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The Kernel Trick for Nonlinear Factor Modeling

Varlam Kutateladze

arXiv 1 Mar 2021 · Econometrics

arXiv:2103.01266 · PDF · Extracted main text

Abstract

Factor modeling is a powerful statistical technique that permits to capture the common dynamics in a large panel of data with a few latent variables, or factors, thus alleviating the curse of dimensionality. Despite its popularity and widespread use for various applications ranging from genomics to finance, this methodology has predominantly remained linear. This study estimates factors nonlinearly through the kernel method, which allows flexible nonlinearities while still avoiding the curse of dimensionality. We focus on factor-augmented forecasting of a single time series in a high-dimensional setting, known as diffusion index forecasting in macroeconomics literature. Our main contribution is twofold. First, we show that the proposed estimator is consistent and it nests linear PCA estimator as well as some nonlinear estimators introduced in the literature as specific examples. Second, our empirical application to a classical macroeconomic dataset demonstrates that this approach can offer substantial advantages over mainstream methods.

Citation extraction

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appendix boundary found by appendix_command · 85% of the source is main text. Read the extracted text to check this.

Most heavily cited references

The works this paper leans on most, across its whole bibliography — not restricted to papers in our corpus. Ranked by composite intensity, which combines how often a work is mentioned, how many sections mention it, and how much of that falls in the main text rather than the appendix.

ReferenceIntensityMentionsSectionsMain text
1Bai, J. and Ng, S (2008) Forecasting economic time series using targeted predictors1.00074100%
2Bai, J. and Ng, S (2002) Determining the number of factors in approximate factor models0.8434375%
3Stock, J. H. and Watson, M. W (2002) Forecasting using principal components from a large number of predictors0.81142100%
4Exterkate, P., Groenen, P. J., Heij, C., and van Dijk, D (2016) Nonlinear forecasting with many predictors using kernel ridge regression0.64422100%
5Forni, M., Reichlin, L., Hallin, M., and Lippi, M (2000) The generalized dynamic-factor model: Identification and estimation0.64422100%
6Hofmann, T., Schölkopf, B., and Smola, A. J (2008) Kernel methods in machine learning0.64422100%
7Coulombe, P. G., Stevanovic, D., and Surprenant, S (2019) How is machine learning useful for macroeconomic forecasting?0.64422100%
8Blanchard, G., Bousquet, O., and Zwald, L (2006) Statistical properties of kernel principal component analysis0.58531100%
9Koltchinskii, V. and Giné, E (2000) Random matrix approximation of spectra of integral operators0.5112250%
10Bai, J (2003) Inferential theory for factor models of large dimensions0.51121100%

Showing the top 10 of 56 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

arXiv econ.EM papers that cite this one, ranked by how heavily they lean on it.

Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Kernel Three Pass Regression Filter0.81142
2LLM-Generated Counterfactual Stress Scenarios for Portfolio Risk Simulation via Hybrid Prompt-RAG Pipeline0.40511