Spurious Trend in Stationary Series and its Implications
Spurious Trend in Stationary Series and its Implications

Summary/Abstract: Nelson and Kang (1984) showed that regression of a unit root time-series on a linear time trend provides significant results even if there is no forecast able association amongst the path of the time-series and linear trend. Using Monte Carlo simulations, this paper shows that phenomenon also exists in stationary time series and regression of a stationary time series on linear trend also produces significant results without the existence of any predictable relationship between the time -series and linear trend. The spurious trend is observable in most of the moderate sample sizes and sometimes in sufficiently large samples of size over 500 observations. The implications of these findings for unit root test procedures are discussed briefly.

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