Abstract
We present a new command,
1 Introduction
The study of the dynamic properties of economic and financial variables occupies a central position in the econometric modeling of time series. One specific type of behavior in which there has always been a great deal of interest, particularly in times of crises or distress, is when the series under consideration exhibits what appears to be explosive behavior. Indeed, analysts have identified several instances in the literature in which variables such as prices appear to increase well beyond the level that could be explained by their fundamentals; see, for example, Garber (2000) for an analysis of famous early bubbles and exuberant behavior.
During the last decade or so, there has been a renewed interest in the application of statistical tests for explosive behavior, mainly because of the appearance of novel theoretical findings by Phillips, Wu, and Yu (2011) and Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2015). These authors, through the further development of unit-root tests, provide a framework of analysis suitable for testing and date-stamping episodes where explosive behavior might have occurred. Empirical implementation of these new testing strategies is possible thanks to available computer codes in MATLAB;
1
the EViews add-in
In this article, we present the community-contributed command
The article is organized as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the tests for explosive behavior supported by the
2 Tests for explosive behavior
In this section, we offer an overview of the tests for explosive behavior that are provided by the
where Δ is the first-difference operator, yt is the realization of the time series of interest at time t, k is a scalar that denotes the number of lags of the dependent variable that are included to account for residual serial correlation, and r 1 and r 2, respectively, denote the starting and ending points used for estimation. With T as the total number of time periods in the sample, r 1 and r 2 are expressed as fractions of T such that r 2 = r 1 + rw , where rw is the window size of the regression, also expressed as a fraction of T . The number of observations used to estimate (1) is denoted Tw = ⌊Trw⌋, where ⌊·⌋ is the floor function that gives the integer part of the argument. The error term is εt .
The unit-root null hypothesis is given by H
0 : βr
1
,r
2 = 0, while the alternative is that the series of interest exhibits explosive behavior; that is, H
1 : βr
1
,r
2 > 0. The ADF t statistic required to test H
0 : βr
1
,r
2 = 0 in (1) is denoted
where the window size rw
expands from the smallest sample window width r
0, which provides the first t statistic of the recursion, to the last available observation. The supremum ADF (SADF) t statistic given in (2) is the second test statistic computed by the
In their empirical illustration, Phillips, Wu, and Yu (2011) select the optimal number of lags of the test regression (k) following the general-to-specific methodology, which involves setting k = k
max and testing the statistical significance of
However, Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2015) indicate that when the sample period is characterized by successive episodes of bubbles, one potential limitation of the recursive approach suggested by Phillips, Wu, and Yu (2011) is that it provides consistent estimates of the origination and ending dates of the first bubble but not subsequent ones. To overcome this limitation, Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2015) put forward the generalized supremum ADF (GSADF) test, which is the third statistic produced by
For practical purposes, Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2015) recommend implementing the GSADF test by setting a low value of k, say, 0 or 1, and determining the minimum window size using the rule
The sample sequences described before are summarized graphically in figure 1 (from Phillips, Shi, and Yu [2015]).

Sample sequences and window widths supported by the
Inference for the right-tail ADF, SADF, and GSADF statistics requires critical values computed using Monte Carlo simulations. In the case of the
where ∊t ∼ NID(0, σ 2) (NID denotes normally and independently distributed). As for the GSADF(r 0) statistic, the corresponding critical values are based on a random walk where the drift component is asymptotically negligible,
where ∊t ∼ NID(0, σ
2). For computational convenience, the
The testing strategies based on recursive window and recursive flexible window estimation of (1) provide useful guidance to date-stamp in real time the episodes of explosive behavior if the null hypothesis is rejected. Following the discussion in Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2015), let us suppose that one is interested in assessing whether any particular observation, say, r 2, belongs to a phase of explosive behavior. These authors recommend performing a SADF test on a sample sequence where the endpoint is fixed at the observation of interest r 2, and expands backwards to the starting point, r 1, which varies between 0 and (r 2 − r 0). In this frame, the backward SADF (BSADF) statistic is defined as the supremum of the resulting sequence of ADF statistics, that is,
The statistic BSADF r 2(r 0) is then compared with the corresponding critical values of the SADF(r 0) for ⌊r 2 T⌋ observations. Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2015) indicate that this identification procedure is more general than the earlier suggestion in Phillips, Wu, and Yu (2011), which sets r 1 = 0 in (3) and therefore is more effective at identifying episodes of multiple bubbles. The sample sequences and window widths for date-stamping recommended by Phillips, Wu, and Yu (2011) and Phillips, Shi, and Yu (2015) are illustrated in figure 2, top and bottom, respectively, (from Phillips, Shi, and Yu [2015]).

