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Spurious Factor Analysis

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  • Alexei Onatski
  • Chen Wang

Abstract

This paper draws parallels between the principal components analysis of factorless high‐dimensional nonstationary data and the classical spurious regression. We show that a few of the principal components of such data absorb nearly all the data variation. The corresponding scree plot suggests that the data contain a few factors, which is corroborated by the standard panel information criteria. Furthermore, the Dickey–Fuller tests of the unit root hypothesis applied to the estimated “idiosyncratic terms” often reject, creating an impression that a few factors are responsible for most of the nonstationarity in the data. We warn empirical researchers of these peculiar effects and suggest to always compare the analysis in levels with that in differences.

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  • Alexei Onatski & Chen Wang, 2021. "Spurious Factor Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(2), pages 591-614, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:emetrp:v:89:y:2021:i:2:p:591-614
    DOI: 10.3982/ECTA16703
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    1. Spurious Factor Analysis
      by Francis Diebold in No Hesitations on 2020-07-14 17:50:00

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    2. Poncela, Pilar & Ruiz, Esther & Miranda, Karen, 2021. "Factor extraction using Kalman filter and smoothing: This is not just another survey," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 1399-1425.
    3. Pablo Guerrón-Quintana & Alexey Khazanov & Molin Zhong, 2023. "Financial and Macroeconomic Data Through the Lens of a Nonlinear Dynamic Factor Model," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2023-027, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Bo Zhang & Jiti Gao & Guangming Pan & Yanrong Yang, 2023. "Eigen-Analysis for High-Dimensional Time Series Clustering," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 22/23, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    5. Lee, Ji Hyung & Shi, Zhentao & Gao, Zhan, 2022. "On LASSO for predictive regression," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 229(2), pages 322-349.
    6. Barigozzi, Matteo & Lippi, Marco & Luciani, Matteo, 2021. "Large-dimensional Dynamic Factor Models: Estimation of Impulse–Response Functions with I(1) cointegrated factors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 221(2), pages 455-482.
    7. Juho Koistinen & Bernd Funovits, 2022. "Estimation of Impulse-Response Functions with Dynamic Factor Models: A New Parametrization," Papers 2202.00310, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2022.

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