Prior Selection for Vector Autoregressions

34 Pages Posted: 20 Jan 2012

See all articles by Domenico Giannone

Domenico Giannone

International Monetary Fund (IMF); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Michele Lenza

European Central Bank (ECB)

Giorgio E. Primiceri

Northwestern University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 2012

Abstract

Vector autoregressions (VARs) are flexible time series models that can capture complex dynamic interrelationships among macroeconomic variables. However, their dense parameterization leads to unstable inference and inaccurate out-of-sample forecasts, particularly for models with many variables. A potential solution to this problem is to use informative priors, in order to shrink the richly parameterized unrestricted model towards a parsimonious naïve benchmark, and thus reduce estimation uncertainty. This paper studies the optimal choice of the informativeness of these priors, which we treat as additional parameters, in the spirit of hierarchical modeling. This approach is theoretically grounded, easy to implement, and greatly reduces the number and importance of subjective choices in the setting of the prior. Moreover, it performs very well both in terms of out-of-sample forecasting, and accuracy in the estimation of impulse response functions.

Keywords: Bayesian Methods, Forecasting, Hierarchical Modeling, Impulse Responses, Marginal Likelihood

JEL Classification: C11, C32, C52, E37

Suggested Citation

Giannone, Domenico and Lenza, Michele and Primiceri, Giorgio E., Prior Selection for Vector Autoregressions (January 2012). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP8755, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1988686

Domenico Giannone (Contact Author)

International Monetary Fund (IMF) ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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Michele Lenza

European Central Bank (ECB) ( email )

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Germany

Giorgio E. Primiceri

Northwestern University - Department of Economics ( email )

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United States

HOME PAGE: http://faculty.econ.northwestern.edu/faculty/primiceri

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

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