Sample sequences and window widths for date-stamping strategies
The
As a further development, in recent work Phillips and Shi (2020) recommend a wild bootstrap procedure to lessen the potential effects of unconditional heteroskedasticity and to account for the multiplicity issue in recursive testing. This bootstrap scheme can be implemented as an option with the
3 The radf command
The command
3.1 Syntax
Before using the command
3.2 Options
The command
3.3 Stored results
4 Empirical application
Housing is certainly the most important asset in the portfolio of many individuals and families. For this reason, there is considerable interest in following the dynamic path of property prices so that knowledge can be gained regarding the specific periods of time when they might be viewed as reaching levels that compromise affordability. Indeed, many economists and financial analysts alike feel that property prices are prone to suffering bubble-like phenomena. Before the advent of these tests for explosive behavior, the researcher applying unit-root tests to property price series would have undoubtedly favored the unit-root hypothesis. Then attention would turn to testing the existence of long-run equilibrium relationships with real income (for example, Holly, Pesaran, and Yamagata [2010]) or with other property prices (for example, Holly, Pesaran, and Yamagata [2011]). The findings here are suggestive of episodes of bubbles when applied to certain intervals over sup criteria.
We use data from the International House Price Database of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which contains quarterly price information on 23 countries that dates back to the first quarter of 1975; see Mack and Martínez-García (2011) for methodological details on the database. To carry out our empirical illustration, we downloaded the data release for the first quarter of 2015 directly from the R console, following the steps described in section 5.2 of Vasilopoulos, Pavlidis, and Martínez-García (2020a), and we created a Stata version of the data that was placed with the Boston College Economics Stata datasets.
We begin by loading the dataset using the community-contributed command
We would like to test whether the price index series of the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively named
Using the default specifications for
The output indicates that the first observations of the recursive and recursive flexible windows run from the third quarter of 1975 to the second quarter of 2009. Both SADF and GSADF tests provide evidence against the unit-root null hypothesis at the 1% significance level. In the case of ADF, we observe rejection of the null in the case of U.K. prices only at the 10% significance level.
The results reported above are identical to those obtained using the R package
Given that the results presented above reject the unit-root null hypothesis, one might proceed to plot the sequences of t statistics and corresponding critical values to identify the time periods during which episodes of explosive behavior might have taken place. To this end, we run the previous command using the
The output is omitted to avoid repetition, while the date-stamping plots for the price series in the United Kingdom and the United States are presented in figures 3 and 4, respectively. To facilitate the verification of these results, the variables used to construct the figures are reported in appendix B at the end of the article and are available with the

Date-stamping analysis for the U.K. house price series

Date-stamping analysis for the U.S. house price series
Finally, we now illustrate the use of the command
As can be seen, in all cases the simulated bootstrap critical values (columns labeled
5 Concluding remarks
In this article, we presented the command
7 Programs and supplemental materials
Supplemental Material, sj-zip-1-stj-10.1177_1536867X211063405 - Unit-root tests for explosive behavior
Supplemental Material, sj-zip-1-stj-10.1177_1536867X211063405 for
Footnotes
6 Acknowledgments
We thank Jeisson Cárdenas, Theodore Panagiotidis, and Georgios Papapanagiotou for their guidance on the use of the R package
7 Programs and supplemental materials
To install a snapshot of the corresponding software files as they existed at the time of publication of this article, type
Notes
A Generating critical values with radf
In this appendix, we illustrate the use of
B Date-stamping results
t SADF, t BSADF, and t BSADF 95% critical values.
