Vector Autoregresive Moving Average Identification for Macroeconomic Modeling: Algorithms and Theory

This paper develops a new methodology for identifying the structure of VARMA time series models. The analysis proceeds by examining the echelon canonical form and presents a fully automatic data driven approach to model specification using a new technique to determine the Kronecker invariants. A novel feature of the inferential procedures developed here is that they work in terms of a canonical scalar ARMAX representation in which the exogenous regressors are given by predetermined contemporaneous and lagged values of other variables in the VARMA system. This feature facilitates the construction of algorithms which, from the perspective of macroeconomic modeling, are efficacious in that they do not use AR approximations at any stage. Algorithms that are applicable to both asymptotically stationary and unit-root, partially nonstationary (cointegrated) time series models are presented. A sequence of lemmas and theorems show that the algorithms are based on calculations that yield strongly consistent estimates.