One-step estimation for varying coefficient models

Abstract

A one-step method is proposed to estimate the unknown functions in the varying coefficient models, in which the unknown functions admit different degrees of smoothness. In this method polynomials of different orders are used to approximate unknown functions with different degrees of smoothness. As only one minimization operation is employed, the required computation burden is much less than that required by the existing two-step estimation method. It is shown that the one-step estimators also achieve the optimal convergence rate. Moreover this property is obtained under conditions milder than that imposed in the two-step estimation method. More importantly, as only one minimization operation is employed, the full asymptotic properties, not only the asymptotic bias and variance, but also the asymptotic distributions of the estimators can be derived. The asymptotic distribution results will play a key role for making statistical inference.