| United Kingdom | United States | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | t SADF | t BSADF | Exceeding | t SADF | t BSADF | Exceeding | t BSADF 95% cv |
| 1981q2 | −1.072 | −1.072 | . | −1.233 | −1.233 | . | . |
| 1981q3 | −1.145 | −1.145 | 0 | −1.274 | −1.274 | 0 | −0.018 |
| 1981q4 | −1.460 | −1.460 | 0 | −1.328 | −1.328 | 0 | 0.127 |
| 1982q1 | −1.533 | −1.504 | 0 | −1.355 | −1.355 | 0 | 0.252 |
| 1982q2 | −1.427 | −1.350 | 0 | −1.386 | −1.386 | 0 | 0.378 |
| 1982q3 | −1.455 | −1.381 | 0 | −1.331 | −1.270 | 0 | 0.435 |
| 1982q4 | −1.491 | −1.417 | 0 | −1.404 | −1.404 | 0 | 0.520 |
| 1983q1 | −1.431 | −1.369 | 0 | −1.451 | −1.451 | 0 | 0.551 |
| 1983q2 | −1.428 | −1.373 | 0 | −1.465 | −1.439 | 0 | 0.595 |
| 1983q3 | −1.349 | −1.304 | 0 | −1.471 | −1.351 | 0 | 0.664 |
| 1983q4 | −1.485 | −1.440 | 0 | −1.495 | −1.089 | 0 | 0.697 |
| 1984q1 | −1.512 | −1.475 | 0 | −1.525 | −1.069 | 0 | 0.720 |
| 1984q2 | −1.381 | −1.361 | 0 | −1.547 | −0.922 | 0 | 0.726 |
| 1984q3 | −1.180 | −1.169 | 0 | −1.570 | −0.929 | 0 | 0.735 |
| 1984q4 | −1.316 | −1.304 | 0 | −1.594 | −1.006 | 0 | 0.780 |
| 1985q1 | −1.423 | −1.409 | 0 | −1.617 | −1.051 | 0 | 0.794 |
| 1985q2 | −1.127 | −1.114 | 0 | −1.635 | −1.145 | 0 | 0.804 |
| 1985q3 | −1.173 | −1.160 | 0 | −1.643 | −1.232 | 0 | 0.804 |
| 1985q4 | −0.849 | −0.726 | 0 | −1.656 | −1.278 | 0 | 0.828 |
| 1986q1 | −0.861 | −0.622 | 0 | −1.610 | −1.307 | 0 | 0.848 |
| 1986q2 | −0.428 | 0.037 | 0 | −1.441 | −1.218 | 0 | 0.848 |
| 1986q3 | −0.172 | 0.504 | 0 | −1.425 | −1.012 | 0 | 0.850 |
| 1986q4 | −0.174 | 0.575 | 0 | −1.321 | −0.102 | 0 | 0.869 |
| 1987q1 | −0.078 | 0.694 | 0 | −1.212 | 0.997 | 1 | 0.889 |
| 1987q2 | 0.407 | 1.287 | 1 | −1.211 | 0.836 | 0 | 0.898 |
| 1987q3 | 0.780 | 1.775 | 1 | −1.241 | 0.591 | 0 | 0.914 |
| 1987q4 | 1.172 | 2.270 | 1 | −1.307 | 0.294 | 0 | 0.914 |
| 1988q1 | 1.056 | 3.063 | 1 | −1.141 | 0.624 | 0 | 0.918 |
| 1988q2 | 1.645 | 3.851 | 1 | −1.057 | 0.742 | 0 | 0.923 |
| 1988q3 | 2.938 | 3.858 | 1 | −1.200 | 0.372 | 0 | 0.924 |
| 1988q4 | 2.836 | 4.063 | 1 | −1.196 | 0.303 | 0 | 0.966 |
| 1989q1 | 1.657 | 2.078 | 1 | −1.222 | 0.202 | 0 | 0.966 |
| 1989q2 | 1.760 | 1.931 | 1 | −1.263 | 0.080 | 0 | 0.979 |
| 1989q3 | 1.858 | 1.950 | 1 | −0.944 | 0.611 | 0 | 0.979 |
