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VAR process

I agree.  Reducing a VAR(p) to a VAR(1) in this way is simply a device
to generalise certain properties of a VAR(1) to a VAR(p) or possibly
to complete certain computations.  In a VAR(p) the covariance matrix
or the contemporaneous errors is in general non-diagonal.  The
Choleski decomposition was the original way of transforming the
contemporaneous variables so that the covariance of the disturbances
is diagonal and has nothing to do with the VAR(1) representation.   It
would be possible to work in terms of the VAR(1) representation but
this would be an unnecessary complication.  There are of course
various problems with this kind of analysis (e.g. uniqueness) and
structural VARs, relying on restrictions from economic theory are more
used today.

Best Regards

John

2009/1/27  <markleeds at verizon.net>: