A GQL estimation approach for analysing non-stationary over-dispersed BINAR(1) time series

This paper proposes a generalized quasi-likelihood (GQL) function for estimating the vector of regression and over-dispersion effects for the respective series in the bivariate integer-valued autoregressive process of order 1 (BINAR(1)) with Negative Binomial (NB) marginals. The auto-covariance function in the proposed GQL is computed using some ‘robust’ working structures. As for the BINAR(1) process, the inter-relation between the series is induced mainly by the correlated NB innovations that are subject to different levels of over-dispersion. The performance of the GQL approach is tested via some Monte-Carlo simulations under different combination of over-dispersion together with low and high serial- and cross-correlation parameters. The model is also applied to analyse a real-life series of day and night accidents in Mauritius.