| 1989q4 | 0.150 | 0.241 | 0 | −1.056 | 0.447 | 0 | 0.979 |
| 1990q1 | −0.411 | −0.362 | 0 | −1.292 | −0.051 | 0 | 0.979 |
| 1990q2 | −0.687 | −0.635 | 0 | −1.382 | −0.287 | 0 | 0.993 |
| 1990q3 | −0.369 | −0.363 | 0 | −1.486 | −0.496 | 0 | 0.996 |
| 1990q4 | −0.806 | −0.763 | 0 | −1.696 | −0.864 | 0 | 1.004 |
| 1991q1 | −0.862 | −0.822 | 0 | −1.599 | −0.659 | 0 | 1.004 |
| 1991q2 | −1.069 | −0.993 | 0 | −1.633 | −0.696 | 0 | 1.014 |
| 1991q3 | −0.848 | −0.833 | 0 | −1.716 | −0.799 | 0 | 1.034 |
| 1991q4 | −1.016 | −0.968 | 0 | −1.616 | −0.653 | 0 | 1.041 |
| 1992q1 | −1.129 | −1.058 | 0 | −1.653 | −0.690 | 0 | 1.052 |
| 1992q2 | −1.210 | −1.121 | 0 | −1.771 | −0.825 | 0 | 1.073 |
| 1992q3 | −1.142 | −1.083 | 0 | −1.707 | −0.724 | 0 | 1.083 |
| 1992q4 | −1.315 | −1.175 | 0 | −1.754 | −0.762 | 0 | 1.094 |
| 1993q1 | −1.214 | −1.138 | 0 | −1.828 | −0.841 | 0 | 1.099 |
| 1993q2 | −1.241 | −1.155 | 0 | −1.813 | −0.809 | 0 | 1.099 |
| 1993q3 | −1.201 | −1.150 | 0 | −1.801 | −0.784 | 0 | 1.099 |
| 1993q4 | −1.286 | −1.088 | 0 | −1.791 | −0.762 | 0 | 1.103 |
| 1994q1 | −1.213 | −1.161 | 0 | −1.790 | −0.749 | 0 | 1.119 |
| 1994q2 | −1.231 | −1.084 | 0 | −1.828 | −0.780 | 0 | 1.119 |
| 1994q3 | −1.209 | −1.153 | 0 | −1.879 | −0.833 | 0 | 1.119 |
| 1994q4 | −1.276 | −1.029 | 0 | −1.931 | −0.888 | 0 | 1.121 |
| 1995q1 | −1.312 | −0.988 | 0 | −1.928 | −0.873 | 0 | 1.122 |
| 1995q2 | −1.291 | −1.086 | 0 | −1.842 | −0.770 | 0 | 1.124 |
| 1995q3 | −1.304 | −1.093 | 0 | −1.750 | −0.673 | 0 | 1.129 |
| 1995q4 | −1.344 | −1.000 | 0 | −1.752 | −0.665 | 0 | 1.139 |
| 1996q1 | −1.321 | −1.110 | 0 | −1.702 | −0.593 | 0 | 1.143 |
| 1996q2 | −1.353 | −1.028 | 0 | −1.846 | −0.766 | 0 | 1.143 |
| 1996q3 | −1.288 | −1.231 | 0 | −1.830 | −0.727 | 0 | 1.155 |
| 1996q4 | −1.305 | −1.233 | 0 | −1.816 | −0.639 | 0 | 1.179 |
| 1997q1 | −1.282 | −1.268 | 0 | −1.780 | −0.393 | 0 | 1.182 |
| 1997q2 | −1.312 | −1.291 | 0 | −1.740 | −0.120 | 0 | 1.184 |
| 1997q3 | −1.194 | −1.182 | 0 | −1.584 | 0.603 | 0 | 1.187 |
| 1997q4 | −1.300 | −1.289 | 0 | −1.451 | 1.157 | 0 | 1.187 |
| 1998q1 | −1.202 | −1.193 | 0 | −1.210 | 1.948 | 1 | 1.200 |
| 1998q2 | −1.036 | 0.191 | 0 | −1.215 | 1.703 | 1 | 1.209 |
| 1998q3 | −0.963 | 1.059 | 0 | −1.012 | 2.211 | 1 | 1.222 |
