THE BIAS IN PERIODOGRAM ORDINATES AND THE ESTIMATION OF ARMA MODELS IN THE FREQUENCY DOMAIN

The paper has its origin in the finding that the frequency-domain estimation of ARh4A models can produce estimates which may be remarkably biased. Both of the frequency-domain estimation methods considered in the paper are based on the frequency-domain likelihood function, which depends on the periodogram ordinates of the time series. It is found that, as estimates of the spectrum ordinates, the corresponding periodogram ordinates may contain a rather remarkable bias, which again causes bias in the estimates of parameters produced by a frequency-domain estimation method of an ARMA model. The bias is reduced by tapering the observed time series. An example is given of estimation experiments for simulated time series from a pure autoregressive process of order two.