Asymptotic properties of estimators in a stable Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model

We study the estimation of a stable Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model, which is a special subcritical continuous-state branching process with immigration. The exponential ergodicity and strong mixing property of the process are proved by a coupling method. The regular variation properties of distributions of the model are studied. The key is to establish the convergence of some point processes and partial sums associated with the model. From those results, we derive the consistency and central limit theorems of the conditional least squares estimators (CLSEs) and the weighted conditional least squares estimators (WCLSEs) of the drift parameters based on low frequency observations. The theorems show that the WCLSEs are more efficient than the CLSEs and their errors have distinct decay rates n(-(alpha-1)/alpha) and n(-(alpha-1)/alpha 2), respectively, as the sample sizes n goes to infinity. The arguments depend heavily on the recent results on the construction and characterization of the model in terms of stochastic equations. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.