A limit theory is developed for the least squares estimator for mildly and purely explosive autoregressions under drifting sequences of parameters with autoregressive roots ρn satisfying ρn → ρ ∈ (-∞, -1] ∪ [1, ∞) and n (|ρn| -1) → ∞. Drifting sequences of innovations and...

A unified theory of estimation and inference is developed for an autoregressive process with root in (-∞, ∞) that includes the stationary, local-to-unity, explosive and all intermediate regions. The discontinuity of the limit distribution of the t-statistic outside the stationary region and...