Local Whittle Estimation in Nonstationary and Unit Root Cases

Asymptotic properties of the local Whittle estimator in the nonstationary case (d > 1/2) are explored. For 1/2 < d < 1, the estimator is shown to be consistent, and its limit distribution and the rate of convergence depend on the value of d. For d = 1, the limit distribution is mixed normal. For d > 1 and when the process has a linear trend, the estimator is shown to be inconsistent and to converge in probability to unity.