Structural vector autoregression models
\(\def\bfy{{\bf y}}
\def\bfA{{\bf A}}
\def\bfB{{\bf B}}
\def\bfu{{\bf u}}
\def\bfI{{\bf I}}
\def\bfe{{\bf e}}
\def\bfC{{\bf C}}
\def\bfsig{{\boldsymbol \Sigma}}\)In my last post, I discusssed estimation of the vector autoregression (VAR) model,
\begin{align}
\bfy_t &= \bfA_1 \bfy_{t-1} + \dots + \bfA_k \bfy_{t-k} + \bfe_t \tag{1}
\label{var1} \\
E(\bfe_t \bfe_t’) &= \bfsig \label{var2}\tag{2}
\end{align}
where \(\bfy_t\) is a vector of \(n\) endogenous variables, \(\bfA_i\) are coefficient matrices, \(\bfe_t\) are error terms, and \(\bfsig\) is the covariance matrix of the errors.
In discussing impulse–response analysis last time, I briefly discussed the concept of orthogonalizing the shocks in a VAR—that is, decomposing the reduced-form errors in the VAR into mutually uncorrelated shocks. In this post, I will go into more detail on orthogonalization: what it is, why economists do it, and what sorts of questions we hope to answer with it. Read more…