IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/boe/boeewp/0973.html

Identification with external instruments in structural VARs

Author

Listed:
  • Silvia Miranda Agrippino

    (Bank of England)

  • Giovanni Ricco

    (University of Warwick)

Abstract

IV methods have become the leading approach to identify the effects of macroeconomic shocks. Conditions for identification generally involve all the shocks in the VAR even when only a subset of them is of interest. This paper provides more general conditions that only involve the shocks of interest and the properties of the instrument of choice. We introduce a heuristic and a formal test to guide the specification of the empirical models, and provide formulas for the bias when the conditions are violated. We apply our results to the study of the transmission of conventional and unconventional monetary policy shocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Miranda Agrippino & Giovanni Ricco, 2022. "Identification with external instruments in structural VARs," Bank of England working papers 973, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0973
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/working-paper/2022/identification-with-external-instruments-in-structural-vars.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Boeck, Maximilian & Mori, Lorenzo, 2025. "Has globalization changed the international transmission of U.S. monetary policy?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Banerjee, Joshua J., 2024. "Inflationary oil shocks, fiscal policy, and debt dynamics: New evidence from oil-importing OECD economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Alsalman, Zeina & Herrera, Ana María & Rangaraju, Sandeep Kumar, 2023. "Oil news shocks and the U.S. stock market," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    5. Fabrizio Ferriani & Andrea Gazzani & Filippo Natoli, 2025. "The macroeconomic effects of a greener technology mix," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1482, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    6. Eric T. Swanson, 2024. "The Macroeconomic Effects of the Federal Reserve’s Conventional and Unconventional Monetary Policies," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 72(3), pages 1152-1184, September.
    7. Luca Eduardo Fierro & Mario Martinoli, 2024. "An Empirical Inquiry into the Distributional Consequences of Energy Price Shocks," LEM Papers Series 2024/30, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    8. Sofia Velasco, 2025. "Let the Tree Decide: FABART A Non-Parametric Factor Model," Papers 2506.11551, arXiv.org.
    9. Jiang, Shifu, 2024. "The effect of monetary policies on inflation: A fiscal perspective," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    10. Robert Goodhead & Benedikt Kolb, 2025. "Monetary policy communication shocks and the macroeconomy," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 92(365), pages 173-198, January.
    11. Karau, Sören, 2024. "Relative monetary policy and exchange rates," Discussion Papers 40/2024, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    12. Nguyen, Lam, 2025. "Bayesian inference in proxy SVARs with incomplete identification: Re-evaluating the validity of monetary policy instruments," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    13. Li, Dake & Plagborg-Møller, Mikkel & Wolf, Christian K., 2024. "Local projections vs. VARs: Lessons from thousands of DGPs," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 244(2).
    14. Bundick, Brent & Herriford, Trenton & Smith, A. Lee, 2024. "The Term Structure of Monetary Policy Uncertainty," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    15. Georgiadis, Georgios & Jarociński, Marek, 2025. "Global spillovers from multi-dimensional US monetary policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    16. Carlos Alba & Julio A. Carrillo & Raúl Ibarra, 2024. "Information Effects of US Monetary Policy Announcements on Emerging Economies: Evidence from Mexico," Working Papers 2024-14, Banco de México.
    17. Maximilian Boeck & Thomas O. Zörner, 2024. "The Impact of Credit Market Sentiment Shocks," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 56(7), pages 1645-1673, October.
    18. Endong Wang, 2024. "Structural counterfactual analysis in macroeconomics: theory and inference," Papers 2409.09577, arXiv.org.
    19. Longaric, Pablo Anaya & Cera, Katharina & Georgiadis, Georgios & Kaufmann, Christoph, 2025. "Investment funds and euro disaster risk," Working Paper Series 3029, European Central Bank.
    20. Peter Ajonghakoh Foabeh & Vesarach Aumeboonsuke, 2024. "Resilience of Developing Economies to External Shocks: Empirical Evidence from CEMAC Countries," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 17(3), pages 1-81, May.
    21. Alessandri, Piergiorgio & Gazzani, Andrea & Vicondoa, Alejandro, 2023. "Are the effects of uncertainty shocks big or small?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C32 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Time-Series Models; Dynamic Quantile Regressions; Dynamic Treatment Effect Models; Diffusion Processes; State Space Models
    • C36 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation
    • E30 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy

    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:boe:boeewp:0973. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Research (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/boegvuk.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.