Optimized Multivariate Lag Structure Selection

  • Authors:
  • Peter Winker

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Economics, University of Mannheim, D-68131 Mannheim, Germany

  • Venue:
  • Computational Economics - Special issue on computational studies at Cambridge
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

Model selection – choosing the relevant variables and structures –is a central task in econometrics. Given a limited number of observations,estimation and inference depend on this choice. A frequently treatedmodel-selection problem arises in multivariate autoregressive models, wherethe problem reduces to the choice of a dynamic structure. In most applicationsthis choice is based either on some ad hoc procedure or on a search within avery small subset of all possible models. In this paper the selection isperformed using an explicit optimization approach for a given informationcriterion. Since complete enumeration of all possible lag structures isinfeasible even for moderate dimensions, the global optimization heuristic ofthreshold accepting is implemented. A simulation study compares this approachwith the standard `take all up to the kth lag' approach. It is foundthat, if the lag structure of the true model is sparse, the thresholdaccepting optimization approach gives far better approximations.