IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/actuec/0118.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Selection Of The Number Of Factors In Presence Of Structural Instability: A Monte Carlo Study

Author

Listed:
  • Mao Takongmo, Charles Olivier

    (McGill University)

  • Stevanovic, Dalibor

    (Université du Québec à Montréal)

Abstract

In this paper we study the selection of the number of primitive shocks in exact and approximate factor models in the presence of structural instability. The empirical analysis shows that the estimated number of factors varies substantially across several selection methods and over the last 30 years in standard large macroeconomic and financial panels. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we suggest that the structural instability, expressed as time-varying factor loadings, can alter the estimation of the number of factors and therefore provides an explanation for the empirical findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Mao Takongmo, Charles Olivier & Stevanovic, Dalibor, 2015. "Selection Of The Number Of Factors In Presence Of Structural Instability: A Monte Carlo Study," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 91(1-2), pages 177-233, Mars-Juin.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:actuec:0118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1036919ar
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bates, Brandon J. & Plagborg-Møller, Mikkel & Stock, James H. & Watson, Mark W., 2013. "Consistent factor estimation in dynamic factor models with structural instability," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 177(2), pages 289-304.
    2. Jushan Bai & Serena Ng, 2002. "Determining the Number of Factors in Approximate Factor Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(1), pages 191-221, January.
    3. Breitung, Jörg & Eickmeier, Sandra, 2011. "Testing for structural breaks in dynamic factor models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 163(1), pages 71-84, July.
    4. Seung C. Ahn & Alex R. Horenstein, 2013. "Eigenvalue Ratio Test for the Number of Factors," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 81(3), pages 1203-1227, May.
    5. Chen, Liang & Dolado, Juan J. & Gonzalo, Jesús, 2014. "Detecting big structural breaks in large factor models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 180(1), pages 30-48.
    6. Alexei Onatski, 2009. "Testing Hypotheses About the Number of Factors in Large Factor Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(5), pages 1447-1479, September.
    7. Ludvigson, Sydney C. & Ng, Serena, 2007. "The empirical risk-return relation: A factor analysis approach," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 171-222, January.
    8. Jean Boivin & Marc P. Giannoni & Dalibor Stevanović, 2020. "Dynamic Effects of Credit Shocks in a Data-Rich Environment," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(2), pages 272-284, April.
    9. Dimitris Korobilis, 2013. "Assessing the Transmission of Monetary Policy Using Time-varying Parameter Dynamic Factor Models-super-," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(2), pages 157-179, April.
    10. Ben S. Bernanke & Jean Boivin & Piotr Eliasz, 2005. "Measuring the Effects of Monetary Policy: A Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregressive (FAVAR) Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(1), pages 387-422.
    11. Connor, Gregory & Korajczyk, Robert A., 1986. "Performance measurement with the arbitrage pricing theory : A new framework for analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 373-394, March.
    12. Lutkepohl, Helmut, 1984. "Linear transformations of vector ARMA processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 283-293, December.
    13. Sydney C. Ludvigson & Serena Ng, 2009. "Macro Factors in Bond Risk Premia," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(12), pages 5027-5067, December.
    14. Bai, Jushan & Ng, Serena, 2007. "Determining the Number of Primitive Shocks in Factor Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 25, pages 52-60, January.
    15. Chamberlain, Gary & Rothschild, Michael, 1983. "Arbitrage, Factor Structure, and Mean-Variance Analysis on Large Asset Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(5), pages 1281-1304, September.
    16. Alexei Onatski, 2010. "Determining the Number of Factors from Empirical Distribution of Eigenvalues," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 1004-1016, November.
    17. Connor, Gregory & Korajczyk, Robert A., 1988. "Risk and return in an equilibrium APT : Application of a new test methodology," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 255-289, September.
    18. Karim Barhoumi & Olivier Darné & Laurent Ferrara, 2013. "Testing the Number of Factors: An Empirical Assessment for a Forecasting Purpose," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 75(1), pages 64-79, February.
    19. Onatski, Alexei, 2012. "Asymptotics of the principal components estimator of large factor models with weakly influential factors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 168(2), pages 244-258.
    20. Alessi, Lucia & Barigozzi, Matteo & Capasso, Marco, 2010. "Improved penalization for determining the number of factors in approximate factor models," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(23-24), pages 1806-1813, December.
    21. Hansen, Lars Peter & Richard, Scott F, 1987. "The Role of Conditioning Information in Deducing Testable," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(3), pages 587-613, May.
    22. Liang Guo-Fitoussi & Olivier Darné, 2014. "A Comparison of the Finite Sample Properties of Selection Rules of Factor Numbers in Large Datasets," Working Papers hal-00962247, HAL.
    23. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2005. "Implications of Dynamic Factor Models for VAR Analysis," NBER Working Papers 11467, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Connor, Gregory & Korajczyk, Robert A, 1993. "A Test for the Number of Factors in an Approximate Factor Model," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(4), pages 1263-1291, September.
    25. Boivin, Jean & Ng, Serena, 2006. "Are more data always better for factor analysis?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 169-194, May.
    26. C. Rao, 1955. "Estimation and tests of significance in factor analysis," Psychometrika, Springer;The Psychometric Society, vol. 20(2), pages 93-111, June.
    27. Amengual, Dante & Watson, Mark W., 2007. "Consistent Estimation of the Number of Dynamic Factors in a Large N and T Panel," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 25, pages 91-96, January.
    28. Chen, Nai-Fu & Roll, Richard & Ross, Stephen A, 1986. "Economic Forces and the Stock Market," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 383-403, July.
    29. Jean Boivin & Serena Ng, 2005. "Understanding and Comparing Factor-Based Forecasts," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 1(3), December.
