Modified Unit Root Tests with Nuisance Parameter Free Asymptotic Distributions

It is well-known that the asymptotic distributions of the Dickey-Fuller (DF) tests for a unit root with linear process errors are not free of nuisance parameters. In this paper, we introduce a consistent estimator for the nuisance parameters and then use it to modify the DF tests, denoted as R-tests. Under fairly mild moment and summability conditions on the errors, we show that the asymptotic distributions of the R-tests are of the same as the Dickey-Fuller distributions. In Monte Carlo experiments, the R-tests are shown to have improved size properties.