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A Gibbs Sampler for Efficient Bayesian Inference in Sign-Identified SVARs

Jonas E. Arias, Juan F. Rubio-Ramírez, Minchul Shin

arXiv 29 May 2025 · Econometrics

arXiv:2505.23542 · PDF · DOI · OpenAlex · Extracted main text

Abstract

We develop a new algorithm for inference based on structural vector autoregressions (SVARs) identified with sign restrictions. The key insight of our algorithm is to break apart from the accept-reject tradition associated with sign-identified SVARs. We show that embedding an elliptical slice sampling within a Gibbs sampler approach can deliver dramatic gains in speed and turn previously infeasible applications into feasible ones. We provide a tractable example to illustrate the power of the elliptical slice sampling applied to sign-identified SVARs. We demonstrate the usefulness of our algorithm by applying it to a well-known small-SVAR model of the oil market featuring a tight identified set, as well as to a large SVAR model with more than 100 sign restrictions.

Citation extraction

32
references
111
in-text mentions
32
distinct cited
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self-citations
19,305
main-text words

appendix boundary found by appendix_titled_section at “Online Appendix” · 75% 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
1Kilian, Lutz and Murphy, Daniel P (2014) The Role of Inventories and Speculative Trading in the Global Market for Crude Oil1.000133100%
2Arias, Jonas E and Rubio-Ramírez, Juan F and Waggoner, Daniel F (2025) Uniform Priors for Impulse Responses self0.9507486%
3Chan, Joshua C C and Christian Matthes and Xuewen Yu (2025) Large Structural VARs with Multiple Sign and Ranking Restrictions0.94425584%
4Crump, Richard K and Eusepi, Stefano and Giannone, Domenico and Qian… (2025) A Large Bayesian VAR of the United States Economy0.87462100%
5Hasenpflug, Mareike and Telezhnikov, Viacheslav and Rudolf, Daniel (2025) Reversibility of Elliptical Slice Sampling Revisited0.87452100%
6Rubio-Ramírez, Juan F. and Waggoner, Daniel F. and Zha, Tao (2010) Structural Vector Autoregressions: Theory of Identification and Algorithms for Inference0.84333100%
7Kilian, Lutz and Murphy, Daniel P Why Agnostic Sign Restrictions Are Not Enough: Understanding the Dynamics of Oil Market VAR Models0.84333100%
8Read, Matthew and Zhu, Dan (2025) Fast Posterior Sampling in Tightly Identified SVARs Using "Soft" Sign Restrictions0.84333100%
9Uhlig, H What Are the Effects of Monetary Policy on Output? Results from an Agnostic Identification Procedure0.84333100%
10Chan, Joshua C. C (2022) Asymmetric Conjugate Priors for Large Bayesian VARs0.81711655%

Showing the top 10 of 32 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
1Inference in Tightly Identified and Large-Scale Sign-Restricted SVARs1.000215