    30. Hallin, Marc & Liska, Roman, 2007. "Determining the Number of Factors in the General Dynamic Factor Model," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 102, pages 603-617, June.
    31. Bai, Jushan & Ng, Serena, 2013. "Principal components estimation and identification of static factors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 176(1), pages 18-29.
    32. Jean-Marie Dufour & Dalibor Stevanović, 2013. "Factor-Augmented VARMA Models With Macroeconomic Applications," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(4), pages 491-506, October.
    33. Tibor F. Liska, 2007. "The Liska model," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 29(3), pages 363-381, December.
    34. Stock J.H. & Watson M.W., 2002. "Forecasting Using Principal Components From a Large Number of Predictors," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 97, pages 1167-1179, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Dalibor Stevanovic & Rachidi Kotchoni & Maxime Leroux, 2017. "Forecasting economic activity in data-rich environment," CIRANO Working Papers 2017s-05, CIRANO.
    2. Marine Carrasco & Barbara Rossi, 2016. "In-Sample Inference and Forecasting in Misspecified Factor Models," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3), pages 313-338, July.
    3. Olivier Fortin‐Gagnon & Maxime Leroux & Dalibor Stevanovic & Stéphane Surprenant, 2022. "A large Canadian database for macroeconomic analysis," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 1799-1833, November.
    4. Charles Olivier Mao Takongmo, 2021. "DSGE models, detrending, and the method of moments," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 67-99, January.
    5. Rachidi Kotchoni & Maxime Leroux & Dalibor Stevanovic, 2019. "Macroeconomic forecast accuracy in a data‐rich environment," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(7), pages 1050-1072, November.
    6. Qin Zhang & He Ni & Hao Xu, 2023. "Forecasting models for the Chinese macroeconomy in a data‐rich environment: Evidence from large dimensional approximate factor models with mixed‐frequency data," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 719-767, March.
    7. Mao Takongmo, Charles-O. & Touré, Adam, 2023. "Trade openness and connectedness of national productions: Do financial openness, economic specialization, and the size of the country matter?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    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. Catherine Doz & Peter Fuleky, 2019. "Dynamic Factor Models," Working Papers 2019-4, University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
    2. Stock, J.H. & Watson, M.W., 2016. "Dynamic Factor Models, Factor-Augmented Vector Autoregressions, and Structural Vector Autoregressions in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 415-525, Elsevier.
    3. Karim Barhoumi & Olivier Darné & Laurent Ferrara, 2014. "Dynamic factor models: A review of the literature," OECD Journal: Journal of Business Cycle Measurement and Analysis, OECD Publishing, Centre for International Research on Economic Tendency Surveys, vol. 2013(2), pages 73-107.
    4. Gagliardini, Patrick & Ossola, Elisa & Scaillet, Olivier, 2019. "A diagnostic criterion for approximate factor structure," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 212(2), pages 503-521.
    5. Nathan Bedock & Dalibor Stevanovic, 2017. "An empirical study of credit shock transmission in a small open economy," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 50(2), pages 541-570, May.
    6. Forni, Mario & Cavicchioli, Maddalena & Lippi, Marco & Zaffaroni, Paolo, 2016. "Eigenvalue Ratio Estimators for the Number of Common Factors," CEPR Discussion Papers 11440, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Francisco Corona & Pilar Poncela & Esther Ruiz, 2017. "Determining the number of factors after stationary univariate transformations," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 351-372, August.
    8. Lütkepohl, Helmut, 2014. "Structural vector autoregressive analysis in a data rich environment: A survey," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2014-004, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    9. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2014-004 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp1351 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Matteo Luciani, 2015. "Monetary Policy and the Housing Market: A Structural Factor Analysis," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 199-218, March.
    12. Freyaldenhoven, Simon, 2022. "Factor models with local factors — Determining the number of relevant factors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 229(1), pages 80-102.
    13. Forni, Mario & Hallin, Marc & Lippi, Marco & Zaffaroni, Paolo, 2015. "Dynamic factor models with infinite-dimensional factor spaces: One-sided representations," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 185(2), pages 359-371.
    14. Stock, James H. & Watson, Mark, 2011. "Dynamic Factor Models," Scholarly Articles 28469541, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    15. GUO-FITOUSSI, Liang, 2013. "A Comparison of the Finite Sample Properties of Selection Rules of Factor Numbers in Large Datasets," MPRA Paper 50005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. 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.
    17. Luke Hartigan & James Morley, 2020. "A Factor Model Analysis of the Australian Economy and the Effects of Inflation Targeting," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(314), pages 271-293, September.
    18. Massacci, Daniele, 2017. "Least squares estimation of large dimensional threshold factor models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 197(1), pages 101-129.
    19. Mario Forni & Marc Hallin & Marco Lippi & Paolo Zaffaroni, 2011. "One-Sided Representations of Generalized Dynamic Factor Models," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2011-019, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    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.
    21. Yoshimasa Uematsu & Takashi Yamagata, 2019. "Estimation of Weak Factor Models," DSSR Discussion Papers 96, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University.
    22. Pilar Poncela & Esther Ruiz, 2016. "Small- Versus Big-Data Factor Extraction in Dynamic Factor Models: An Empirical Assessment," Advances in Econometrics, in: Dynamic Factor Models, volume 35, pages 401-434, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C12 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Hypothesis Testing: General
    • C38 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Classification Methdos; Cluster Analysis; Principal Components; Factor Analysis
    • C55 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis

    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:ris:actuec:0118. 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: Benoit Dostie (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/scseeea.html .

    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.