WIAS Preprint No. 1717, (2012)

Efficient maximum likelihood estimation for Lévy-driven Ornstein--Uhlenbeck processes



Authors

  • Mai, Hilmar

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification

  • 62F12, 62M05

Keywords

  • discrete time observations, efficient drift estimation, Lévy process, maximum likelihood, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process

DOI

10.20347/WIAS.PREPRINT.1717

Abstract

We consider the problem of efficient estimation of the drift parameter of an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck type process driven by a Lévy process when high-frequency observations are given. The estimator is constructed from the time-continuous likelihood function that leads to an explicit maximum likelihood estimator and requires knowledge of the continuous martingale part. We use a thresholding technique to approximate the continuous part of the process. Under suitable conditions we prove asymptotic normality and efficiency in the Hájek-Le Cam sense for the resulting drift estimator. To obtain these results we prove an estimate for the Markov generator of a pure jump Lévy process. Finally, we investigate the finite sample behavior of the method and compare our approach to least squares estimation.

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