Essays on model averaging

This dissertation is a collection of three essays on model averaging, organized in the form of three chapters.;The first chapter proposes a new model averaging estimator for the linear regression model with heteroskedastic errors. We address the issues of how to assign the weights for candidate models optimally and how to make inference based on the averaging estimator. We first derive the asymptotic distribution of the averaging estimator with fixed weights in a local asymptotic framework, which allows us to characterize the optimal weights. The optimal weights are obtained by minimizing the asymptotic mean squared error. Second, we propose a plug-in estimator of the optimal weights and use these estimated weights to construct a plug-in averaging estimator of the parameter of interest. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the proposed estimator. Third, we show that confidence intervals based on normal approximations lead to distorted inference in this context. We suggest a plug-in method to construct confidence intervals, which have good finite-sample coverage probabilities.;The second chapter investigates model combination in a predictive regression. We derive the mean squared forecast error (MSFE) of the model averaging estimator in a local asymptotic framework. We show that the optimal model weights which minimize the MSFE depend on the local parameters and the covariance matrix of the predictive regression. We propose a plug-in estimator of the optimal weights and use these estimated weights to construct the forecast combination.;The third chapter proposes a model averaging approach to reduce the mean squared error (MSE) and weighted integrated mean squared error (WIMSE) of kernel estimators of regression functions. At each point of estimation, we construct a weighted average of the local constant and local linear estimators. The optimal local and global weights for averaging are chosen to minimize the MSE and WIMSE of the averaging estimator, respectively. We propose two data-driven approaches for bandwidth and weight selection and derive the rate of convergence of the cross-validated weights to their optimal benchmark values.