2019/05/30 by Yoonseok Lee, Yulong Wang, Lee, Yoonseok +1
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Environmental Science · #Impact of Light on Environment and Health #Land Use and Ecosystem Services #econ.EM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1905.13140
arxiv created 2021/01/28 · arxiv updated 2021/01/29
This paper develops a threshold regression model where an unknown relationship between two variables nonparametrically determines the threshold. We allow the observations to be cross-sectionally dependent so that the model can be applied to determine an unknown spatial border for sample splitting over a random field. We derive the uniform rate of convergence and the nonstandard limiting distribution of the nonparametric threshold estimator. We also obtain the root-n consistency and the asymptotic normality of the regression coefficient estimator. Our model has broad empirical relevance as illustrated by estimating the tipping point in social segregation problems as a function of demographic characteristics; and determining metropolitan area boundaries using nighttime light intensity collected from satellite imagery. We find that the new empirical results are substantially different from those in the existing studies.