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Asymmetric Conjugate Priors for Large Bayesian VARs

Joshua C. C. Chan

arXiv 13 Nov 2021 · Econometrics · publishedQuantitative Economics (2022) · 44 citations (OpenAlex)

arXiv:2111.07170 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

Large Bayesian VARs are now widely used in empirical macroeconomics. One popular shrinkage prior in this setting is the natural conjugate prior as it facilitates posterior simulation and leads to a range of useful analytical results. This is, however, at the expense of modeling flexibility, as it rules out cross-variable shrinkage -- i.e., shrinking coefficients on lags of other variables more aggressively than those on own lags. We develop a prior that has the best of both worlds: it can accommodate cross-variable shrinkage, while maintaining many useful analytical results, such as a closed-form expression of the marginal likelihood. This new prior also leads to fast posterior simulation -- for a BVAR with 100 variables and 4 lags, obtaining 10,000 posterior draws takes less than half a minute on a standard desktop. We demonstrate the usefulness of the new prior via a structural analysis using a 15-variable VAR with sign restrictions to identify 5 structural shocks.

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46
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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
1Carriero, Clark, and Marcellino (2019) Large Bayesian vector autoregressions with stochastic volatility and non-conjugate priors1.00083100%
2Carriero, Clark, and Marcellino (2015) Bayesian VARs: Specification Choices and Forecast Accuracy1.00063100%
3Furlanetto, Ravazzolo, and Sarferaz (2019) Identification of financial factors in economic fluctuations0.874122100%
4Rubio-Ramirez, Waggoner, and Zha (2010) Structural vector autoregressions: Theory of identification and algorithms for inference0.7374275%
5Sims and Zha (1998) Bayesian methods for dynamic multivariate models0.64441100%
6Del Negro and Schorfheide (2004) Priors from General Equilibrium Models for VARs0.64422100%
7Schorfheide and Song (2015) Real-Time Forecasting With a Mixed-Frequency VAR0.64422100%
8Chan (2020) Large Bayesian VARs: A Flexible Kronecker Error Covariance Structure self0.64422100%
9Chan and Jeliazkov (2009) MCMC Estimation of Restricted Covariance Matrix self0.5112250%
10Litterman (1986) Forecasting With Bayesian Vector Autoregressions –- Five Years of Experience0.5112250%

Showing the top 10 of 46 scored citations.

Cited by, within the corpus

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Citing paperIntensityMentionsSections
1Large Structural VARs with Multiple Sign and Ranking Restrictions1.00063
2Coarsened Bayesian VARs Correcting BVARs for Incorrect Specification0.87472
3Macroeconomic Forecasting with Large Language Models0.84353
4BVARs and Stochastic Volatility0.64422
5Large Bayesian Tensor VARs with Stochastic Volatility0.64422
6Conditional Forecasts in Large Bayesian VARs with Multiple Equality and Inequality Constraints0.58531
7Forecasting macroeconomic data with Bayesian VARs: Sparse or dense? It depends!0.51122
8Fast and Accurate Variational Inference for Large Bayesian VARs with Stochastic Volatility0.40511
9Large Bayesian VARs with Factor Stochastic Volatility: Identification, Order Invariance and Structural Analysis0.40511
10Bayesian Forecasting in Economics and Finance: A Modern Review0.40511