Constrained Optimization Approaches to Estimation of Structural Models

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Su, Che-Lin; Judd, Kenneth L.
• 署名单位: University of Chicago; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: ECONOMETRICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0012-9682
• DOI: 10.3982/ECTA7925
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 2213-2230
• 关键词: maximum-likelihood estimation; algorithm; parameters; INEQUALITY

摘要

Estimating structural models is often viewed as computationally difficult, an impression partly due to a focus on the nested fixed-point (NFXP) approach. We propose a new constrained optimization approach for structural estimation. We show that our approach and the NFXP algorithm solve the same estimation problem, and yield the same estimates. Computationally, our approach can have speed advantages because we do not repeatedly solve the structural equation at each guess of structural parameters. Monte Carlo experiments on the canonical Zurcher bus-repair model demonstrate that the constrained optimization approach can be significantly faster.