| 1998q4 | −1.170 | 0.799 | 0 | −0.852 | 2.458 | 1 | 1.222 |
| 1999q1 | −1.124 | 0.490 | 0 | −0.764 | 2.378 | 1 | 1.222 |
| 1999q2 | −0.825 | 1.446 | 1 | −0.678 | 2.260 | 1 | 1.222 |
| 1999q3 | −0.563 | 2.199 | 1 | −0.524 | 2.408 | 1 | 1.229 |
| 1999q4 | −0.668 | 1.976 | 1 | −0.487 | 2.179 | 1 | 1.236 |
| 2000q1 | −0.595 | 1.846 | 1 | −0.250 | 2.599 | 1 | 1.236 |
| 2000q2 | −0.176 | 2.736 | 1 | −0.087 | 2.775 | 1 | 1.238 |
| 2000q3 | −0.258 | 2.497 | 1 | 0.114 | 3.027 | 1 | 1.238 |
| 2000q4 | −0.040 | 2.685 | 1 | 0.278 | 3.162 | 1 | 1.240 |
| 2001q1 | −0.422 | 1.466 | 1 | 0.685 | 3.810 | 1 | 1.240 |
| 2001q2 | 0.159 | 2.213 | 1 | 0.723 | 3.661 | 1 | 1.240 |
| 2001q3 | 0.331 | 2.484 | 1 | 1.017 | 4.055 | 1 | 1.240 |
| 2001q4 | −0.062 | 1.698 | 1 | 1.177 | 4.102 | 1 | 1.248 |
| 2002q1 | 0.311 | 1.926 | 1 | 1.345 | 4.142 | 1 | 1.248 |
| 2002q2 | 1.100 | 2.795 | 1 | 1.328 | 3.643 | 1 | 1.253 |
| 2002q3 | 1.304 | 2.978 | 1 | 1.674 | 4.196 | 1 | 1.270 |
| 2002q4 | 1.387 | 3.095 | 1 | 1.724 | 4.018 | 1 | 1.277 |
| 2003q1 | 1.207 | 2.675 | 1 | 1.593 | 3.244 | 1 | 1.280 |
| 2003q2 | 1.601 | 2.975 | 1 | 1.813 | 3.497 | 1 | 1.280 |
| 2003q3 | 1.543 | 2.758 | 1 | 1.862 | 3.359 | 1 | 1.282 |
| 2003q4 | 1.524 | 2.520 | 1 | 2.586 | 4.386 | 1 | 1.284 |
| 2004q1 | 1.281 | 1.993 | 1 | 2.348 | 4.229 | 1 | 1.295 |
| 2004q2 | 2.275 | 3.020 | 1 | 2.743 | 4.801 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2004q3 | 2.355 | 3.125 | 1 | 3.439 | 5.157 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2004q4 | 1.767 | 2.397 | 1 | 3.319 | 5.285 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2005q1 | 1.502 | 1.818 | 1 | 3.599 | 5.561 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2005q2 | 1.505 | 1.675 | 1 | 4.017 | 6.008 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2005q3 | 1.610 | 1.706 | 1 | 4.088 | 6.039 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2005q4 | 1.201 | 1.240 | 0 | 4.146 | 5.912 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2006q1 | 1.289 | 1.289 | 0 | 4.030 | 5.313 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2006q2 | 1.575 | 1.575 | 1 | 3.404 | 4.266 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2006q3 | 1.779 | 1.779 | 1 | 3.051 | 3.705 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2006q4 | 1.475 | 1.475 | 1 | 3.565 | 4.328 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2007q1 | 1.955 | 1.955 | 1 | 2.692 | 3.203 | 1 | 1.304 |
