Working Paper
Are spectral estimators useful for implementing long-run restrictions in SVARs?
Mertens, Elmar (2010)
No, not really, since spectral estimators suffer from small sample and misspecification biases just as VARs do. Spectral estimators are no panacea for implementing long-run restrictions. ; In addition, when combining VAR coefficients with non-parametric estimates of the spectral density, care needs to be taken to consistently account for information embedded in the non-parametric estimates about serial correlation in VAR residuals. This paper uses a spectral factorization to ensure a correct representation of the data's variance. But this cannot overcome the fundamental problems of estimating ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2010-09

Working Paper
Assessing structural VARs
Vigfusson, Robert J.; Christiano, Lawrence J.; Eichenbaum, Martin S. (2006)
This paper analyzes the quality of VAR-based procedures for estimating the response of the economy to a shock. We focus on two key issues. First, do VAR-based confidence intervals accurately reflect the actual degree of sampling uncertainty associated with impulse response functions? Second, what is the size of bias relative to confidence intervals, and how do coverage rates of confidence intervals compare with their nominal size? We address these questions using data generated from a series of estimated dynamic, stochastic general equilibrium models. We organize most of our analysis around a ...
International Finance Discussion Papers , Paper 866

Working Paper
Alternative procedures for estimating vector autoregressions identified with long-run restrictions
Vigfusson, Robert J.; Christiano, Lawrence J.; Eichenbaum, Martin S. (2005)
We show that the standard procedure for estimating long-run identified vector autoregressions uses a particular estimator of the zero-frequency spectral density matrix of the data. We develop alternatives to the standard procedure and evaluate the properties of these alternative procedures using Monte Carlo experiments in which data are generated from estimated real business cycle models. We focus on the properties of estimated impulse response functions. In our examples, the alternative procedures have better small sample properties than the standard procedure, with smaller bias, smaller ...
International Finance Discussion Papers , Paper 842