group‐specific parameters in each regime can be integrated analytically, so we only have a small number of parameters to be handled by posterior simulation. We further discuss prediction, identification, clustering, and detection of the number of groups. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we document the performance of the proposed approach in statistical efficiency, forecasting, and detection of the structural breaks. An application on quarterly industrial production growth rates of 21 countries links regimes to historical business cycles. Prediction performance and economic gains are illustrated based on the proposed method.     

SEQUENTIAL METHODS FOR DETECTING CHANGES IN THE VARIANCE OF ECONOMIC TIME SERIES

In this paper EWMA charts and CUSUM charts are introduced for detecting changes in the variance of a GARCH process. The moments of the EWMA statistics are calculated. They permit a better understanding of the underlying control procedure. In an extensive simulation study all control schemes are compared with each other. “Optimal” smoothing parameters and “optimal” reference values are tabulated. It is shown how these charts can be applied to monitor stock market returns.     

Parameter change test for random coefficient integer-valued autoregressive processes with application to polio data analysis

Abstract.  In this paper, we consider the problem of testing for a parameter change in a first-order random coefficient integer-valued autoregressive [RCINAR(1)] model. We employ the cumulative sum (CUSUM) test based on the conditional least-squares and modified quasi-likelihood estimators. It is shown that under regularity conditions, the CUSUM test has the same limiting distribution as the supremum of the squares of independent Brownian bridges. The CUSUM test is then applied to the analysis of the monthly polio counts data set.     

Efficient estimation and inference in cointegrating regressions with structural change

Abstract. This paper investigates an efficient estimation method for a cointegrating regression model with structural change. Our proposal is that we first estimate the break point by minimizing the sum of squared residuals and then, by replacing the break fraction with the estimated one, we estimate the regression model by the canonical cointegrating regression (CCR) method proposed by Park [ Econometrica (1992 ) Vol. 60, pp. 119–143]. We show that the estimator of the break fraction has the same convergence rate as obtained in Bai, Lumsdaine and Stock [ Review of Economic Studies (1998 ) Vol. 65, pp. 395–432] and that the CCR estimator with the estimated break fraction has the same asymptotic property as the estimator with the known break point. However, we also show that our method breaks down when the magnitude of structural change is very small. Simulation experiments reveal how the finite sample distribution approaches the limiting distribution as the magnitude of the break and or the sample size increases.     

A decision theoretic approach to change point estimation for binomial CUSUM control charts

Detecting when the process has changed is a classical problem in sequential analysis and is an important practical issue in statistical process control. This article is concerned about the binomial cumulative sum (CUSUM) control chart, which is extensively applied to industrial process control, health care, public health surveillance, and other fields. For the binomial CUSUM, a maximum likelihood estimator has been proposed to estimate the change point. In our article, following a decision theoretic approach, we develop a new estimator that aims to improve the existing methods. For interval estimation, we propose a parametric bootstrap procedure to construct the confidence set of the change point. We compare our proposed method with the maximum likelihood estimator and Page's last zero estimator in terms of mean squared error by simulations. We find that the proposed method gives more unbiased and robust results than the existing procedures under various parameter designs. We analyze jewelry manufacturing data for illustration.     

A sequential procedure to determine the number of breaks in trend with an integrated or stationary noise component

Perron and Yabu (2009a) consider the problem of testing for a break occurring at an unknown date in the trend function of a univariate time series when the noise component can be either stationary or integrated. This article extends their work by proposing a sequential test that allows one to test the null hypothesis of, say, l breaks versus the alternative hypothesis of (l + 1) breaks. The test enables consistent estimation of the number of breaks. In both stationary and integrated cases, it is shown that asymptotic critical values can be obtained from the relevant quantiles of the limit distribution of the test for a single break. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that the procedure works well in finite samples.     

Estimation of common change point and isolation of changed panels after sequential detection

Abstract

Quick detection of common changes is critical in sequential monitoring of multistream data where a common change is a change that only occurs in a portion of panels. After a common change is detected by using a combined cumulative sum Shiryaev-Roberts (CUSUM-SR) procedure, we first study the joint distribution for values of the CUSUM process and the estimated delay detection time for the unchanged panels. A Benjamini-Hochberg (BH) method using the asymptotic exponential property for the CUSUM process is developed to isolate the changed panels with control on the false discovery rate (FDR). The common change point is then estimated based on the isolated changed panels. Simulation results show that the proposed method can also control the false non-discovery rate (FNR) by properly selecting the FDR.     

Sequential algorithms for moving anomaly detection in networks

Abstract

The problem of quickest moving anomaly detection in networks is studied. Initially, the observations are generated according to a prechange distribution. At some unknown but deterministic time, an anomaly emerges in the network. At each time instant, one node is affected by the anomaly and receives data from a post-change distribution. The anomaly moves across the network, and the node that it affects changes with time. However, the trajectory of the moving anomaly is assumed to be unknown. A discrete-time Markov chain is employed to model the unknown trajectory of the moving anomaly in the network. A windowed generalized likelihood ratio–based test is constructed and is shown to be asymptotically optimal. Other detection algorithms including the dynamic Shiryaev-Roberts test, a quickest change detection algorithm with recursive change point estimation, and a mixture cumulative sum (CUSUM) algorithm are also developed for this problem. Lower bounds on the mean time to false alarm are developed. Numerical results are further provided to compare their performances.     

Real time change-point detection in a nonlinear quantile model

Most studies in real-time change-point detection either focus on the linear model or use the cumulative sum (CUSUM) method under classical assumptions on model errors. This article considers the sequential change-point detection in a nonlinear quantile model. A test statistic based on the CUSUM of the quantile process subgradient is proposed and studied. Under the null hypothesis that the model does not change, the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic is determined. Under the alternative hypothesis that at some unknown observation there is a change in the model, the proposed test statistic converges in probability to ∞. These results allow building the critical regions on open-end and on closed-end procedures. Simulation results, using a Monte Carlo technique, investigate the performance of the test statistic, especially for heavy-tailed error distributions. We also compare it with the classical CUSUM test statistic. An example on real data is also given.