| 2007q2 | 1.905 | 1.905 | 1 | 1.935 | 2.244 | 1 | 1.305 |
| 2007q3 | 2.315 | 2.315 | 1 | 1.007 | 1.146 | 0 | 1.313 |
| 2007q4 | 1.790 | 1.790 | 1 | 0.788 | 0.963 | 0 | 1.315 |
| 2008q1 | 1.472 | 1.472 | 1 | 0.321 | 0.460 | 0 | 1.315 |
| 2008q2 | 1.038 | 1.038 | 0 | −0.759 | −0.747 | 0 | 1.315 |
| 2008q3 | 0.257 | 0.257 | 0 | −1.278 | −1.241 | 0 | 1.318 |
| 2008q4 | −0.541 | −0.435 | 0 | −0.305 | −0.065 | 0 | 1.318 |
| 2009q1 | −0.461 | −0.391 | 0 | −0.166 | 0.075 | 0 | 1.318 |
| 2009q2 | −0.384 | −0.338 | 0 | −0.800 | −0.565 | 0 | 1.318 |
| 2009q3 | −0.008 | −0.007 | 0 | −1.025 | −0.789 | 0 | 1.318 |
| 2009q4 | −0.159 | −0.158 | 0 | −0.925 | −0.664 | 0 | 1.318 |
| 2010q1 | −0.125 | −0.124 | 0 | −1.014 | −0.748 | 0 | 1.334 |
| 2010q2 | −0.099 | −0.098 | 0 | −1.036 | −0.765 | 0 | 1.345 |
| 2010q3 | −0.051 | −0.050 | 0 | −0.923 | −0.648 | 0 | 1.345 |
| 2010q4 | −0.447 | −0.390 | 0 | −1.055 | −0.467 | 0 | 1.348 |
| 2011q1 | −0.476 | −0.418 | 0 | −1.248 | 0.107 | 0 | 1.348 |
| 2011q2 | −0.487 | −0.429 | 0 | −1.282 | 0.246 | 0 | 1.348 |
| 2011q3 | −0.369 | −0.342 | 0 | −1.193 | −0.135 | 0 | 1.348 |
| 2011q4 | −0.565 | −0.488 | 0 | −1.196 | −0.307 | 0 | 1.348 |
| 2012q1 | −0.487 | −0.434 | 0 | −1.266 | −0.091 | 0 | 1.349 |
| 2012q2 | −0.458 | −0.411 | 0 | −1.267 | −0.183 | 0 | 1.349 |
| 2012q3 | −0.381 | −0.351 | 0 | −1.222 | −0.496 | 0 | 1.356 |
| 2012q4 | −0.556 | −0.483 | 0 | −1.230 | −0.547 | 0 | 1.356 |
| 2013q1 | −0.540 | −0.473 | 0 | −1.237 | −0.587 | 0 | 1.360 |
| 2013q2 | −0.441 | −0.399 | 0 | −1.189 | −0.789 | 0 | 1.362 |
| 2013q3 | −0.373 | −0.345 | 0 | −1.175 | −0.873 | 0 | 1.362 |
| 2013q4 | −0.428 | −0.384 | 0 | −1.174 | −0.878 | 0 | 1.362 |
| 2014q1 | −0.274 | −0.261 | 0 | −1.177 | −0.880 | 0 | 1.364 |
| 2014q2 | −0.123 | −0.123 | 0 | −1.111 | −0.821 | 0 | 1.366 |
| 2014q3 | −0.005 | −0.005 | 0 | −1.098 | −0.810 | 0 | 1.367 |
| 2014q4 | −0.248 | −0.232 | 0 | −1.078 | −0.792 | 0 | 1.367 |
| 2015q1 | −0.091 | −0.091 | 0 | −1.030 | −0.748 | 0 | 1.367 |
note: The right-tail 95% critical value of t
SADF is that of the Dickey–Fuller distribution and is equal to 0.02. The right-tail 95% criti
