Full maximum likelihood estimation of second- order autoregressive error models

This paper develops an exact maximum likelihood technique for estimating linear models with second-order autoregressive errors, which utilizes the full set of observations, and explicitly constrains the estimates of the error process to satisfy a priori stationarity conditions. A non- linear solution technique which is new to econometrics and works very efficiently is put forward as part of the estimating procedure. Empirical results are presented which emphasize the importance of utilizing the full set of observations and the associated stationarity restrictions.