IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cam/camdae/2003.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Spurious Factor Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Onatski, A.
  • Wang, C.

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 collaborated 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 non-stationarity in the data. We warn empirical researchers of these peculiar effects and suggest to always compare the analysis in levels with that in differences.

Suggested Citation

  • Onatski, A. & Wang, C., 2020. "Spurious Factor Analysis," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2003, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    • Handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:2003
    Note: ao319
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/research-files/repec/cam/pdf/cwpe2003.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Corielli, Francesco & Marcellino, Massimiliano, 2006. "Factor based index tracking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 2215-2233, August.
    2. Sargan, John Denis & Bhargava, Alok, 1983. "Testing Residuals from Least Squares Regression for Being Generated by the Gaussian Random Walk," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(1), pages 153-174, January.
    3. Ghate, Chetan & Wright, Stephen, 2012. "The “V-factor”: Distribution, timing and correlates of the great Indian growth turnaround," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 58-67.
    4. J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), 2016. "Handbook of Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    5. Sandra Eickmeier, 2009. "Comovements and heterogeneity in the euro area analyzed in a non-stationary dynamic factor model," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(6), pages 933-959.
    6. Yi‐Chiuan Wang & Jyh‐Lin Wu, 2015. "Fundamentals and Exchange Rate Prediction Revisited," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(8), pages 1651-1671, December.
    7. Bai, Jushan, 2004. "Estimating cross-section common stochastic trends in nonstationary panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 122(1), pages 137-183, September.
    8. Peter C. B. Phillips, 1998. "New Tools for Understanding Spurious Regressions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(6), pages 1299-1326, November.
    9. von Borstel, Julia & Eickmeier, Sandra & Krippner, Leo, 2016. "The interest rate pass-through in the euro area during the sovereign debt crisis," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 386-402.
    10. Benoit Perron & Hyungsik Roger Moon, 2007. "An empirical analysis of nonstationarity in a panel of interest rates with factors," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 383-400.
    11. Phillips, P.C.B., 1986. "Understanding spurious regressions in econometrics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 311-340, December.
    12. Onatski, A., 2018. "Asymptotics of the principal components estimator of large factor models with weak factors and i.i.d. Gaussian noise," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1808, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    13. Onatski, Alexei, 2015. "Asymptotic analysis of the squared estimation error in misspecified factor models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 186(2), pages 388-406.
    14. Harald Uhlig, 2009. "Comment on "How Has the Euro Changed the Monetary Transmission Mechanism?"," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2008, Volume 23, pages 141-152, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Jean Boivin & Marc P. Giannoni & Benoît Mojon, 2009. "How Has the Euro Changed the Monetary Transmission Mechanism?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2008, Volume 23, pages 77-125, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Jean Boivin & Marc P. Giannoni & Benoît Mojon, 2008. "How Has the Euro Changed the Monetary Transmission?," NBER Working Papers 14190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Spurious Factor Analysis
      by Francis Diebold in No Hesitations on 2020-07-14 17:50:00

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Ji Hyung & Shi, Zhentao & Gao, Zhan, 2022. "On LASSO for predictive regression," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 229(2), pages 322-349.
    2. Ziwei Mei & Zhentao Shi, 2022. "On LASSO for High Dimensional Predictive Regression," Papers 2212.07052, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2024.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.).
    7. 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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matteo Barigozzi & Antonio M. Conti & Matteo Luciani, 2014. "Do Euro Area Countries Respond Asymmetrically to the Common Monetary Policy?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 76(5), pages 693-714, October.
    2. Nikolay Hristov & Oliver Hülsewig & Thomas Siemsen & Timo Wollmershäuser, 2019. "Restoring euro area monetary transmission: Which role for government bond rates?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(3), pages 991-1021, September.
    3. Alejandro C. García-Cintado & Diego Romero-Ávila & Carlos Usabiaga, 2016. "The economic integration of Spain: a change in the inflation pattern," Latin American Economic Review, Springer;Centro de Investigaciòn y Docencia Económica (CIDE), vol. 25(1), pages 1-41, December.
    4. Hanisch, Max, 2019. "US monetary policy and the euro area," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 77-96.
    5. Richard K. Crump & Nikolay Gospodinov, 2022. "On the Factor Structure of Bond Returns," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 295-314, January.
    6. Neri, Stefano & Nobili, Andrea & Conti, Antonio M., 2017. "Low inflation and monetary policy in the euro area," Working Paper Series 2005, European Central Bank.
    7. Benoit Perron & Hyungsik Roger Moon, 2007. "An empirical analysis of nonstationarity in a panel of interest rates with factors," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(2), pages 383-400.
    8. Zsolt Darvas, 2013. "Monetary transmission in three central European economies: evidence from time-varying coefficient vector autoregressions," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 363-390, May.
    9. Yi‐Chiuan Wang & Jyh‐Lin Wu, 2015. "Fundamentals and Exchange Rate Prediction Revisited," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(8), pages 1651-1671, December.
    10. Chi-Young Choi & Ling Hu & Masao Ogaki, 2005. "Structural Spurious Regressions and A Hausman-type Cointegration Test," RCER Working Papers 517, University of Rochester - Center for Economic Research (RCER).
    11. Geweke, J. & Joel Horowitz & Pesaran, M.H., 2006. "Econometrics: A Bird’s Eye View," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0655, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    12. Campos, Julia & Ericsson, Neil R. & Hendry, David F., 1996. "Cointegration tests in the presence of structural breaks," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 187-220, January.
    13. Peter C.B. Phillips, 2001. "Bootstrapping Spurious Regression," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1330, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    14. Breitung, Jorg, 2001. "Rank Tests for Nonlinear Cointegration," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 19(3), pages 331-340, July.
    15. Granger, Clive W.J., 2012. "Useful conclusions from surprising results," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 169(2), pages 142-146.
    16. Anindya Banerjee & Massimiliano Marcellino & Igor Masten, 2017. "Structural FECM: Cointegration in large‐scale structural FAVAR models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(6), pages 1069-1086, September.
    17. Ziwei Mei & Zhentao Shi & Peter C. B. Phillips, 2022. "The boosted HP filter is more general than you might think," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2348, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    18. Phillips, Peter C. B., 2002. "New unit root asymptotics in the presence of deterministic trends," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 111(2), pages 323-353, December.
    19. Christian, Paul & Barrett, Christopher B., 2022. "Spurious Regressions and Panel IV Estimation: Revisiting the Causes of Conflict," I4R Discussion Paper Series 1, The Institute for Replication (I4R).
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Spurious regression; principal components; factor models; Karhunen-Loève expansion.;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cam:camdae:2003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jake Dyer (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.